As his friend and collaborator Neil Gaiman puts it, Roger Avary's seemingly authentic tweets portray 'jail in 140 characters'.

I've been hooked, to the point where anything I could possibly tweet pales in comparison. Suddenly, my latest favourite film or newest discovery seems inane when you read about how Avary and his fellow inmates scramble for 'meds': 'Ambien, Xanax, Mobic, Valium, Benzodiazepene, etc. '

Avary is currently serving a year-long sentence for DUI. After successfully collaborating with Quentin Tarentino on such projects as Pulp Fiction, he has been working with Gaiman to bring the cult Sandman to the screen.

If it doesn't kill him, jail could be the making of Roger Avary. His pain could be the foundation for even more prize-winning projects, and his next film could make The Shawshank Redemption look like Disney.

Maybe more screenwriters should skip Robert McKee's classes (good though they are) and go straight to jail. They'll collect a whole lot more than $200.