Roger Avary

Roger Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian film and television producer, screenwriter and director in the American mass media industry. He worked on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, for which he and Quentin Tarantino were awarded the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Academy Awards. He wrote the screenplays of Silent Hill and Beowulf. He also directed Killing Zoe and The Rules of Attraction.

Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction

Avary contributed material which, combined with Quentin Tarantino's, formed the screenplay of Pulp Fiction (1994) for which he and Tarantino won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Killing Zoe

Avary also wrote and directed the neo-noir cult thriller Killing Zoe (1994) which 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.

The Rules of Attraction

In 2002, Avary directed his adaptation of the novel, which he also executive produced. As of 2009, the film ranked as the twenty-seventh highest grossing college comedy of all time.

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.

Roger 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.

Roger Avary's film from within the film, Glitterati (2004), used elements of Victor's European trip and was shot on digital video.

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 hit Konami videogame, 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 this game-based film.

Beowulf

Avary and novelist Neil Gaiman's spec screenplay for Beowulf was produced by the writing team in 2007 with Robert Zemeckis directing, utilizing the Performance capture technology pioneered in The Polar Express. Gaiman and Avary enjoyed the experience of working together, coming across as a happy team in Beowulf interviews.

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 accident after midnight Sunday morning on the 19-hundred 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. He later changed his plea to guilty on August 18, 2009.

On September 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 1 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 5 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.

On July 10, 2010, after serving an eight month sentence, Avary was released.

Director

• The Worm Turns (1983) (short)
• Roger Avary's Day Off (1987) (short)
• Killing Zoe (1994)
• Mr. Stitch (1996) (television)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Glitterati (2004)

Writer

• The Worm Turns (1983) (short)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992) (Radio Dialogue)
• True Romance (1993) (Radio Dialogue)
• Pulp Fiction (1994) (shared a "Story by" credit with Quentin Tarantino, who also received the sole "Written by" credit)
• Killing Zoe (1994)
• Crying Freeman (1995) (uncredited)
• Mr. Stitch (1996) (television)
• Odd Jobs (1997) (television)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Glitterati (2004)
• Silent Hill (2006)
• Beowulf (2007)

Producer

• Mr. Stitch (1996) (television)
• Odd Jobs (1997) (television)
• Glitterati (2004)

Executive Producer

• Boogie Boy (1998)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• The Last Man (2003)
• Beowulf (2007)

Actor

• Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) (cameo)
• Standing Still (2005)

Cinematographer

• My Best Friend's Birthday (1987)