[9] On the day the screenplay was finished, they learned that director John Milius was starting production on Dillinger, destroying their hopes of selling their script as a feature.

[4] Ulu Grosbard took on the directing job of the film Straight Time, after its original director, actor Dustin Hoffman, dropped out to focus on starring in the lead role.

[11] As a film adaptation of Stephen King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone was being developed by Lorimar, producer Carol Baum gave the book to Boam, and asked him to write a screenplay.

[6] The company eventually closed its film division after a series of box office failures, and soon after, producer Dino de Laurentiis bought the rights to the novel.

[13] The film was finally on track to be made when de Laurentiis hired a producer, Debra Hill, to work with Cronenberg and Boam.

[12] Boam abandoned King's parallel story structure for The Dead Zone's screenplay, turning the plot into separate episodes.

"[12] His script was revised and condensed four times by Cronenberg, who eliminated large portions of the novel's story,[15] including plot points about Johnny Smith having a brain tumor.

Boam said that he enjoyed writing character development for Smith, having him struggle with the responsibility of his psychic abilities, and ultimately give up his life for the greater good.

In Boam's first draft of the screenplay, Johnny does not die at the end, but rather has a vision about the Castle Rock Killer, who is still alive and escaped from prison.

"[16] Pleased with Boam's early work on Straight Time and a script called The Good Guys, Warner Bros. signed him to an exclusive contract as a staff writer.

[4] His first producing project was for a science-fiction comedy called Space Case, about a Los Angeles detective who specializes in locating people abducted by aliens.

[19] When producer Peter Guber was developing Innerspace, a film about an explorer who is miniaturized and sent into another man's body, he hired a young writer named Chip Proser to write a script for the story.

[20] The original screenplay for The Lost Boys, written by James Jeremias and Janice Fischer, was a more innocent vision involving children in a Peter Pan-like plot.

[21] Boam was requested by director Joel Schumacher to rewrite the screenplay, hoping to "sex up the plot and up the ante on laughs and the violent disposal of vamps".

A buddy-cop story, it starred Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs, a suicidal detective who uses crazed antics to deal with criminals.

As early as 1984, George Lucas was playing with the concept of having the fictional archeologist-adventurer encounter the fabled Holy Grail,[27] the cup said to have been used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper.

[27] Screenwriter Diane Thomas wrote a haunted house story for Indiana Jones, but Spielberg said that after producing Poltergeist, he didn't want to do a similar film.

[28] Lucas hired Chris Columbus to write a draft for the film, and he submitted Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Sun Wu Kung, a story with evil spirits, ghosts, and demons.

"[27] Spielberg liked the story outline presented by Lucas and Boam, but wanted a first draft before making a decision to move forward.

[27] It was at that time that Spielberg made a commitment to direct the Indiana Jones film over Rain Man, based on reading one of Boam's unfinished drafts.

When Indiana Jones finally discovers the grail hidden among decoys, its knight guardian tells him that he will die if he drinks from the wrong cup.

[5] With Cuse, Boam co-created and produced the series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. featuring Bruce Campbell, which premiered on the Fox Network in 1993.

[6] Boam wrote and directed a 1993 episode of HBO's Tales From the Crypt, entitled "Creep Course", based on the EC comic Haunt of Fear number 23–1.

[37] The episode's story involves an archeology professor who enlists the aid of a jock in his class to trick an unsuspecting female student into becoming a human sacrifice to a mummy.

[6] Paramount hired Boam in 1992 to write a script for The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's comic strip character, with Joe Dante to direct.

[40] The studio restarted the film with Simon Wincer as director, who had Boam make changes to the original script, including a decision to keep the screenplay close in style and tone to the source material.

"[40] Boam worked on screenplay drafts for a feature-length movie based on the DC Comics World War II hero Sgt.

"[43] Writing in Scr(i)pt magazine, Ray Morton said that Boam's scripts "showed a strong feel for genre and story construction as well as a solid aptitude for creating robust, well-developed characters, and clever, witty dialogue.

[45] Boam lived in the San Fernando Valley with his wife, Paula, a photographer and daughter of a Paramount Pictures vice president.

[3] USA Today described Boam as "low-key",[45] and The New York Times called him "a polite, soft-spoken family man without a trace of the frenzied energy of his films.