Thank you for your interest in the screenplay for "The Rules of Attraction". I have decided to make the script freely available, rather than to publish and sell it and try to rape the public of their hard earned money for my own personal gain. You may distribute it freely, but I ask that you not sell it on eBay. And if you choose to create a link to it, please create your link to this page, and not to the Acrobat file itself.

I wrote the screenplay to "The Rules of Attraction" without owning the rights to the novel. This, by the way, is something you should never do. I had originally read the novel while in college, and it was so true to my observations and experiences that I knew I had to one day adapt it. That day came in late 2000, when I awoke with the need to do it. I was in the middle of another job, but something was burning inside of me -- so I sat down and began writing. In retrospect I believe that this happened at that specific moment because I had had enough distance from my time in college to properly reflect on that time with a modicum of objectivity, yet I hadn't grown so old that I had forgotten, or gone into denial, about my experiences. So I wrote the script, and then thinking that no one would ever make it, I put it into a drawer, where it sat for months. Eventually, Greg Shapiro goaded me into allowing him to read it, and when he did he called me up to tell me that I was insane and had to make this film. He did a rights search and, miraculously, the rights had newly become available.

This screenplay was written in a style which I would never normally employ, with elaborate descriptions of how the film should be shot. I did this because I never thought the film would be made. I did it so that I could watch the film in my mind. I made massive changes to the source material, but made every effort to remain true to the spirit of Bret Easton Ellis' incredible novel of the death of romance.

Currently, I am including the 2001-03-03 draft (I like to employ YYYY-MM-DD formats), but in the future I will include here every draft written by me.

I hope you enjoy it, and that it prooves to be a valuable resource in understanding the film.

Oh, by the way, there is no page one.

-Roger Avary, Los Angeles, December 2002