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Eric Red (born Eric Joseph Durdaller; February 16, 1961) is an American
screenwriter,
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
and
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
, best known for writing the
horror films ''
The Hitcher'' and ''
Near Dark
NEAR or Near may refer to:
People
* Thomas J. Near, US evolutionary ichthyologist
* Near, a developer who created the higan emulator
Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine
* National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR), a forme ...
'', as well as writing and directing ''
Cohen and Tate''.
Biography
Early life
Red was born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, the son of Nancy (née Pickhardt) and Cornelius Gerard Durdaller. He attended the
AFI Conservatory
The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on st ...
and graduated in 1983.
Screenwriter career
The first film written by Red was ''
Gunmen's Blues'', a
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
he produced and directed while a student at the
AFI Conservatory
The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on st ...
.
He went broke trying to get national distribution for the film and had to drive a cab in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
for a year to recoup.
[Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...]
">
His AFI thesis script, ''The Hitcher'', was produced in 1986. A major studio remake of ''
The Hitcher'' was released in 2007 with Red as a consultant. From the '80s through the '00s, his subsequent produced screenplays were ''Near Dark'', ''Cohen and Tate'', ''
Blue Steel'', ''
Body Parts'', ''
The Last Outlaw'', ''
Undertow'', ''
Bad Moon
''Bad Moon'' is a 1996 Canadian-American horror film written and directed by Eric Red, and produced by James G. Robinson. The film is about a mother and son who are threatened by her brother, who struggles to overcome the curse of lycanth ...
'' and ''
100 Feet''.
Director career
The first feature film directed by Red was ''Cohen and Tate'' in 1987. He subsequently directed the films ''Body Parts'' (1990), ''Undertow'' (1995), ''Bad Moon'' (1996) and ''100 Feet'' (2008).
Novelist career
Eric Red published his first novel, ''Don't Stand So Close'', in 2011. His subsequent published novels are ''The Guns of Santa Sangre'' (2013), ''The Wolves of El Diablo'' (2017), ''It Waits Below'' (2014), ''Noose'' (2018), ''Hanging Fire'' (2019), ''White Knuckle'' (2015), ''Strange Fruit'' (2014), ''Branded'' (2021) and ''The Crimson Trail'' (2021).
Car crash
Following a car accident, Red crashed his truck into a crowded bar in Los Angeles on May 31, 2000, resulting in the deaths of two patrons. After the incident, Red apparently exited his vehicle and
attempted suicide
A suicide attempt is an attempt to die by suicide that results in survival. It may be referred to as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, though these terms are discouraged by mental health professionals for implying that a suicide resu ...
by slitting his own throat with a piece of broken glass. Red survived the incident, was taken to the hospital under an alias and was released weeks later. No criminal charges were brought against Red, but a jury in a civil suit awarded monetary damages to the families of the victims. The suit, which awarded over a million dollars to the families of the two men killed in the accident, was appealed to state and federal courts, which confirmed the original jury finding.
LA Weekly story: Death Race 2000, by Paul Cullum
01-13-2006, '' LA Weekly''
Filmography
Short films
Feature films
TV movies
Bibliography
*''Containment'' (2005) raphic novel*''Don't Stand So Close'' (2011)
*''The Guns of Santa Sangre'' (2013)
*''It Waits Below'' (2014)
*''Strange Fruit'' (2014)
*''White Knuckle'' (2015)
*''The Wolves of El Diablo'' (2017)
*''Noose'' (2018)
*''Hanging Fire'' (2019)
*''Branded'' (2021)
*''The Crimson Trail'' (2021)
*''Stopping Power'' (2021)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red, Eric
1961 births
American film directors
Horror film directors
American male screenwriters
Living people
Writers from Pittsburgh
Screenwriters from Pennsylvania