Film Rap: THE WOMAN CHASER w/ Robinson Devor

Robinson Devor directed this film noir parody about a used car salesman obsessed with writing and directing his dream project: a maudlin tale called The Man Who Got Away about a trucker who runs over a little girl. Richard Hudson (Seinfeld regular Patrick Warburton) works at a used car lot during a scalding hot summer in L.A. during the 1950s. The atmosphere, or perhaps the heat, begins to lead his drifting mind to the glamour of showbiz. After moving in with his floozy of a mom (she even flirts with him), he learns that her new husband is a has-been filmmaker. This starts Hudson’s gears turning, and soon nothing daunts the salesman from pursuing his dream. THE WOMAN CHASER was screened at the 1999 New York Film Festival.

~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Robinson Devor ‘s last feature film, ZOO, made its world premier at 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and then went on to play at the prestigious Cannes film festival. The film was picked up for distribution by ThinkFilms and has been playing in theaters around the world. The press has called the film “masterful” (Dennis Lim, New York Times), “beautiful and beguiling” (Village Voice), and “a breathtakingly original nonfiction work” (Scott Foundas, Variety).

In 2005, Robinson Devor premiered his second feature film, POLICE BEAT, in Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2005. The film was called “emotionally devastating” (Rolling Stone), “a visual knockout” (Variety) and “Sundance at its best” (Los Angeles Times), as well as named one of the year’s best films by the New York Times, Film Comment and Art Forum. For his efforts, Devor was nominated for a 2006 Indie Spirit Award and 2005 Gotham Award. The film has since been included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Named one of Variety’s “10 Directors To Watch” in 2000, Devor made his feature film directorial debut with THE WOMAN CHASER. Debuting at The New York Film Festival and then at Sundance, THE WOMAN CHASER received critical high marks throughout its US theatrical run (“Wicked and Brilliant”, The New Yorker; “A Masterpiece”, MovieMaker Magazine).

A 2002 Fellow at the Sundance Institute, Devor collaborated with Seattle journalist Charles Mudede (co-writer of POLICE BEAT) on the feature script, SUPERPOWER, the story of an African child soldier attempting to recapture his childhood after a civil war.

Devor has just finished filming his forth feature film, NORTH AMERICAN, about a commercial airline pilot who flees from God into the Seattle park system, and is about to enter pre-production on YOU CAN’T WIN, the autobiography of career criminal and opium addict Jack Black. The $2.5 million production will be his biggest film to date.

Devor also has two scripts with producers for financing: DYNASTY, a comic fairy tale about a middle aged couple who kill a black bear and attempt to sell its gallbladder on the black market for $10,000, produced by Scott Macaulay‘s New York-based Forensic Films (GUMMO, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS); and THE CLOUD ROOM, an ensemble drama set in Montana, produced by Paul Giamatti‘s Touchy Feely Films.