Oscar-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Roger Avary, who shared writing duties with Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, has been sentenced to a year in prison after being judged to have caused the death of his passenger while driving under the influence of alcohol.
Avary, 44, who adapted and directed Bret Easton Ellis' The Rules Of Attraction and also wrote the scripts for Silent Hill and Beowulf, was said to be travelling at over 100mph in his Mercedes when he crashed into a telephone pole in Ventura County, California.
Avary pleaded guilty to gross vehicluar manslaughter, and will serve five years probation on top of his prison sentence.
Plenty of time to work on the Silent Hill sequel then.
What's your verdict? Is Avary a hack or a troubled genius? Let us know...
Comments
joker16
Sep 30th 2009, 18:26
Hack. I hate how he gets credit for writing pulp fiction when he only wrote part of one scene.
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NotAmerican
Sep 30th 2009, 19:48
First off, I don't think he "only wrote part of one scene" in Pulp Fiction - from what I understand, it was a fairly collaborative effort. 2nd, Tarantino steals ideas from ANYWHERE he can get them. For instance, Tarantino had a bit part in 1994's Sleep With Me. All he does is "his" humorous interpretation of "Top Gun". However, as imdb puts it, "Quentin Tarantino's famous 'Top Gun' speech was originally written by filmmaker and friend, Roger Avary, for another project.". Anybody ever hear QT admit this? Me neither. True Romance - written by QT *AND* RA! Ever seen RA's name associated with the movie? Exactly. It was the same thing with Pulp Fiction - QT grudgingly shared writing credit with Avary when forced to (ie - Best Screenplay Oscar), but cut and cut Avary's contribution every chance he got (ie - Golden Globes; official credits have Avary as coming up with story ideas - along with QT - but QT is credited as sole "writer" for Pulp Fiction). It is so extremely laughable when you compare Resevoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction with their "original sources" (as was done in the brilliant pair of documentaries, "Who Do You Think You're Fooling?" [about Resevoir Dogs; there is NO denying QT basically remade City On Fire. I realize remakes of foreign movies weren't as popular back then, but come on!] and "You're Still Not Fooling Anyone" [about Pulp Fiction; definitly not as "clear cut" of a rip off as RD was, but still - Sam Jackson's bible speech, which Jackson and QT claimed to have written themselves, was taken verbatim from another film; several "homage or rip-off?" moments; and, for me anyway, the worst one - the ENTIRE adrenaline to the heart scene was taken almost word for word from a story told in Scorsese's "American Boy". I mean right down to the nurses handbook, the "you gotta do it in a stabbing motion to get through her breast plate", even the frickin "Magic Marker Bullseye" part!!]. I just hope that Robert Rodriguez knows what he's getting himself into by working with QT; as for Eli Roth, he's a d****e anyway, so who cares how badly QT screws him over! But Roger Avary probably kicks himself every day for befriending QT! He's an absolute genius, and I just wish he was given more chances to show it. I know this was supposed to be more about "Avary - hack or troubled genius?", but I think QT squashed Avary's career. One can only imagine what would of happened if RA had recieved proper credit for Pulp, True Romance, and a great deal of QT's early output. My guess would be a career that would keep him too busy to run around comitting vehicular manslaughter...
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joker16
Oct 1st 2009, 20:07
1. When I said he only wrote a part of one scene I was just exaggerating. I'm sure he contributed to more than that. 2. About the Ezekiel speech, I've heard Tarantino say several times that he got it from a Sonny Chiba movie, most recently in an interview on NPR's Fresh Air. 3. If Avary is such a good writer/director and Tarantino just stole from him and others, why hasn't Avary independently written anything of real substance in his entire career? Any award he has won(the majority being Pulp) has been shared with someone else, coincidence? P.S. RA didn't write True Romance.
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