Roger Avary

Roger Roberts Avary[1] (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, for which they won Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Academy Awards. Avary directed Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction, Lucky Day, and wrote the screenplays for Silent Hill and Beowulf.[2]

Roger Avary
Avary in 2012
Born
Roger Roberts Avary

(1965-08-23) August 23, 1965
Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada[1]
NationalityCanadian
American[1]
OccupationDirector, screenwriter, producer
Years active1992–present

Life

Avary was born to an affluent Californian family. His father was a geologist and mining engineer, and as a result the family moved frequently, living in places such as Oracle, Arizona and South America. His mother was a German-born physical therapist.

A major early film influence was A Clockwork Orange, which is father took him to see when it was released in 1972.

His parents divorced in the 1970s, and Avary went to live with his mother at Manhattan Beach, California.

Career

Killing Zoe

Avary wrote and directed the neo-noir thriller Killing Zoe (1994) which Quentin Tarantino executive produced. The film was honored with le Prix très spécial à Cannes 1994, the very same year that Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or. It continued to win awards worldwide on the festival circuit, including the Grand Prize at Japan's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1994 and the Italian Mystfest.

Pulp Fiction

Roger Avary & Quentin Tarantino collaborated on the 1994 film Pulp Fiction for which they won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[3]

The Rules of Attraction

In 2002, Avary directed The Rules of Attraction, from his adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, which he also executive produced.[4]

The Rules of Attraction was the first studio film to be edited on Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system.[5] Avary became a spokesperson for Final Cut Pro product,[6] appearing in Apple print and web ads worldwide.

Avary and the film's composers, tomandandy, developed the audio format Mono SR for the film. Mono SR is an open source audio format that maintains the simplicity of monaural sound when motion picture delivery requirements include Dolby Digital noise reduction.

In 2004, Avary directed the film Glitterati (2004).

In 2005, Avary, at the request of his friend, actor James Van Der Beek, played the part of a peyote-taking gonzo film director Franklin Brauner in the film Standing Still.[7]

Silent Hill

In 2006, Avary wrote a screenplay adaptation to the Konami video game, Silent Hill (2006), with French director and friend, Christophe Gans, and Killing Zoe producer Samuel Hadida. Avary and Gans being long time video gamers and fans of the Silent Hill series, collaborated on the film.[8]

Beowulf

Avary and novelist Neil Gaiman wrote the screenplay for the 2007 film Beowulf which was directed by Robert Zemeckis.[9]

La voix humaine

In early 2017, Avary directed a feature-length French-language filmed adaptation of Jean Cocteau's 1934 one-woman play, La voix humaine, starring French actress Elsa Zylberstein.

Lucky Day

In September 2017 Avary directed his own screenplay, Lucky Day, starring Luke Bracey, Nina Dobrev, and Crispin Glover, in Toronto & Hamilton, Ontario Canada. The film wrapped production on November 4, 2017. Lucky Day is to be released exclusively in France on September 18, 2019 and then released a month later in North America on October 11, 2019 in a day & date release both theatrically and on streaming VOD.

Manslaughter charge

On January 13, 2008, Avary was arrested under suspicion of manslaughter and DUI, following a car crash in Ojai, California, where a passenger, Andrea Zini, was killed. The Ventura County Sheriff's department responded to the crash after midnight Sunday morning on the 1900 block of East Ojai Avenue. Avary was released from jail on $50,000 bail.[10] In December 2008, he was charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, gross vehicular manslaughter and two felony counts of causing bodily injury while intoxicated.[11] On September 29, 2009, he was sentenced to one year in work furlough (allowing him to go to his job during the day and then report back to the furlough facility at night) and five years of probation.[12] However, after making several tweets about the conditions of his stay on Twitter, Avary was sent to Ventura County Jail to serve out the remainder of his term.[13]

Filmography
Year Film Director Writer Producer Notes
1983 The Worm Turns Yes Yes Yes Short film
1994 Killing Zoe Yes Yes No
Pulp Fiction No Story No Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
1995 Crying Freeman No Uncredited No
Mr. Stitch Yes Yes Executive Television film
1997 Odd Jobs No Yes Yes Television pilot
1998 RPM No Uncredited No
2002 The Rules of Attraction Yes Yes Executive
2004 Glitterati Yes Yes Yes Unreleased
Also editor and cinematographer
2006 Silent Hill No Yes No
2007 Beowulf No Yes Executive
2019 Lucky Day Yes Yes No

Executive Producer

Cinematographer

Year Film Notes
1983 The Boys Short film
1987 My Best Friend's Birthday Lost film

Other credits

Year Film Role
1987 Maximum Potential Production assistant
1992 Reservoir Dogs Miscellaneous crew
2006 36 Steps Spiritual support

References
  1. "Roger Avary: Biography". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  2. "Roger Avary". Filmbug. 2007-11-18. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  3. "Pulp Fiction Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  4. "Comedy - College Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  5. "More don't miss stories from Macworld page 1". Macworld.com. 2002-01-15. Archived from the original on 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  6. Apple.com Archived November 6, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Clint Morris. "Exclusive Interview : James Van Der Beek". Moviehole.net. Archived from the original on 13 October 2006. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  8. Matt Withers (20 April 2006). "INT: Roger Avary". JoBlo.com. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  9. Stv.tv Archived December 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  10. "'Pulp Fiction' screenwriter Avary arrested after fatal Ojai crash". Ventura County-Star. 13 January 2008. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013.
  11. Catherine Saillant (13 December 2008). "Screenwriter Roger Avary charged with gross vehicular manslaughter". Los Angeles Times.
  12. "Avary Given Work Furlough at Ojai Valley News Blog". Ovnblog.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  13. "Screenwriter Roger Avary moved from work furlough program to jail after tweeting episode". Los Angeles Times. 27 November 2009.
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