Roger Avary
Roger Roberts Avary 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.
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 Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, which his father took him to see it when it was released in 1971.
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 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.''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.The Rules of Attraction was the first studio film to be edited on Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system. Avary became a spokesperson for Final Cut Pro product, 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.
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.
''Silent Hill''
In 2006, Avary wrote a screenplay adaptation to the Konami video game, Silent Hill, 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.''Beowulf''
Avary and novelist Neil Gaiman wrote the screenplay for the 2007 film Beowulf which was directed by Robert Zemeckis.''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. 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. On September 29, 2009, he was sentenced to one year in work furlough and five years of probation. 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.Filmography
Executive Producer- Boogie Boy
- The Last Man
| 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 |