AceShowbiz -

Horror maestro Wes Craven has died at 76. The legendary filmmaker who created the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise died on Sunday, August 30 in his Los Angeles home after a battle with brain cancer, his family has confirmed.

According to the family's statement, Craven remained "engaged and working until the end." He is survived by his wife, producer and former Disney Studios VP Iya Labunka, sister Carol Buhrow, son Jonathan Craven, daughter Jessica Craven, stepdaughter Nina Tarnawksy and three grandchildren.

Craven directed the first installment of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) which starred Johnny Depp. He pioneered the meta horror movie with "Wes Craven's New Nightmare", which deconstructed the genre with film-within-a-film theme. He also directed the first four "Scream" movies.

He tried his hand at non-genre film by helming "Music of the Heart" (1999) starring Meryl Streep. "We had a very difficult time getting an audience into a theater on my name," he once said about the film. "In fact, we moved toward downplaying my name a lot on 'Music of the Heart'. The more famous you are for making kinds of outrageous scary films, the crossover audience will say, 'I don't think so.' "

Craven was credited as executive producer for MTV's "Scream" series. He recently signed an overall television deal with Universal Cable Productions and has some projects in development such as "The People Under the Stairs" with Syfy, "Disciples" with UCP, "We Are All Completely Fine" with Syfy/UCP, and "Sleepers" with Federation Entertainment. He had also written and was to direct the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" segment for The Weinstein Co.'s "Ten Commandments" miniseries for WGN America.