Biography
Academic life began to pale compared to performing professionally, so Rogers left the university to go on the road and play music. He traveled extensively with various bands until he tired of the night life and living out of a suitcase. It was then that Rogers decided to leave the music business and further pursue his interest in karate. He began fighting (kick-boxing) professionally and excelled to the point of becoming a world rated light-heavy weight. After one of his bouts, Rogers was approached by an executive from a video disc company and was asked to write, produce, and star in an educational video disc teaching basic karate and self defense. He accepted the offer and completed the project which proved to be successful for both Rogers and the company.
Rogers followed the disc with a similar program for the video
tape market. Another success. Rogers, now infatuated with the entire
process of writing, producing and being in front of the camera,
decided to accept a new challenge; writing a dramatic script for a
feature film as opposed to writing an educational script for video.
Though he had many ideas for stories, Rogers realized putting them
into the correct format on paper required more knowledge. It was then
that he started reading all that he could find on the subject of
writing scripts for feature films. He greatly enjoyed the process of writing dramatic scripts and decided to seek and live more of the "writer's life". Rogers moved to the Island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. There he managed a youth center, taught karate, and wrote.
In 1984 Rogers completed his first feature length script
entitled, "The Pivot" . He entered it in an international
script writing contest sponsored by Writer's Digest Magazine. The
results were very favorable. Out of thousands of contestants Rogers
placed in the top seventy which was designated as the Winner's
category. This further motivated and inspired him to pursue writing
scripts as a career. Rogers, however, began to miss his involvement
in karate and the "fight game", so he started promoting kick-boxing
bouts in the islands. During one of his promotions he was approached
by a health club owner and was asked to teach karate and train
fighters at his health facility. After Rogers learned more about the
health and fitness business he decided to buy into the club and
become a part owner. Rogers helped to build the Atlantis Health and
Fitness Center into one of the largest health and fitness and
professional karate training centers in the South Pacific. Word of
Rogers' success spread to Los Angeles where Maui native Mike Stone 
(former world karate champion and ex-beau of Priscilla Presley) heard
of his work. On a visit back to Maui, Stone arranged to meet with
Rogers and in their conversation learned of Rogers' aspirations and
writing abilities. Stone, who had already been involved in the making
of movies ("Enter the Ninja"/Cannon Films and "Master of Darkness"/NBC
Movie Of The Week), shared his knowledge and experience with Rogers
and urged him to move to Los Angeles to further his film career.
Rogers took Stone's advice and moved to Los Angeles where the two
collaborated on a script entitled "The Angkor Rescue" which was later
retitled, "Tigershark". Funding was put together and Stone
starred in the film with John Quade under the direction of Emmett
Alston ("9 Deaths Of The Ninja"). The movie was shot in the
Philippines and was distributed worldwide by Manson International.
With one screenwriting credit to his name, Rogers had the good fortune of meeting James R. Silke ("Sahara" with Brooke Shields, "Alan Quartermane: Lost City Of Gold" with Richard Chamberlain) and through Silke's tutelage Rogers further honed his commercial screenwriting skills. He then began to solicit his properties to various producers in Los Angeles. It was this experience that made Rogers aware of how little control he had over his projects and his future in the film industry. He knew the solution to his problem was to produce the films himself. While in a meeting with Mike Stone, Rogers met producer and production manager Bob Waters ("Fighting Mad" with Leon Isaac Kennedy, "Bat 21" with Gene Hackman). After a conversation with Rogers and learning more of his goals and ideas, Waters reinforced Rogers' belief that producing his own films was, in fact, necessary. He shared all he knew about the process of making a feature film with Rogers who in turn combined his own writing skills and all that Waters taught him about filmmaking to make a movie of his own.
Rogers wrote an action feature film script entitled, "No Way
Out" which he later changed
to "One Way Out" (a few years later Orion Pictures released "No
way Out" with Kevin Costner) due to a title dispute with 20th Century
Fox. He then put together a promotional package to raise funds to
produce the movie. In an attempt to enhance interest in that package,
Rogers approached several Hollywood "Stars" to participate in the
project. Another lesson learned. Rogers was not interested in
working with prima donna agents and/or talent.
It was not until Rogers met producer/director/actor Fred
Williamson ("M*A*S*H", "From Dusk Til' Dawn", "Original Gangstas")
that he considered starring in the film himself. As Williamson was
able to "wear many hats" simultaneously in his many film projects,
Rogers felt that he could duplicate the same feat.
Though he received strong encouragement from Williamson to move forward with the project and star in it, Williamson cautioned Rogers that such an undertaking can be a tremendous "strain on the brain". With that in mind, he hired director Paul Kyriazi ("Death Machines") to helm the picture. Rogers would produce and star in the film.
After being schooled on the basics of acting for the movie
camera by Williamson and Kyriazi, and with funding in place, Rogers
returned to his hometown of Indianapolis to shoot his first feature
film. Once there, he received great cooperation from the City and
State Governments, the Indianapolis Police and Fire Departments as
well as rallying support from family and friends. Kyriazi shot the
film for Rogers in three weeks. The picture was screened at the
Cannes International Film Festival and Market in May of 1987 and not
only did Rogers receive a positive review from Variety
Magazine, but the movie went on to receive great commercial
acclaim internationally.
Having been accepted by international audiences, Rogers followed with
another action film which he wrote, produced, and starred in entitled,
"Two Wrongs Make A Right." This Picture unfortunately brought home the fact that
everyone in "the business" is not honest, nor necessarily sincere.
Rogers found himself in a legal dispute over 
presales of the movie as well as
distribution rights for overseas territories. This delayed the
completion of "Two Wrongs Make A Right" by one whole year. Rogers
quickly learned the importance of knowing the intricacies of
distribution and doing business in the international marketplace.
After resolving the issues surrounding the legal battle, Rogers
completed the film and not only distributed it himself, but began
acquiring the rights to films from other producers throughout the
world and provided the same service to them.
Rogers, still making his own films, was approached by a Welsh production company while attending a film market, and was asked to star in a Canadian/Welsh co-production entitled, "Slow Burn" . He accepted the offer and the picture was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia. It starred Rogers, William Smith ("Hawaii Five-O", "Rich Man, Poor Man", "Red Dawn", and Anthony James ("In The Heat Of The Night", "Unforgiven"); and was directed by John Eyres ("Monolith" with Louis Gossett, Jr. and Bill Paxton, "Shadowchaser"). The movie was released internationally with commercial success.
Eyres and Rogers would meet yet again in Milan, Italy where Eyres, now acting in the capacity of executive producer, requested Rogers star with Terence Ford (Harrison Ford's brother) and Paris Jefferson ("The Strauss Dynasty") in another action film entitled, "The Runner" . Rogers accepted. The film was shot in Wales and England under the direction of British helmer Chris Jones. Once again, the movie was released worldwide and resulted in great business.
While continuing to develop and make his own films, Rogers still received offers from other producers around the world to participate in their projects. Producer/actor Ron Marchini approached him and requested he co-star with Joe Estaves (Martin Sheen's brother) and Marchini in an army action film.
Rogers was now off to the exotic jungles of Los Banos in the
Philippines to shoot "Karate Commando: Jungle
Wolf-3" . Unfortunately, while performing one of his own stunts
with pyrotechnics, Rogers broke his left arm. Though he finished the
film, Rogers started looking more closely at his status as an
"international action film star".
Upon his return from Los Banos, Rogers was summoned to the streets of Dallas, Texas by director Thomas Hartigan Fenton to co-star in a police-action film with Chris Mitchum (Robert Mitchum's son). This time no stunts were required of Rogers. He took the assignment. "Striking Point" was completed and released worldwide.
Though Rogers continued to receive offers from producers
around the world to participate in independently made action films, he
began to tire of the genre. He was looking for a new challenge. It
was then that he was contacted by German film distributors Gerhard
Huck and Jurgen Zitzman to get involved in a co-production with them.
The film would be entitled, "Caged Women II" which is a sequel to an Italian production made some years before. Rogers' job was to co-produce, write, and direct the movie. The challenge he was looking for had now presented itself. He would now be directing for the first time. Rogers enlisted the aid of Swedish businessman Kjell Larsson and shot the film, which headlined models from Penthouse and Playboy magazines as cast, in Indianapolis and Palm Coast, Florida.
Now, having momentarily made the departure from action films
and the "action film star" label, Rogers embarked on a journey that
would promote growth in his career.
He started looking at offers to participate in movies other than those in the action and/or exploitation genres. It was not long after making that decision that Rogers was invited by Canadian producer John Curtis ("Managua" with Louis Gossett Jr. and Assumpta Serna) to co-star with Jason James Richter ("Free Willy 1,2, and 3") and Mark Hamill ("Star Wars") in a family science-fiction movie. Rogers was now off to the town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec to shoot "Laserhawk" under the direction of Jean Pellerin.
Today Rogers is active acting in, producing, and distributing feature films all over the world. He also conducts seminars and workshops on the creative and business aspects of filmmaking. Participants in the international film marketplace consider Rogers and his films to be commercially viable commodities.
