Kruger, Ehren 1972-

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KRUGER, Ehren 1972-

PERSONAL:

Born October 5, 1972. Education: Graduated from New York University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—c/o DreamWorks, 1000 Flower St., Glendale, CA 91201.

CAREER:

Screenwriter. Worked as an executive assistant at the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) and a script assistant for Sandollar Productions.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Nicholl fellowship, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1996, for Arlington Road.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS, EXCEPT AS INDICATED

Killers in the House (teleplay), USA Network, 1998.

Arlington Road, Screen Gems, 1999.

Scream 3, Dimension Films, 2000.

Reindeer Games, Dimension Films, 2000.

Texas Rangers, Miramax, 2001.

Impostor, Dimension Films, 2002.

The Ring, DreamWorks, 2002.

Also author of New World Disorder, 1999.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Screenplays for numerous upcoming films, including The Brothers Grimm, Skeleton Key, Blood and Chocolate, The Talisman, and The Ring 2.

SIDELIGHTS:

Screenwriter Ehren Kruger has written a number of high-profile, high-grossing movies in Hollywood, but he still "enjoys being a reclusive screenwriter" who is generally "unknown to San Francisco's cognoscenti," reported Ruthe Stein in an interview with Kruger in the San Francisco Chronicle. Though he lives in San Francisco and loves "the diversity and openness here," he told Stein, he still prefers to remain as anonymous as possible. "Kruger wouldn't send a photo to run in the paper because he really doesn't want to be recognized," Stein commented.

Kruger, a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, received the 1996 Nicholl fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his then-unproduced screenplay, Arlington Road. In 1999, Kruger attained veteran status when Arlington Road appeared as a full-length motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, and Joan Cusack. The movie is "a topical thriller predicated on the sturdy dramatic notion that the guy next door to you—the one you think is a dangerous weirdo—really is a dangerous weirdo," remarked Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. As the film opens, Michael Faraday (Bridges) finds a badly injured young boy wandering a suburban street. Faraday rushes him to the hospital, much to the appreciation of the boy's parents, Oliver (Robbins) and Cheryl (Cusack) Lang, who are Faraday's new neighbors.

Faraday, a history professor who teaches about terrorism, still grieves for his wife, an FBI agent killed several years prior in a botched terrorist attack. At first he welcomes the new friendship with the Langs and their son, who is close to his own son's age. As he gets better acquainted with the family, however, they seem odd, and details of their behavior and lives become inconsistent. Suspicious, Faraday begins looking into the Langs' background and uncovers sinister possibilities and militia groups looking to blow up a prominent government building.

" Arlington Road is an intelligent, insidiously plotted Hitchcockian thriller directed in souped-up, modern expressionistic style," wrote Todd McCarthy in Variety. McCarthy called the movie an "absorbing and surprising political melodrama [that] sometimes tries too hard for its own good," but further commented that "in an era when most suspensers are hopelessly contrived, derivative, and one-dimensional, this one has some real weight" and credible main characters. The movie is "obviously inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing of the Federal Building," noted James Greenberg in Los Angeles magazine, adding that "writer Ehren Kruger and director Mark Pellington have fashioned a plausible what-if tale."

Stepping away from the world of the political thriller and squarely into the horror-comedy hybrid genre, Kruger provided the screenplay for Scream 3, released in 2000. Kruger came in to write the screenplay after Kevin Williamson, the writer of the first two Scream movies, was unable to write the third due to scheduling problems. In this self-referential conclusion of the Scream trilogy, the survivors of the carnage of the previous episodes gather in Hollywood, where a film is being made about the murders that occurred in the first two movies. Eventually, the masked killer makes his appearance, and the "victims, real and potential, of the slasher in the ironic mask—they are many—continue to put up game, liberated fights for their lives," commented Richard Schickel in Time. Schickel called Kruger's work on the film "more competent than inspired—not that one imagines that affecting the grosses."

Although Scream 3 is founded on horror elements, Kruger said in a In Focus Web site interview that he approached the movie "as working on a comedy, not so much a horror picture. It's kind of funny to me when they file the Scream movies in the 'horror' genre. I'm not sure it's on the proper shelf."

Kruger's most prominent film project is probably The Ring, an atmospheric horror movie from 2002. Based on a popular Japanese movie, Ringu, The Ring involves a mysterious videotape and its fatal effects—anyone who watches it and its surrealistic imagery immediately receives a phone call telling them they will die in seven days. So far, no one has been able to escape the chilling seven-day deadline. When two teenage girls watch the tape, both die. Rachel, the aunt of one of the girls, puts her investigative journalism skills to work to find out what happened. She watches the video and receives the expected call, and the clock starts ticking for Rachel to solve the mystery. Adding to the urgency: Rachel realizes that others have also recently viewed the tape, including her son, Aidan.

The Ring is "more driven by character and atmosphere," Kruger remarked on the In Focus Web site. "But it's really about dread and doom, and that sense permeates every scene. It's about what that sense—of believing there's a deadline on your life and possibly your loved ones—does to those relationships."

The Ring contains a definite "element of formula," of reuse of familiar creepy movie elements, observed C. W. Nevius in San Francisco Chronicle. "All your favorites are here: the creepy, big-eyed kid who whispers freaky predictions, the phone call that makes you jump, the dripping ghost, and the farmhouse with a secret. But this is better than that," Nevius remarked. "In fact, The Ring is so good it's scary." Critic Andrew Sarris, writing in the New York Observer, found the movie lacked consistency and coherence, stating that Kruger and director Gore Verbinski "seem to make up new rules as they go along, with the result that at the final fade-out we are left hanging, able to figure out neither what else is about to happen, nor exactly what has already happened and who is responsible for it." Angus Wolfe Murray, writing in Evening News (Edinburgh, Scotland), commented that "the adaptation by Ehren Kruger is intelligent." Generally, "Hollywood remakes of foreign hit movies are famous for being flops," Murray stated. "This won't be one of them."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Sun-Times, February 25, 2000, Roger Ebert, "No Fun in 'Games,' Yapping Will Result in Napping," p. 31.

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), August 14, 1999, Des Partridge, "Flaws in the Flash," review of Arlington Road, p. 12.

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), October 18, 2002, Dann Gire, "Hollow 'Ring': Japanese-Inspired Horror Film Long on Scary Images, Short on Suspense," p. 42.

Daily Variety, October 23, 2002, "'Key' Unlocks Kruger Deal," p. 4; December 10, 2002, Marc Graser, "D'Works Springs for Sequel to 'Ring,'" p. 4.

Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1999, Lisa Schwarzbaum, "Grim Neighbors: In the Chilling Arlington Road, Paranoia Comes a-Knockin' When Jeff Bridges Discovers That the Folks across the Way Keep Explosive Secrets," p. 45; February 11, 2000, Owen Gleiberman, "Hack Work: The Postmodern Slasher Series Comes to a Choppy Close in Scream 3, a Scare-Fest with a Shockingly Dull Edge," p. 48; March 31, 2000, "The Write Stuff: The Emergence of the Script-Driven Movie Is Not Only Shaking Up the Industry, It's Turning a Generation of Screenwriters into Pricey Stars," p. 18.

Evening News (Edinburgh, Scotland), February 20, 2003, Angus Wolfe Murray, "The Ring: The Japanese Do It Best," p. 6.

Los Angeles, June, 1999, James Greenberg, "Film High Anxiety," review of Arlington Road, p. 36.

Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1999, Joe Leydon, "So Much for Keeping Secrets: The Makers of 'Arlington Road' Wanted to Remain Completely Tight-lipped about Its Plot. But the Marketers Had Other Ideas," p. 6; February 24, 2000, Gene Seymour, "The Time Has Come: Up-and-Comer Charlize Theron May Make It to the Next Level with Her Two Latest Film Roles," p. 14.

New Yorker, July 19, 1999, Anthony Lane, review of Arlington Road, pp. 98-99.

New York Observer, October 28, 2002, Andrew Sarris, "The Ring Is Incoherent, Chilling—and Naomi Watts Looks Great," p. 23.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), January 4, 2002, Julie E. Washington, "Boring 'Impostor' Masquerading as a Real Sci-fi Movie," review of Impostor, p. 10; October 18, 2002, Joanna Connors, "A Ring around Another Stupid Horror Movie," p. 46.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 25, 2002, Ruthe Stein, "'Ring' Writer Happily Goes Unnoticed in San Francisco," J4; March 7, 2003, C. W. Nevius, "Watch This Video at Your Own Expense: 'The Ring' Thrills with Killer Images," D14.

Sight and Sound, April, 1999, Ken Hollings, review of Arlington Road, pp. 36-37; May, 2000, Kim Newman, review of Scream 3, pp. 59-60.

Time, February 14, 2000, Richard Schickel, "Screamish: Terror Seems Squarer in This Sequel and Finale," p. 78.

Variety, August 31-September 6, 1996, Steve Chagollan, "Ten Writers to Watch," pp. 66-70; March 22, 1999, Todd McCarthy, review of Arlington Road, p. 35.

Washington Times, February 25, 2000, Gary Arnold, "'Reindeer' Delivers Wit and Drama," p. 7.