Everett De Roche

Everett De Roche (July 12, 1946 - April 2, 2014) was an American-Australian screenwriter who has worked extensively in Australian film and TV. He was best known for his work in the thriller and horror genre, with such credits as Long Weekend, Patrick and Roadgames.

Career

De Roche was born in Lincoln Maine and moved to San Diego with his family when he was six. De Roche emigrated to Australia with his wife when he was 22 in 1968 and originally worked as a journalist for the Queensland Health Education Council.

He wanted to be a writer and wrote a spec script for Division Four. Nine months later he received a telegram inviting him to write for the show. From 1970-74 he was a staff writer at Crawford Productions mainly working on police shows, then he freelanced.

In the late 70s and early 80s he established himself as the leading screenwriter of thrillers in Australia.[1][2]

He often worked with director Richard Franklin who said of him:

Everett is a very inspirational writer... Everett gives one too much of everything and you don’t always know what to use. You start editing down and you end up with words and single lines of dialogue that were once scenes. That is maybe how this problem, as you see it, comes about. But that only has to do with Everett’s extraordinarily fertile imagination and his writing speed.[3]

Death

De Roche had cancer during the last three years of his life and died of the disease in 2014.[4] He was survived by his wife, six daughters and several grandchildren.[5]

Select credits

Television

Unmade projects
  • Firestorm (circa 1984) - film about bushfires in Mornington Peninsula that was to mark his directorial debut.[6] The budget was given at $6 million.[7]
  • Breakwater (early 1990s) - a science fiction adventure story set around Half Moon Bay's hulk of the Cerberus with director Richard Franklin[8]
  • Making Noises (2010) - co-writer[9]
  • High Seas (2010) - a pirate film[10]

Accolades

In 2014, Everett DeRoche was posthumously awarded the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. During his career he also received nominations for two AFI Awards; one for Best Adapted Screenplay for Razorback and one for Best Original Screenplay for Patrick. He didn't win either one of those awards.

References
  1. Everett de Roche at Crawford Productions Archived 2011-10-29 at the Wayback Machine accessed 23 Sept 2012
  2. 'An Interview with Everett de Roche', 1 June 2012 accessed 23 Sept 2012
  3. Scott Murray, "Richard Franklin: Director/Producer", Senses of Cinema, 12 July 2008 accessed 26 October 2012
  4. Don Groves, "Vale Everett De Roche", If Magazine 3 April 2014 accessed 4 April 2014
  5. Torre de Roche "Life, death and whales", The Fearful Adventurer 3 April 2014 accessed 5 April 2014
  6. "Production Survey", Cinema Papers, August 1984 p259
  7. Simpson, Graham (29 January 1985). "A Busy Year Planned for Our Film Industry". The Age. p. 14.
  8. Richard Franklin, "Returning Home", Cinema Papers, June 1995 p24-27,57
  9. 'Not Australian Enough', 29 May 2012 Archived 9 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed 2 Oct 2012
  10. 'Everett De Roche pens modern pirate flick' Quiet Earth 20 Jan 2010 accessed 2 Oct 2012
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