Corona | Coming Attractions

Academy Award-winning Pulp Fiction co-screenwriter Roger Avary has been sentenced to a year in jail for driving while intoxicated and gross vehicular manslaughter. He will also have to perform five years of probation upon his release.

Avary was behind the wheel January 14, 2008 when the Mercedes he was driving crashed into a telephone pole in Ojai, CA. Avary was ejected from the vehicle and sustained injuries, as did Avary's wife Gretchen, but the crash proved to be fatal for their second passenger. The police investigation that followed found that the vehicle had been traveling in excess of 100 mph.

The screenwriter of Beowulf (with Neil Gaiman), Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction and Silent Hill, Avary has recently closed a deal to write the screenplay for Silent Hill 2 and had also committed to writing a script based on the video game Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The judge overseeing the case said that the screenwriter can be put on the jail's furlough program which means that he can work on the two film projects while serving his sentence.

Over 130 letters of support were submitted for Avary from his friends, co-workers and colleagues. Avary had pled guilty to the charges and has reached a settlement with the widow and family of his friend that was killed in the DUI.