Roger Avary, photographed for Score Magazine at the Hotel Costes K, Paris.

Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-born motion picture director, producer, and Oscar-winning screenwriter. Image File history File linksMetadata RogerAvaryPENSIF250x. ... Image File history File linksMetadata RogerAvaryPENSIF250x. ... This is the song that never ends yes it gos on and on my friends some people started singing it not knowing what it was they just started singing it forever just becauseThis is the song that never ends yes it gos on and on my friends some... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ...

Childhood

Roger Avary, a direct descendant of pirate/marooner Henry "Long Ben" Avary, is the son of a Brasilian-raised deep-shaft mining engineer and a German physical therapist. Avary was born in Flin Flon, Manitoba but grew up in Oracle, Arizona, the home of Biosphere 2. In the early 1970s Avary's family moved first to Torrance, California and then to Manhattan Beach, California. Avary, a cartoonist in the style of Sergio Aragonés and Tom Eaton, made numerous early animations on the 8 mm and Super-8 formats. In 1979 he began working at one of the first video stores in Southern California, Video Out-Takes, in Redondo Beach, California. The store was owned by the father of his childhood friend, and first collaborator, Scott Magill. The two had grown up making movies together, and experimenting in early Betamax videotape formats. One of those early Super-8 mm films, The Worm Turns, won Best Film from LAFTA (The Los Angeles Film Teachers Association) in 1983. Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Marooning is the act of leaving someone behind intentionally in an uninhabited area. ... For other uses, see Brazil (disambiguation). ... Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine in the world, Chile. ... Physical therapy can help restore lost functionality in many people. ... Flin Flon, Manitoba-Saskatchewan (pop. ... Oracle is a census-designated place located in Pinal County, Arizona. ... Biosphere 2 is a manmade closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona built by John Polk Allen, Space Biosphere Ventures and others. ... Official website: http://www. ... Manhattan Beach is a city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The population was 33,852 at the 2000 census. ... Sergio self-portrait from Groo the Wanderer comic Issue #84 Sergio Aragonés Domenech (born 1937) is a cartoonist and writer probably best-known for his contributions to Mad Magazine. ... 8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. ... Super 8 can refer to: Super 8 Motels, a national motel chain Super 8mm film, a form of film often used for home movies, most popular in the 60s and 70s This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... Redondo Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Sonys Betamax is the 12. ...

The Video Archives years

When in 1981, Video Out-Takes co-owner Lance Lawson (a name that comes up repeatedly in Avary and Tarantino's films) left to open the now famous Video Archives, Avary went along, writing the store's database program with fellow 6502 programmer Andy Blinn on an Atari 800 computer. Under the vision of Lance Lawson, Video Archives became a gathering place for an eclectic and unique group of film geeks, who became known as "Archivists." Among this group Avary met an odd, brilliant film enthusiast, Quentin Tarantino. The two quickly became friends, introducing each other to their favorite films. These were the days of Z Channel, the age of video, and the first time in history that a large database of film titles were suddenly available -- Tarantino and Avary were to become charter members in the Video Store generation of filmmakers. In 1986 Avary attended the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California, with fellow future directors Michael Bay and Tarsem. Video Archives is a video rental store located on Manhattan Beach, California. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ... Atari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. ... Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, actor, and Oscar-winning screenwriter. ... The Z Channel was one of the first pay cable stations in Los Angeles. ... Photo of Art Center during the night. ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. ... ...

The Tarantino years

Early in his career, Avary made a number of contributions to some of Quentin Tarantino's movies. He worked as a crew member on Tarantino's unfinished first film, My Best Friend's Birthday. He had at one point written an unfinished, 80-page script called "The Open Road", which he described as being about the "odd couple relationship between an uptight business man and an out-of-control hitch-hiker who travel into a Hellish mid-Western town together" and compared to Martin Scorsese's After Hours. After moving on to another screenplay, a spec adaptation of The Silver Surfer, he allowed Tarantino to rewrite his script to add enough length to bring it to a 120-page industry standard length. Tarantino did more than that; he turned out a 500-page handwritten behemoth of a script that included only bits and figments of Avary's original, a work which Avary described as "the Citizen Kane of pop culture." Impressed with Tarantino's work, Avary eagerly signed onto the new project as a producer, and helped Tarantino pare down the script into True Romance, (Tarantino used the remainder as the basis for parts of his other scripts.) Working as producer, he and Tarantino tried unsuccessfully to get funding so that Tarantino could film the script. After the script was eventually sold, Avary was hired by Tony Scott and producer Samuel Hadida to work as a script doctor on True Romance (1993), a job which included paring the script down from 130 pages to 115 pages, adding a few small scenes, and writing a new, happier ending where the Clarence character lives, as Tarantino refused to compromise his script. When the Paul Brothers, a pair of wealthy bodybuilders who wanted to get into the movies, offered Tarantino funding for his script Natural Born Killers on the condition he include a scene featuring them, he couldn't bring himself to write it out of disgust, and asked Avary to write it for him as a favor. The scene, which has come to be known as the "Hun Brothers" scene, has been described by Oliver Stone as the best scene in the script. It was, however, cut from the final film because, as Stone is quoted as saying on the "Natural Born Killers" special edition laserdisc, "I fucked it up." Avary also co-wrote the background radio dialogue in Reservoir Dogs (1992), and designed the "Dog Eat Dog" logo which appeared in the end credits. My Best Friends Birthday (1987) is an unfinished black and white student film by Craig Hamann and Quentin Tarantino, shot during their youth days while working at the Manhattan Beach Video Archives in Los Angeles. ... After Hours, a movie directed by Martin Scorsese After Hours, an album by Gary Moore After Hours, a business owned by May Department Stores The After Hours, an episode of The Twilight Zone later remade for the 1980s revival of the series This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid... The Silver Surfer as illustrated by Alex Ross on the cover of Marvels #3 (1994). ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures. ... True Romance is a movie directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) and written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... See also Tony Scott for the American clarinet jazz musician. ... True Romance is a movie directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) and written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... The Barbarian Brothers are a mildly successful action/comedy film twin acting team. ... Natural Born Killers is a 1994 motion picture directed by Oliver Stone and starring Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson. ... Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946), known simply as Oliver Stone, is an Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter. ... Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 film, Quentin Tarantinos debut as a feature film director. ...

Most notably, Avary contributed material which, combined with Tarantino's, formed the basis of Pulp Fiction (1994) for which he and Tarantino won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Earlier in their careers, Tarantino and Avary had planned on making an anthology movie comprised of three short films; one written and directed by Avary, one written and directed by Tarantino, and one written and directed by a third filmmaker, reportedly Adam Rifkin. When the third filmmaker never materialized, Tarantino and Avary took their respective stories and expanded them into full length screenplays separately. Tarantino's story became Reservoir Dogs, and Avary's story became "Pandemonium Reigns". "Pandemonium Reigns" ended up forming the basis of the "Gold Watch" chapter of Pulp Fiction (an earlier version of his website displayed an excerpt from "Pandemonium Reigns", illustrating the changes that were made by Tarantino when writing "The Gold Watch"), and other odd scenes Avary had written were reworked and incorporated into the Pulp Fiction script, such as the accidental shooting of Marvin, and the scene in which the bullets fired at Jules and Vincent miss their targets (Avary claims both of these scenes were written for his rewrite of True Romance). Tarantino and Avary got together in Amsterdam shortly after the release of Reservoir Dogs, and pasted each other's scenes together into a first draft, after which Avary left to film Killing Zoe, and Tarantino took over subsequent writing of Pulp Fiction. Avary's bizarre 1994 Oscar speech (for Best Original Screenplay) consisted of "I want to thank my witch, a wife, who I love more than anyone else in the world...I'm gonna go now 'cause I really got to take a pee." Some believe that Avary was unhappy about only receiving a "Story by" credit on Pulp Fiction. Avary has been reported as saying that it was originally agreed that both men would share a screenplay credit, and that Tarantino approached him at the last minute before the film's release, while he was editing "Killing Zoe", asking him take a "story by" credit instead, in exchange for increased residuals (which would be equal to Writer's Guild residuals). Avary claims he agreed to the deal due to the fact that he needed money after making Killing Zoe, a film whose budget was so low that he put his own salary back into the production. This has led to much speculation on the part of fans and journalists, but both men insist that the issue is "blown out of proportion" and "ancient history." Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... The 67th Academy Awards, honoring the best movies of 1994, were held on March 27, 1995 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. ... Adam Rifkin Adam Rifkin (b. ... Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 film, Quentin Tarantinos debut as a feature film director. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... True Romance is a movie directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) and written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 film, Quentin Tarantinos debut as a feature film director. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ...

Avary had also come up with a dissertation of the supposed gay subtext of the movie Top Gun during his Video Archives days, which he and Tarantino often told to friends as a joke (it is interesting to note that Pauline Kael had covered similar ground in her review of Top Gun, which is reprinted in the book "For Keeps"). Tarantino used this idea during an "improvisation" while acting in the movie Sleep With Me. Avary, who had just written the riff into a script he was writing for John Woo called "Hatchetman", was upset at the time due to the fact that Tarantino didn't ask him permission to use it (although Tarantino had given Avary credit in interviews for the idea). Since then the two have mended fences over the issue, as Avary recently complimented Tarantino on his performance in Sleep With Me, and expressed a desire to perform the gay subtextual analysis of Top Gun with him on a DVD commentary for the film someday. Although some have speculated that the two have had a falling out, both men maintain that there is no bad blood between them and that their feud was invented, amplified, and fueled by overzealous "yellow journalists", beginning with Jami Bernard, author of the first biography on Tarantino. Top Gun is a 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. ... Pauline Kael (June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine. ... Top Gun is a 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. ... Top Gun is a 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. ... Yellow journalism is a pejorative reference to journalism that features scandal-mongering sensationalism, jingoism or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or individual journalists. ... Jami Bernard is an award-winning film critic for the New York Daily News [1]. She has also appeared in films as herself. ...

The death of life: Killing Zoe

Killing Zoe DVD boxart designed by Nicholas Dulion.

Avary also wrote and directed the neo-noir cult thriller Killing Zoe (1994) which Tarantino executive produced. The screenplay was based in part on his experiences travelling through Europe (which he also refers to in Victor's European trip in "The Rules of Attraction"). In fact, Avary had initially intended to write a screenplay completely devoted to this experience, for which Tarantino suggested the ironic title "Roger Takes a Trip". But when producer Lawrence Bender called Avary during location scouting on "Reservoir Dogs" asking if he had a screenplay that took place entirely in a bank so that they could take advantage of an inexpensive location they had no use for, Avary told Bender that he had such a script -- and quickly wrote "Killing Zoe" in under a week, using elements of his European trip as inspiration. It is interesting to note that while "Killing Zoe" takes place in Paris, the film was almost entirely shot in downtown Los Angeles locations, with only two days in Paris to shoot the opening credit sequence and two drive-by shots. The film was also an influence on Tarantino; according to Avary, Tarantino, while rewriting "Pulp Fiction", added the heroin scenes after viewing a rough cut of Killing Zoe. The film was honored with le Prix très spécial à Cannes 1994, the very same year that "Pulp Fiction" won the Palm d'Or. It continued to win awards worldwide on the festival circuit, including Best Film at Japan's Yubari International Film Festival and the Italian Mystfest. Image File history File links DVD Cover of Killing Zoe File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links DVD Cover of Killing Zoe File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Neo-noir is a term given to the modern trend of incorporating aspects of film noir into films of other genres. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ... The Rules of Attraction (2002) is a dark satire based on the novel The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. ... Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 film, Quentin Tarantinos debut as a feature film director. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ...

An absence from cinema

Avary briefly moved into work for television and made two pilots, neither of which was picked up. During this time he also produced two films, "Boogie Boy" (1997) for Tarantino alumni Craig Hamman and "The Last Man" (2000), for frequent writing collaborator Harry Ralston. During this time Avary spent quite a bit of his energy working as a high paid script doctor and using the money to finance the development of his own projects, like his long gestating epic on Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí. Avary is notable as the first mainstream filmmaker to maintain a journal on his avary.com webpage, before there was such a thing as "blogging", although in late 2005 Avary closed his weblog with no explanation or notice. Boogie Boy is a 1997 movie featuring Traci Lords as Shonda. ... Salvador Felip Jacint Dalí Domènech (Catalan) Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí Domènech (Spanish), (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. ... GOOD BLOGS: For and Against Bizarre Things Games Casino Sudoku Challenge Star Wars REDIRECT Blog ...

A return to form: The Rules of Attraction

Plushies teaser poster for The Rules of Attraction.

In 2002 Avary returned to cinema as a director with his adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel The Rules of Attraction, which he also executive produced. The Rules of Attraction was the first studio movie to prove reliable use of Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system for editing motion picture film. Roger Avary became a spokesperson for Apple's Final Cut Pro product, appearing in Apple print and web ads worldwide. His film from within the film, "Glitterati" (2004), used elements of Victor's European trip and was shot on digital video. In 2005, he purchased the rights to another Bret Easton Ellis novel, "Glamorama", and is currently developing it for himself to direct. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x2340, 303 KB) Summary ©2002, Lions Gate Films and Roger Avary. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x2340, 303 KB) Summary ©2002, Lions Gate Films and Roger Avary. ... The Rules of Attraction (2002) is a dark satire based on the novel The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. ... Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964 in Los Angeles, California) is an American author. ... The Rules of Attraction is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1987. ... Final Cut Pro is a non-linear editing system created by Apple Computer that allows users to edit video. ... Glitterati is a 2005 film directed by Roger Avary assembled from the 70 hours of video footage shot for the European sequence of The Rules of Attraction in October of 2002, just after the events of 9/11. ... Glamorama is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. ...

Recent work

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 (AKA Donald Cammell^{[citation needed]}) in the film "Standing Still." Avary also contributed a commentary track on the special edition DVD of George Romero's Day of the Dead. Most recently, Avary and novelist Neil Gaiman wrote and produced an adaptation of "Beowulf" (2006), which Robert Zemeckis is directing, utilizing the Performance capture technology pioneered in The Polar Express. Gaiman and Avary are also collaborating on an adaptation of Charles Burns (cartoonist)' graphic novel "Black Hole" for French director Alexandre Aja. Avary also wrote the screenplay adaptation to the hit Konami videogame, "Silent Hill" (2006), for French director, and friend, Christophe Gans, and "Killing Zoe" producer Samuel Hadida. Continuing his success in the arena of game-to-film adaptations, Avary is writing and directing an adaptation of "Driver" for Rogue Pictures and Constantin Films. James William Van Der Beek, Jr. ... Binomial name Lophophora williamsii (Lem. ... Donald Seaton Cammell (January 17, 1934 – April 24, 1996) was a Scottish film director who enjoys a cult reputation thanks to his debut film Performance, which he co-directed with Nicolas Roeg. ... Day of the Dead (released 1985) is a horror film by director George A. Romero, and the third of four movies beginning with Night of the Living Dead, continued in Dawn of the Dead and completed in Land of the Dead. ... Neil Gaiman (November 2004) Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960, Portchester, Hampshire) is an English Jewish author of numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including many graphic novels. ... The first page of Beowulf This article is about the epic poem. ... Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an Academy Award-winning American movie director, producer and writer of Lithuanian heritage. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Motion capture. ... The Polar Express is a 1985 childrens book (ISBN 0862641438) written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, a former professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. ... Charles Burns (born 1955) is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator. ... Black Hole is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Charles Burns. ... Alexandre Aja (b. ... Konami Corporation (コナミ) TYO: 9766 (NYSE: KNM) (SGX: K20) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling computer and video games. ... Silent Hill (a. ... Christophe Gans on the set of the film Silent Hill Christophe Gans (born March 11, 1960 in Antibes, France. ... Driver is a series of mission-based driving video games for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Developed by Reflections Interactive, it was originally published by GT Interactive, and is now published by Atari. ...

Filmography

Final U.S. release poster for The Rules of Attraction.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x893, 129 KB) Summary US Poster of Rules of Attraction film Licensing This image is of a movie poster or title card, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x893, 129 KB) Summary US Poster of Rules of Attraction film Licensing This image is of a movie poster or title card, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio...

Director

• The Worm Turns (1983) (short)
• "Roger Avary's Day Off" (1987) (short)
• Killing Zoe (1994)
• Mr. Stitch (1996)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Glitterati (2005)

Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ... The Rules of Attraction (2002) is a dark satire based on the novel The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. ... Glitterati is a 2005 film directed by Roger Avary assembled from the 70 hours of video footage shot for the European sequence of The Rules of Attraction in October of 2002, just after the events of 9/11. ...

Writer

• The Worm Turns (1983)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992) (co-writer of background radio dialogue)
• True Romance (1993) (uncredited)
• Pulp Fiction (1994) (stories)
• Killing Zoe (1994)
• Crying Freeman (1995) (uncredited)
• Mr. Stitch (1996)
• Odd Jobs (1997)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Glitterati (2005)
• Silent Hill (2006)
• Beowulf (2007)

Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 film, Quentin Tarantinos debut as a feature film director. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie directed by Roger Avary, and starring Eric Stoltz as Zed and Julie Delpy as Zoe. ... The Rules of Attraction (2002) is a dark satire based on the novel The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. ... Glitterati is a 2005 film directed by Roger Avary assembled from the 70 hours of video footage shot for the European sequence of The Rules of Attraction in October of 2002, just after the events of 9/11. ... Silent Hill (a. ... Beowulf is the name of two movies: Beowulf (1999 film) Beowulf (2007 film) (currently in pre-production) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

Producer

• Mr. Stitch (1996)
• Odd Jobs (1997)
• The Last Man (2003)
• Glitterati (2005)
• "Beowulf" (2007)

Glitterati is a 2005 film directed by Roger Avary assembled from the 70 hours of video footage shot for the European sequence of The Rules of Attraction in October of 2002, just after the events of 9/11. ...

Executive Producer

• Boogie Boy (1998)
• "The Rules of Attraction" (2002)

Boogie Boy is a 1997 movie featuring Traci Lords as Shonda. ...

Actor

• Phantasm IV: OblIVion (1998) - cameo
• "Standing Still" (2005)

External links

• Roger Avary at the Internet Movie Database
• Avary's Domain
• All Movie Guide entry for Roger Avary
• Roger Avary talks to Edge Magazine about Silent Hill
• Roger Avary on Final Cut Pro
• Roger Avary Interview on Suicide Girls
• Webwombat.com Interview
• Screen-It deconstructs the sex, drugs, and violence in The Rules of Attraction