Roger Avary won an Oscar 1995 for co-writing Pulp Fiction

10-3-2002 - 9:02 AM | Interviews  Movies  

The Rules of Attraction looks at the sexual views of college-aged kids by way of three unique people: The virgin Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon); the promiscuous Sean (James Van Der Beek); and the bisexual and promiscuous Paul (Ian Somerhalder). Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’s novel by Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary, the film sparked debate at the Sundance Film Festival and has struggled with the MPAA for its R-rated release.
Producer Greg Shapiro spoke to Madblast.com about the film. Only the third film to his credit, Rules is generating buzz for its content, avant-garde execution and even its poster. One poster image shows a photo still from the film of Sossamon with the dead body of a suicide victim. Another poster is simply made up of stuffed animals with no shots from the film. That and more were the subject of the following interview:

Well, Lion’s Gate has come up with several clever ideas for their own posters and Roger and I had proposed an idea early on about using this artist, Gottfried Helnwein. Roger had been a big fan of his and we actually used Helnwein’s work in the movie in a scene that’s no longer in the film. But Roger had been a fan and we brought Helnwein, who had just moved to Los Angeles, to come see the movie and he really responded to it. We asked him if he might be interested in helping us design something as a poster for the movie and he agreed, on the condition that he could come up with an idea and some single image would strike him that he thought could represent the film. He called us back and said, “I think I might be able to do something based on the suicide scene in the movie.” So, we set up a photo shoot and he basically recreated that scene to his own imagination, to his own eye and he came up with the image that we’re using.

The complete text: www.madblast.com

01.Jun.2002
www.avary.com
Roger Avary
Los Angeles
I'm escorting Shannyn Sossamon to Gottfried Helnwein's L.A. studio tonight for a photo session. Gottfried is a genius, and possibly my favorite living artist -- so I'm thrilled for Shannyn to be shooting with him. Afterward, I'm taking her to the airport. She's flying out of town to shoot a short film (yes, you too can have Shannyn in your film -- she's that cool!).

I'M ESCORTING SHANNYN SOSSAMON TO GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN'S L.A. STUDIO TONIGHT

The soundtrack for "The Rules of Attraction" is here, now. The imagery on the CD itself, which was photographed by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein is worth the price alone -- but there also happens to be numerous tracks by tomandandy as well, most of them condensed into single tracks comprised of multiple tracks (something to do with royalties). There's also the entire spoken-word text from the Victor European tour. The CD is my producer Greg Shapiro's labor of love. He busted his ass to make it happen, and it's fantastic.

www.avary.com