Billy Ray (born 1962) is an American screenwriter and film director. He began writing for television and movies in 1994 with Color of Night. He has written numerous films, including the first Hunger Games film (2012), Richard Jewell (2019), and Captain Phillips (2013), earning an Oscar nomination for the latter. Description above from the Wikipedia article Billy Ray (screenwriter), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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 Date2007-02-15
Charactersd Himself
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 Date2012-08-18
Charactersd Self - Screenwriter
Vote Count5
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 Date2009-01-10
Charactersd Self
Vote Count41
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 Date2005-09-22
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count2829
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 Date2018-11-01
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count3004
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 Date2019-10-23
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count5439
In a dystopian society where the Capitol forces each district to send two young tributes to fight to the death in a televised spectacle, a girl volunteers to take her sister’s place, setting the stage for a struggle of survival and defiance.
Release Date2012-03-12
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count22779
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 Date1998-10-04
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count9
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 Date1997-04-25
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count1606
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 Date2019-10-02
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count5309
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 Date2013-10-10
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count7245
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 Date2002-02-15
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count1002
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 Date1994-11-06
DepartmentWriting
JobStory
Episode Count2
Vote Count81
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 Date2015-10-14
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count1399
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 Date2007-02-12
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count632
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 Date1994-08-19
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count605
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 Date2019-12-13
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count2632
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 Date2012-10-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count164
When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.
Release Date2009-04-17
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count2054
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 Date2003-11-14
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count456
Return to the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games for the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
Release Date2026-11-18
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
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 Date2004-08-27
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count334
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 Date2017-07-28
DepartmentProduction
JobExecutive Producer
Episode Count9
Vote Count63
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.
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
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 Date2020-09-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count2
Vote Count73
Three estranged sisters deal with the death of their father.
Release Date2015-07-10
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count8
A CIA agent gets caught up in political intrigue after he gets brought in to solve the murder of a Cuban ambassador.
Release Date1995-12-15
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count58
The perfect wife does the unimaginable when provoked by her husband's infidelity.
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
A film about the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, considered the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War.
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
