Roger Avary, co-writer of Pulp Fiction and writer/director of Killing Zoe, has been sentenced to one year of jail time for his involvement in the death of his friend Andreas Zini in a 2008 car accident. This past August, Avary pleaded guilty to drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter — the writer crashed his car into a telephone pole at over 100 miles per hour, also injuring his wife in the process.
Jail time, along with a five-year probation, will seriously derail the several projects Avary is currently involved with. Earlier this month, Roger signed on to write the script for a sequel to Silent Hill, while also preparing for his film adaptation of the videogame Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Without a doubt, this is unfortunate news for these franchises, but it’s indicative of a larger problem with Hollywood today: Avary, a relatively unknown celebrity in the grand scheme of things, has accepted his sentence with nary a word from Hollywood lobbyists. Roman Polanski’s crime (which is no less severe) has been met with an uproar that could conceivably prevent the director from being sentenced for his deeds. The double standard here astounds me.
