Roger Avary

Birthday: 23 August 1965, Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada

Birth Name: Franklin Brauner

Height: 183 cm

Award-winning filmmaker Roger Avary first began experimenting in Beta I video and 8mm film formats during the late 1970s. In 1983, his Super-8mm supernatural thriller The Worm Turns won Best Film from the Los Angeles Film Teachers Association Film Expo. He went on to attend the Pasadena Art Center College of Design's prestigious film program alongside fellow directors Michael Bay and Tarsem Singh.In 1994, Avary was awarded an Academy Award for his work as a writer with Quentin Tarantino on their screenplay for Pulp Fiction. His Oscar was presented to him by the man who would eventually play Hrothgar, Anthony Hopkins, during the same award show that future Beowulf director Robert Zemeckis won for Forrest Gump. The screenplay for Pulp Fiction earned Avary and Tarantino additional accolades, including a BAFTA, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award, the Chicago Society of Film Critics Award, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.Also in 1994, Avary wrote and directed the French neonoir crime thriller Killing Zoe, which Roger Ebert hailed as Generation X's first Bank Caper Movie. Killing Zoe is notable as the first feature film to utilize swing and tilt bellows lenses in its production. The film was honored with le Prix tres special a Cannes, the very same year that Pulp Fiction took home the Palm d'Or. Killing Zoe continued to win awards worldwide on the festival circuit, including Best Film at Japan's Yubari International Film Festival and the Italian Mystfest. The film was also celebrated by the Cinemathique Francaise, who heralded Avary as the Antonin Artaud of cinema during their Cinema of Cruelty retrospective.In 1996, Avary directed a music video for the Go-Go's song The Whole World Lost Its Head. Avary has also worked as a producer in indie film on Boogie Boy in 1997 and The Last Man in 2000. He also produced several pilots for television. In 1997, Avary teamed with New York Times bestselling novelist Neil Gaiman to write their screenplay adaptation of the oldest English language story Beowulf.In 2002, Avary wrote and directed the filmed adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel The Rules of Attraction, which he also executive-produced. The Rules of Attraction is notable as the first studio motion picture to prove reliable use of Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system. Roger Avary became a spokesperson for Final Cut Pro 3, appearing in Apple print and web ads worldwide. His film within the film, Glitterati (2004), used elements of Victor's European trip and was shot entirely on digital video with a crew of two (Avary, and producer Greg Shapiro). In 2005, he purchased the rights to another Bret Easton Ellis novel, Glamorama, which is in development at Avary's company for him to direct.In 2006, he penned the movie adaptation of the hit Konami videogame Silent Hill for French director Christophe Gans. Silent Hill debuted as #1 at the U.S. box office and has been embraced by video game fans as one of the first game-to-film adaptations that is true to the imagery and spirit of its source material.In 2007, the fruit of Avary and Gaiman's Beowulf collaboration was successfully realized by director Robert Zemeckis. Utilizing a complex process of digitally enhanced live action, the film tells the oldest English language story through the use of the most modern technology available. Avary is currently prepping as director the filmed adaptation of id Software's successful video game franchise Castle Wolfenstein for Killing Zoe producer Samuel Hadida.As a hobby, Avary collects and restores vintage Atari XY monitor arcade machines like Battlezone, Tempes, and Lunar Lander. Avary divides time between his California olive farm and apartments in Rio de Janiero and Paris. Hide

[on Ron Perlman] Ron Perlman is a giving actor, with no pretensions. He's wonderful to work with, fu Show more [on Ron Perlman] Ron Perlman is a giving actor, with no pretensions. He's wonderful to work with, full of ideas, and a truly gifted actor. When he came onto the production of Mr. Stitch (1995) the set literally lit up. Working with him was one of the bright moments of my career, and I would work with him again in a hot second. This must sound like I'm going overboard, but Ron has such an elegant, wonderful and bright personality that I honestly don't think it's an exaggeration. I mean, how often can you say that you're a better person for having met someone? Hide

[on Quentin Tarantino] I've realized that I can't hang out with him. I talk with him, and he just su Show more [on Quentin Tarantino] I've realized that I can't hang out with him. I talk with him, and he just sucks stuff from me. Hide

As I was reading the serialized version of Sandman: The Doll's House, it was like having a third eye Show more As I was reading the serialized version of Sandman: The Doll's House, it was like having a third eye open in my forehead. Johnny Depp as Dream. Fairuza Balk as Death. I would subcontract Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay (Timothy Quay and Stephen Quay) to animate the transitions from the dream realm into our own world, so as to simulate the graphic style of Dave McKean's covers. It would be a glorious and magnificent epic. A year and a half after my first meeting, I politely left the project, not wanting to be the guy who ruined the Sandman film adaptation. I simply couldn't imagine the Lord of Dreaming throwing a punch. Just because it looked like Batman (1989) at first glance didn't mean it was. But Jon Peters, the "savant" producer Warners had attached to the project couldn't be dissuaded. I moved on, a year and a half of my life gone to the ether. No more real to me now than the memory of a dream. Hide

[on Quentin Tarantino doing his Top Gun (1986) speech in the film Sleep with Me (1994)] Important le Show more [on Quentin Tarantino doing his Top Gun (1986) speech in the film Sleep with Me (1994)] Important lesson learned. Intellectual properties can be taken from you if you put them in the air. Result is to never speak to anyone else ever again and withdraw from society. Keep few friends and speak to them rarely. Hide

[on the characters in The Rules of Attraction (2002) and them as people] Bret Easton Ellis is a soci Show more [on the characters in The Rules of Attraction (2002) and them as people] Bret Easton Ellis is a social satirist; I consider myself aligned with how he does things. Bret doesn't write about that which he loves about the world, he writes about what disgusts him. You'd be a disturbed individual if you came out and said, "I love these characters". Hide

[on Pulp Fiction (1994) and all the inspiration and effect it had] In some ways, I think "Pulp Ficti Show more [on Pulp Fiction (1994) and all the inspiration and effect it had] In some ways, I think "Pulp Fiction" hurt cinema in a very, very minor, small way. It did a massive amount of good. But it also made it impossible to make a movie even remotely like it without someone comparing it to "Pulp Fiction". Hide

[on the detractors of The Rules of Attraction (2002)] It does not matter to me if you hate the movie Show more [on the detractors of The Rules of Attraction (2002)] It does not matter to me if you hate the movie. What matters to me is if you are ambivalent. Anybody can do "thumbs up, thumbs down". That's the real problem with film criticism today. It's been reduced to "I like it, I dislike it". Criticism should be more of an examination of exactly why a film makes you feel the way you feel. Hide

[on the film adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis books Less Than Zero (1987) and American Psycho (2000) Show more [on the film adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis books Less Than Zero (1987) and American Psycho (2000)] Those two movies have stripped away his literary devices, and the filmmakers are just trying to tell the story. If you strip away Bret's devices, you strip away his themes - they're part and parcel of each other. Hide

Roger Avary's FILMOGRAPHY

All as Actor (2) as Creator (5)

Phantasm 4: Oblivion

Standing Still