Billy Ray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William (Billy) Ray is an American screenwriter and director. He began writing for television and movies in 1994 with Color of Night. He has written numerous movies including Volcano and Hart's War. He was one of the creators and writers of the science fiction show Earth 2. Billy Ray in 2007 (+/-) Starting in 2003 he began to direct as well as write; his first film was Shattered Glass, the story of a reporter who invented his stories. He was nominated for the Most Promising Filmmaker by the Chicago Film Critics Association and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for his work on this film. In the 2007 release, Breach, which Ray co-wrote and directed, he tells a stylistically similar story about an FBI agent who spies for the Russians. Both films were based on actual people and recent events. Description above from the Wikipedia article Billy Ray, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

The Comey Rule

An immersive, behind-the-headlines account of the historically turbulent events surrounding the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, which divided a nation. This two-part biopic tells the story of two powerful figures, Comey and Trump, whose strikingly different personalities, ethics and loyalties put them on a collision course.

Release Date: 2020-09-27

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 66

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

Release Date: 2019-12-13

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 2524

Terminator: Dark Fate

Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.

Release Date: 2019-10-23

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 5198

Gemini Man

Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.

Release Date: 2019-10-02

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 5167

Overlord

France, June 1944. On the eve of D-Day, some American paratroopers fall behind enemy lines after their aircraft crashes while on a mission to destroy a radio tower in a small village near the beaches of Normandy. After reaching their target, the surviving paratroopers realise that, in addition to fighting the Nazi troops that patrol the village, they also must fight against something else.

Release Date: 2018-11-01

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 2888

The Last Tycoon

From F. Scott Fitzgerald's last work, The Last Tycoon follows Monroe Stahr, Hollywood's Golden Boy as he battles father figure and boss Pat Brady for the soul of their studio. In a world darkened by the Depression and the growing influence of Hitler's Germany, The Last Tycoon illuminates the passions, violence and towering ambition of 1930s Hollywood.

Release Date: 2017-07-28

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Episode Count: 9

Vote Count: 56

Secret in Their Eyes

A tight-knit team of FBI investigators, along with their District Attorney supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.

Release Date: 2015-10-14

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1353

Captain Phillips

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

Release Date: 2013-10-10

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 7000

Chasing Ice

When National Geographic photographer James Balog asked, “How can one take a picture of climate change?” his attention was immediately drawn to ice. Soon he was asked to do a cover story on glaciers that became the most popular and well-read piece in the magazine during the last five years. But for Balog, that story marked the beginning of a much larger and longer-term project that would reach epic proportions.

Release Date: 2012-10-01

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 158

The World Is Watching: Making the Hunger Games

A feature length, eight part documentary that covers everything from pre-production to adapting the source novel to casting to shooting to post and marketing. This is an amazing in-depth piece and it's notable how many women were involved in this production, from several Lionsgate executives to novelist Suzanne Collins herself. Jennifer Lawrence talks about her "hypocrisy" in not wanting to do a big budget blockbuster after having devoted herself to indies (despite X-Men, which she seems to discount somewhat). There's also a nice sequence on the strength and weight training the actors went through and the stunts that are so notable in the film, as well as having to dance around the violence implicit in the story due to the planned PG-13 rating the filmmakers were aiming for.

Release Date: 2012-08-18

Character: Self - Screenwriter

Vote Count: 5

The Hunger Games

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. The world will be watching.

Release Date: 2012-03-12

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 22157

State of Play

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

Release Date: 2009-04-17

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 1969

Tales from the Script

Shane Black ("Lethal Weapon"), John Carpenter ("Halloween"), Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption"), William Goldman ("The Princess Bride"), Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver"), and dozens of other Hollywood screenwriters share hilarious anecdotes and penetrating insights in "Tales from the Script," the most comprehensive documentary ever made about screenwriting. By analyzing their triumphs and recalling their failures, the participants explain how successful writers develop the skills necessary for toughing out careers in one of the world's most competitive industries. They also reveal the untold stories behind some of the greatest screenplays ever written, describing their adventures with luminaries including Harrison Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Silver, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. The film was produced in tandem with the upcoming HarperCollins book of the same name.

Release Date: 2009-01-10

Character: Self

Vote Count: 38

The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter Billy Ray

BILLY RAY has written or co-written the screenplays for Color of Night, Volcano and Hart's War and also created the sci-fi series Earth 2. In 2003, Ray wrote and directed Shattered Glass, which was based on the true story of fraudulent journalist Stephen Glass. Most recently, he found himself back in the writer/director role for Breach, a story based on real-life FBI agent-turned-Soviet spy Robert Hanssen. In this intriguing interview, listen as Ray touches on his inspiration from movie soundtracks, taking acting classes, genius by osmosis and writing for the Jetsons.

Release Date: 2007-02-15

Character: Himself

Breach

Eric O'Neill, a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent, with his unexpected promotion and assignment to clerk for Robert Hanssen, a renowned senior agent with 25 years in the FBI. However, he soon learns the reason for his promotion is to gain Hanssen's trust and find proof that he is a traitor to the country. Determined to draw the suspected double-agent out of deep cover, O'Neill finds himself in a lethal game of spy vs. spy, where nothing is as it seems.

Release Date: 2007-02-12

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 590

Flightplan

Flying at 40,000 feet in a state-of-the art aircraft that she helped design, Kyle Pratt's 6-year-old daughter Julia vanishes without a trace. Or did she? No one on the plane believes Julia was ever onboard. And now Kyle, desperate and alone, can only count on her own wits to unravel the mystery and save her daughter.

Release Date: 2005-09-22

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 2650

Suspect Zero

A killer is on the loose, and an FBI agent sifts through clues and learns that the bloodthirsty felon's victims of choice are other serial killers.

Release Date: 2004-08-27

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 316

Shattered Glass

The true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass, who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in his 20s, becoming a staff writer at The New Republic for three years. Looking for a short cut to fame, Glass concocted sources, quotes and even entire stories, but his deception did not go unnoticed forever, and eventually, his world came crumbling down.

Release Date: 2003-11-14

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 426

Hart's War

When Col. William McNamara is stripped of his freedom in a German POW camp, he's determined to keep on fighting even from behind enemy lines. Enlisting the help of a young lieutenant in a brilliant plot against his captors, McNamara risks everything on a mission to free his men and change the outcome of the war.

Release Date: 2002-02-15

Department: Writing

Job: Author

Vote Count: 954

Legalese

When an actress is charged with murder, a charming celebrity lawyer uses trickery to defend her against the press as well as the prosecution.

Release Date: 1998-10-04

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 6

Volcano

An earthquake shatters a peaceful Los Angeles morning and opens a fissure deep into the earth, causing lava to start bubbling up. As a volcano begins forming in the La Brea Tar Pits, the director of the city's emergency management service, working with a geologist, must then use every resource in the city to try and stop the volcano from consuming LA.

Release Date: 1997-04-25

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 1545

Color of Night

A color-blind psychiatrist is stalked by an unknown killer after taking over his murdered friend's therapy group and becomes embroiled in an intense affair with a mysterious woman who may be connected to the crime.

Release Date: 1994-08-19

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 576

J6

A film about the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, considered the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War.

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Animals

When the son of an L.A. mayoral candidate is kidnapped, he and his wife have a few hours to come up with the ransom payment. With most of their money spent on his political campaign, they have to get their hands dirty and expose a side of their lives they never intended to see the light of day.

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

The Silent Wife

The perfect wife does the unimaginable when provoked by her husband's infidelity.

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

The Shooter

A CIA agent gets caught up in political intrigue after he gets brought in to solve the murder of a Cuban ambassador.

Release Date: 1995-12-15

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 52

Earth 2

Two centuries in the future, when pollution has forced humans to abandon Earth in favor of cramped space stations, scientist Devon Adair hijacks a spacecraft and sets out with a band of followers in search of another planet that will offer a brighter, more normal future to children like her son, Ulysses. Joining Devon and Ulysses are mechanic John Danziger and his daughter, True; team physician Julia Heller, who has her own secret agenda; Alonzo Solace, a pilot; Yale, a cyborg; and Morgan, a craven government agent, and his wife, Bess. The voyagers find their planet, but their ship crash-lands on the wrong side of the globe, forcing them to attempt an arduous and dangerous trek to their ultimate destination, New Pacifica.

Release Date: 1994-11-06

Department: Writing

Job: Story

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 75