What the Hell Happened to Killing Zoe? The Crime Flick That Vanished Faster Than Your Ex’s Text Replies!
Added on November 14, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
Popular
Numerology Meets Netflix: Get Your Daily Dose of Cosmic Cinema Suggestions Powered By Our AI Astrologer. Find The Show Or Movie You Were Meant To See!
Ever wonder what cosmic mischief was afoot when Roger Avary decided to craft Killing Zoe—a film that feels like it was born under a chaotic Mars-Pluto square, sizzling with danger and transformation? Here’s a flick that sneaks quietly into the vault of cult classics, a ’90s bank heist movie so misjudged it might just be the universe’s way of rewarding the underdog. Think of Killing Zoe as the rebellious Scorpio of heist films—intense, dark, and packing a punch under the radar.
Despite the gritty Parisian backdrop set on Bastille Day, this wild ride was mostly shot right in the heart of Los Angeles, with a cast and crew that hustled through a lightning-fast shoot, fueled by raw, unfiltered energy—and maybe a little opium. It’s the movie that emerged from the same creative well as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, yet it holds its own twisted, nihilistic charm, unapologetically mixing arthouse flair with punk exploitation — like a secret constellation of indie crime cinema you’re just now remembering you forgot existed.
As your moon drifts through dramatic Pisces, tapping into those unseen depths of emotion and mystery, let’s decode how Avary’s hyperviolent “arthouse for coffeehouse and exploitation” dream came to light. From bold writing gambits, a fake trailer scamming investors, to sneaky editing moves that stuck it to the MPAA—this film’s journey is as much a heist as the one onscreen. Ready to peek behind the mask and find out what really happened to Killing Zoe?
If Michael Mann’s Heat, Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, and Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde are firmly etched in the inner sanctum of all-time great heist movies, which movies would you say are on par or perhaps rank one tier below? Baby Driver, The Thomas Crown Affair, Inside Man, Hell or High Water? What about lesser-known examples like The Lookout, The Brink’s Job, or The Friends of Eddie Coyle? While there’s no right or wrong answer, one brazen, criminally overlooked bank heist film that holds up well over 30 years later is Killing Zoe, the feature film debut of writer/director Roger Avary.
Dubbed “Generation X’s first bank caper movie” by Roger Ebert, Killing Zoe was released in 1993 and has since become a minor cult classic among crime film buffs. What fans of the film may not know is that, despite being set in Paris on Bastille Day, the movie was almost entirely shot in Los Angeles. Moreover, the development of the film began in earnest when scouting locations for the jewel heist in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, with Avary and Tarantino’s creative rapport continuing through Pulp Fiction. From Avary’s story inspiration to the writing and casting phase to the rapid 25-day film shoot, and eventual sequel made 16 years later, it’s time to crack the vault and discover what the f*ck happened to Killing Zoe!
As alluded to, Killing Zoe was conceived while producer Lawrence Bender was scouting locations in Los Angeles for Quentin Tarantino’s feature film debut, Reservoir Dogs. Avary, a longtime friend and colleague of Quentin Tarantino from their days working at the Video Archives rental store, heard that Bender had found an ideal location at the Farmers and Merchants Bank, situated at 401 S. Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles, that would make a memorable movie setting.
However, since Reservoir Dogs was about an unseen jewel heist, there was no good reason to use the bank for the film. Yet, determined to keep the inspired location, Bender telephoned every screenwriter he knew and asked if they had a script that was set in a bank. Without missing a beat, Avary jumped at the opportunity by lying and telling Bender he had written a script that takes place in a bank. With six days until he was set to meet with Bender and deliver the script in person, Avary quickly toured the bank’s layout and stitched together a first draft over the weekend, and gave it a polish before handing it over to Bender.
Despite the rapid first draft being written without an outline, Avary’s vision was crystallized from the start: to make a hyperviolent “arthouse film for both the coffeehouse crowd and the exploitation crowd.” Avary also wanted to reflect how his generation of filmmakers fostered a sense of nihilism in their work. When writing the script, Avary had Eric Stoltz in mind for the lead role of Zed, a professional American safecracker who travels to Paris to help his old friend Eric, played by Jean-Hugues Anglade, pull off a daring bank heist the following day as France celebrates Bastille Day. According to Avary, once Anglade agreed to star in the movie, the project came together quickly. Tarantino wanted to play Eric himself, but Avary couldn’t see his buddy playing a Frenchman and politely declined.
Avary was also inspired by his own experience backpacking through France four years earlier and incorporated several biographical elements into the screenplay. When Tarantino read the first draft, he quipped that it should be titled “Roger Takes a Trip” for how much it mirrored Avary’s real life. As for the title, Killing Zoe, it’s worth noting that Zoe translates to “Life” in Greek. Therefore, Killing Life is an ironic title that Avary feels accurately describes Eric’s violently destructive behavior throughout the film. Avary also insists that the bank’s labyrinthine interior symbolizes Eric’s brain. Some have theorized that Zed contracts HIV from Eric after being exposed to his blood, to which Avary responded by saying, “Look at the title.”
When casting the role of Zoe, lovely French actress Julie Delpy was hesitant to work with a first-time filmmaker, especially having just finished working with the great Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski on the Three Colors trilogy. Yet, having a random encounter with a tarot reader on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Delpy was told that she would soon “go on a great spiritual journey.” Since Killing Zoe was the only project she had been considering at the time, Delpy took the chance card reading as a sign to accept the role of Zoe.
To prepare the cast for the right mindset, Avary handed out copies of Beowulf before shooting commenced. While it’s unclear how Beowulf relates to Killing Zoe, Avary went on to direct a stage adaptation of Beowulf in France after feeling burned out once Killing Zoe was completed. Avary also co-wrote the 2007 cinematic version of Beowulf, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Upon hiring Director of Photography Tom Richmond, Avary urged the cinematographer to think of the bank as though it were the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, a dizzying and disorienting space with sinister architecture and a mind of its own that reflects the main characters’ decaying psychological state.
Once the script was in shooting shape, Avary met with producer Samuel Hadida, who previously produced True Romance, which Avary co-wrote with Tarantino. With Bender’s help as an executive producer and international presales, Avary crafted a fake trailer comprised of footage from various American and European crime films from the ’70s and ’80s to show investors. As such, Avary secured an estimated $1.5 million budget and a 25-day film shoot that extended to 34 days.
As a result, principal photography on Killing Zoe commenced on January 25, 1993, and wrapped on February 27th. The 34-day film shoot occurred almost entirely in the Los Angeles area, with only the opening and closing shots of a car touring Paris shot on location in France after the production wrapped. Although unseen, Anglade is the one driving during the bookend shots of Paris. Since Avary wrote all of the French dialogue in English, Anglade also helped translate the script to make the language more authentic. Beyond the bank located downtown, Zed’s Hotel Bonaparte was filmed at the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
The first thing filmed for Killing Zoe was the strung-out heroin Dixie-Jazz nightclub scene. Although the nightclub was modeled after the Parisian hotspot The Cave, the scene was shot in a warehouse in downtown L.A. Due to Avary being a first-time director, the producers were worried about his abilities and kept a close eye on the set. The producers even had Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS director Don Edmonds on hand in case Avary needed to be replaced on the spot.
Adding to the risky nature of the nightclub scene, Killing Zoe is most notable for its inventive use of the new Otto Nemenz Swing & Tilt lenses. The lenses were used to create the distorted perspective of the bank robbers while they were high on heroin, with the soft blur effect becoming one of the movie’s unforgettable signatures. The animated music notes onscreen were hand-drawn by an old-school Looney Tunes artist.
As for the woman in the club who implores Zed to treat her like a dog, the actress is Cecilia Peck, the daughter of Oscar-winning American actor Gregory Peck. Avary admitted that when Cecilia arrived on set to film the scene, he mistook her for a drag queen.
Now, just before the crew heads off to the nightclub, Eric’s pal Jean (played by Kario Salem) urges Zed to smoke opium. Jean utters the line: “It will make you feel like the whole world is in a bubble of glass, and you’re rubbing up against it like a bad windshield wiper.” Avary translated this description verbatim from Salem after the two met to discuss the project before filming. The two got so stoned on weed that Salem became violently ill and threw up all over Roger in his house, and stated the line that made it into the movie.
Although Zed was written as the only character who doesn’t smoke cigarettes or fire a gun, Stoltz insisted he do both onscreen. The instance when Zed mercifully shoots a bank guard was done to satisfy Stoltz and allow him to fire a gun in a movie for the first time in his career. Taking full ownership of the character, Stoltz stated:
“It’s so refreshing not to play a ‘nice guy.’ In reality, I’m such an asshole, and it’s great to play a character that I finally relate to.”
Killing Zoe also marked Delpy’s first time handling a gun in a movie, which she claimed was more fun than having sex. As for the bank guard’s facial burns, the legendary horror make-up and FX artist Tom Savini achieved the effect using nothing but Vaseline, toilet paper, and paint. Savini worked on the film as a favor to Avary, and the two would collaborate again on the 1995 TV movie Mr. Stitch.
In terms of Killing Zoe’s aesthetic design, fans may have noticed the white, blue, and red color scheme that mirrors both the American and French flags. This was done deliberately, with the first portion of the film bathed in white, the second act dipped in blue, and the final act in the bank drenched in a deeper and darker red as the movie progresses. Subtle costumes and lighting cues were used to accentuate the gradual color scheme, including Zed’s flannel shirt, which alters from blue to red as the story unfolds.
Inspired by Roman Polanski’s camerawork on Repulsion, the shots inside Eric’s apartment were filmed from a fixed angle without camera movement. Speaking of Eric’s apartment, the poster for Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill was also written by Avary into the screenplay for True Romance. The late, great director Tony Scott kept Avary’s wish and had the poster mounted in Dick and Floyd’s apartment. Far from the only De Palma ode in Killing Zoe, the dual-diopter shot of Zed and Eric in the nightclub is also an homage to De Palma’s classic split-screen usage.
Meanwhile, fans may not have noticed that Zed and Zoe do not appear in the same shot together until after they make love in the hotel. This was a prime directive of Douglas Sirk, the master of melodrama, who once declared, “Only unite two characters in a frame if they should be united emotionally.”
The shot of Zed and Zoe laughing intimately together in bed was captured by Avary secretly without the actors being aware. Avary noticed how playful the two were together, picked up a camera, and began rolling without anyone realizing what was happening. Avary has called the shot one of his favorites in the film.
Another memorable shot comes when Eric sheds tears of joy upon first seeing the gold bars inside the bank vault. Those were genuine tears from Anglade, who filmed the shot on the last day of principal photography. It wasn’t that Anglade was elated to see real gold; those are bittersweet tears that came naturally after realizing that such a fun and fulfilling moviemaking experience was over.
Indeed, the main actors had a ball making Killing Zoe. In between takes, Delpy reportedly would frolic around the set completely topless. Meanwhile, Anglade amused the cast and crew by dancing around the set in pigtails. Anglade even improvised the magic trick that Eric performs onscreen, which became one of the poster’s central images. Hell, even the disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy, who gets blasted with a shotgun in the film, called his cameo in Killing Zoe his top Hollywood movie appearance.
As for the menacing masks worn by the bank robbers in the film, Avary took deliberate measures to ensure each one represented their personality. Avary had each actor work closely with Costume Designer Mary Claire Hannan to design their own masks. According to Avary, each mask is a clue about their character, saying that Stoltz immediately gravitated toward the wolf mask and Anglade to the Fantômas Superstar mask. Avary also confessed that there were two sets of masks, one kept by the actors and one hanging in his home.
Of course, Stoltz would go on to star as heroin dealer Lance in Pulp Fiction the following year. What many might not know is that Avary, who co-wrote Pulp Fiction, had to withdraw from writing the script as Killing Zoe entered production. Even so, Tarantino remained on the set of Killing Zoe and watched all the daily rushes with the cast and crew. The more Tarantino would burst into laughter during the goriest bouts of violence, the more Avary and Richmond knew they were on the right track. Not for nothing, but Pulp Fiction also features a deplorable criminal named Zed who theoretically could be infected with HIV as well.
Okay, so it’s impossible to talk about Killing Zoe without mentioning the mood-setting music by American duo Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn, better known as Tomandandy. Avary hired Tomandandy because their rock-inspired compositions reminded him of Goblin and Tangerine Dream. Killing Zoe marked Tomandandy’s first full film score, launching an impressive filmography that includes The Strangers, P2, Girl House, Sinister 2, and additional Avary movies, The Rules of Attraction, and Lucky Day.
Now, one last thing worth mentioning about Killing Zoe is the sneaky editing process Avary used to retain his unwavering vision and earn an R-rating. When submitting his preferred cut, the MPAA ratings board was outraged by the intense violence and graphic carnage onscreen and forced Avary to make severe edits. Yet, because the movie was made quickly, independently, and on a limited budget, Avary did not have a wealth of alternate angles and footage to use in place of the cuts. As a result, Avary whittled the film down as much as possible without compromising the integrity and impact. Even so, the cuts were deemed insufficient, and Avary was ejected from the editing suite.
Although Kathryn Himoff is credited as the editor, Stanley Kubrick’s editorial associate, Martin Hunter, was brought in to cut Killing Zoe. Despite getting along with him personally, Avary detested the edits Hunter made and went into a panic. As Avary tells it, he broke into the editing room one night, restored all the previous shots and sequences that Hunter had removed, and “reconformed” the film back to his original vision. Avary ensured that the frame count was much lower than the original cut, indicating to the ratings board that sufficient material had been excised. Because the reduced frame count made it appear as though the film was edited to the MPAA’s liking, Avary was able to send out his preferred version of the film to have its negative cut for the final print without the MPAA realizing what had happened. In other words, Avary bypassed the MPAA’s ratings board and got the movie he wanted to make released in theaters. Pretty badass for a film with punk-rock anarchy from start to finish.
Speaking of releases, Killing Zoe first toured the festival circuit before opening theatrically. After making its North American premiere at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Killing Zoe went on to win the Grand Prize Award at the 5th annual Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan, in which Dennis Hopper, Dario Argento, and Roger Vadim served as jury members. Killing Zoe also won the 1994 Cannes Prix Très Spécial award.
Released by October Films, Killing Zoe opened in U.S. theaters on August 19, 1994. Although the film grossed just $418,000 in global ticket sales, it performed much better on home video and eventually broke even with its estimated $1.5 million budget.
Over the last 30 years, Killing Zoe has overcome its poor critical reception and pathetic 36% Rotten Tomatoes rating to become a beloved cult classic ’90s crime movie. The film launched the filmmaking career of Roger Avary, who long planned a direct sequel to Killing Zoe called Lucky Day. In 2019, Avary made a semi-sequel called Lucky Day, although the story was changed so drastically that it bears little resemblance to the original.
So yeah, that’s essentially what the f*** happened to Killing Zoe. The film was conceived while looking for locations for Reservoir Dogs. Despite feeling like an authentic French crime caper, the film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles. Avary, drawn to the European arthouse sensibilities and hyperviolent American exploitation flicks like Coffy and Rolling Thunder, stuck to his guns and made the movie he had always envisioned, despite having a lack of time, resources, and MPAA support. Not only does the film hold up 30 years later, but it also features some of the best work that Avary, Stoltz, Delpy, and Anglade have done in their careers.
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
This will close in 0 seconds
This will close in 0 seconds
){kind=link}