Roger Avary | |
---|---|
Born | Roger Roberts Avary August 23, 1965 |
Nationality | Canadian American [1] |
Occupation(s) | Director, screenwriter, producer |
Years active | 1992–present |
Roger Roberts Avary [1] (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film, television director, screenwriter and producer. He worked 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]
After Pulp Fiction, Avary had a falling out with Tarantino that lasted nearly twenty years. [3] In 2022, Avary reunited with Quentin Tarantino to launch a podcast called The Video Archives Podcast. [4] The first episode premiered on July 19, 2022. [5]
In 1995 Avary wrote and directed the science fiction Mr. Stitch a film for the Syfy. Loosely a modern take on Frankenstein, the film features Wil Wheaton, Rutger Hauer, Nia Peeples, and Ron Perlman. [6]
After winning an Oscar for Pulp Fiction, Avary reached out to Don Coscarelli and expressed an interest in writing a Phantasm sequel. [7] Entitled Phantasm 1999, the film would have taken place in an apocalyptic future United States divided into three zones: Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; and the Plague Zone. The Plague Zone would be controlled by the Tall Man where he infects people with his "bag plague". [7] Reggie must lead a secret government operation, called the "S Squad", into the Plague Zone to defeat the Tall Man. [7]
Avary and Coscarelli spent years trying to get the film made and even had financing in place in 1997 before that company changed hands and the deal evaporated. [7] Eventually, Coscarelli made Phantasm IV without Avary, although as of 2022 Coscarelli still had interest in filming Avary's script, now entitled Phantasm’s End as 1999 has come and gone. [7]
The film Glitterati was finished in 2004 and stars Kip Pardue. It can never be released because of legal and ethical concerns.
In 2021, Quentin Tarantino announced that he and Roger Avary would launch a podcast titled The Video Archives Podcast. [8] The point of the podcast is to discuss films from the actual Video Archives collection that they would recommend to customers when they worked there. The set is surrounded by actual VHS copies of films from Video Archives that Tarantino bought after the store went out of business. They are joined by podcast announcer, Gala Avary, Roger Avary's daughter. The first episode premiered on July 19, 2022. [5] The duo discussed John Carpenter's Dark Star (1974) and Ulli Lommel's Cocaine Cowboys (1979).
On January 13, 2008, Avary was arrested under suspicion of manslaughter and DUI, following a car crash in Ojai, California, in which a passenger, Andreas 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. [9] 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. [10] He changed his plea to guilty on August 18, 2009. [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]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | The Worm Turns | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
The Boys | No | No | Yes | Also cinematographer | |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Killing Zoe | Yes | Yes | No | Grand Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival |
1994 | Pulp Fiction | No | Story | No | Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay |
1995 | Mr. Stitch | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2002 | The Rules of Attraction | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2004 | Glitterati | Yes | Yes | No | Unreleased; Also producer, editor and cinematographer |
2006 | Silent Hill | No | Yes | No | |
2007 | Beowulf | No | Yes | Yes | |
2019 | Lucky Day | Yes | Yes | No | |
Executive producer only
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | Odd Jobs | Yes | Yes | Yes | TV pilot |
2012 | XIII: The Series | No | Yes | Executive | 13 episodes |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1987 | Maximum Potential | Production assistant |
1987 | My Best Friend's Birthday | Lost film Cinematographer |
1992 | Reservoir Dogs | Writer of background radio dialogue [14] |
1993 | True Romance [14] | Uncredited writer [14] |
2006 | 36 Steps | Spiritual support |
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American filmmaker and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue often with profanity, and references to popular culture. Tarantino's work has been subject to criticism, such as the depictions of violence and frequent inclusion of racial slurs. During Tarantino's career, his films have garnered a cult following; as well as critical and commercial success, he has been considered "the single most influential director of his generation". He is the recipient of two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary. It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence in Los Angeles, California. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman. The title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue.
Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who smuggles money between the United States and Mexico. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro appear in supporting roles.
Video Archives was a video rental store located in Manhattan Beach, California, and later moved to Hermosa Beach, California, owned and managed by Lance Lawson and Rick Humbert. Filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary and Daniel Snyder worked there before becoming successful in the film industry. The store was also frequented by screenwriters Josh Olson, Jeff Maguire, John Langley, and Danny Strong.
My Best Friend's Birthday is a 1987 amateur comedy film directed, edited, co-written, co-produced by and starring Quentin Tarantino. The film was shot in black-and-white and was originally meant to have a runtime of seventy minutes, but only 36 minutes of the film are edited altogether, leaving the project unfinished.
Phantasm IV: Oblivion is a 1998 American science fantasy horror film. The film was written, produced and directed by Don Coscarelli and starring A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm. It is the third sequel in the Phantasm series and is followed by Phantasm: Ravager.
The 20th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 1994, were given on 10 December 1994.
The 7th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards honored the finest achievements in 1994 filmmaking.
Andrzej Sekuła is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He was cinematographer on Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary's films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
The 15th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1994. The awards were given on 18 December 1994.
The 29th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 1995, honored the best filmmaking of 1994.
Daniel J. Snyder is an American television and film producer whose feature-length documentary, Dreams on Spec, is the first documentary ever to look at Hollywood from the perspective of the much-maligned screenwriter.
The Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay is one of the annual film awards given by the Boston Society of Film Critics.
The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.
Silent Hill: Revelation is a 2012 supernatural horror film written and directed by M. J. Bassett and based on the video game series Silent Hill published by Konami. It is the second installment in the Silent Hill film series. The film, produced as a sequel to Silent Hill (2006), stars Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Martin Donovan, Malcolm McDowell, and Carrie-Anne Moss, with Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Bean, and Radha Mitchell returning from the previous film. The plot follows Heather Mason (Clemens), who, discovering on the eve of her eighteenth birthday that her presumed identity is false, is drawn to the town of Silent Hill.
The 1st Society of Texas Film Critics Awards were given by the Society of Texas Film Critics (STFC) on December 17, 1994. The list of winners was announced by STFC founder Michael MacCambridge, then also a film critic for the Austin American-Statesman. Founded in 1994, the Society of Texas Film Critics members included 21 film critics working for print and broadcast outlets across the state of Texas. The society's first meeting was held in the Representative Boardroom at the Omni Austin Hotel. Pulp Fiction took the top honor and a total of four awards, more than any other film, in this initial awards presentation.
Quentin Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer who has directed ten films. He first began his career in the 1980s by directing and writing Love Birds In Bondage and writing, directing and starring in the black-and-white My Best Friend's Birthday, a partially lost amateur short film which was never officially released. He impersonated musician Elvis Presley in a small role in the sitcom The Golden Girls (1988), and briefly appeared in Eddie Presley (1992). As an independent filmmaker, he directed, wrote, and appeared in the violent crime thriller Reservoir Dogs (1992), which tells the story of six strangers brought together for a jewelry heist. Proving to be Tarantino's breakthrough film, it was named the greatest independent film of all time by Empire. Tarantino's screenplay for Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) was nominated for a Saturn Award. Also in 1993, he served as an executive producer for Killing Zoe and wrote two other films.
The 15th London Film Critics Circle Awards, honouring the best in film for 1994, were announced by the London Film Critics Circle in 1995.
The following is a list of unproduced Quentin Tarantino projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, American film director Quentin Tarantino has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects were officially cancelled and scrapped or fell in development hell.