His father is famous for helping to make The Hunger Games, the futuristic Hollywood blockbuster about teenagers pitted against each other in a fight to the death.
However, Elliot Rodger created his own dystopian drama on Friday when he embarked on a deadly gun rampage, killing six people — just hours after posting a video online declaring war on the comfortable Californian world in which he grew up.
A Santa Barbara County deputy sheriff looks at the black BMW driven by the shooter (AP)
The 22-year-old, who was born in London and moved to America at the age of five, was photographed two years ago on the red carpet for the premiere of The Hunger Games, accompanied by his father, Peter, an assistant director.
Now, he is America’s latest mass murderer after shooting dead half a dozen people in a rolling “drive by” massacre from his black BMW in the Californian college town Isla Vista.
The gunman committed his killing spree just hours after posting a chilling video online in which he spelt out his murderous plans for “retribution” because of rebuffs by female college students.
He also left behind a 140-page written manifesto entitled “My Twisted World” outlining his deep-rooted fury with perceived sleights by society, it emerged last night.
Lamenting that he was still a virgin at 22, he declared in the video: “I will kill every single blonde s— I see” and blamed women for throwing themselves at “obnoxious brutes” but rejecting him, the “supreme gentleman”.
The scene of the shooting near the campus of the University of Santa Barbara (AP)
The video was apparently recorded a day earlier in the same vehicle that he used for his lethal rampage in the beachside neighbourhood of Santa Barbara, next to the University of California campus.
Rodger grew up surrounded by the trappings of privilege and affluence in California after his father emigrated from Britain.
Peter Rodger is an acclaimed film-maker who moved to Hollywood in 1996 and worked on The Hunger Games franchise.
His stepmother is the actress Soumaya Akaaboune, who appeared in Green Zone in 2010 with Matt Damon and also stars in a French language version of The Real Housewives reality television series.
His late grandfather, George Rodger, was a renowned British war photographer who was the first to capture on film the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and helped found the Magnum picture agency.
But Elliot Rodger has died in notoriety rather than acclaim.
By the time he lay slumped dead in his car from a gunshot wound to the head, he had killed six and wounded 11 more after bringing terror to a student community on a warm Friday night.
Elliot Rodger, left on the red carpet for the Hunger Games, is believed to be the son of assistant director Peter Rodger
The shootings lasted for six minutes as young people milled through the streets on their way to and from restaurants, cafés and bars. Shocked witnesses described the terrifying scenes during a “slow rolling drive-by shooting”.
They told how the gunman, a student at Santa Barbara City College, drew up in his car and spoke to passers-by before picking off targets.
There were nine separate crime scenes by the time he sped off after two “Wild West-style” shoot-outs with sheriff’s deputies.
A semi-automatic handgun was found next to his body, but authorities did not initially disclose whether he was shot by sheriff’s deputies or died from a self-inflicted wound.
Bill Brown, the Santa Barbara sheriff, said: “Written and videotaped evidence” obtained by the authorities “suggests this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder”.
One of the victims was later named by friends and family as Veronica Weiss, 19, who was a keen water polo player.
Another victim was Christopher Martinez. His father, Richard, broke down in tears on Saturday night after railing at America’s lax gun laws.
“Chris died because of the craven irresponsibility of politicians and the National Rifle Association,” he said.
“They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’ right to live. When will this insanity stop?”
At least three of the victims were shot dead at a sorority house for female students at the Santa Barbara city college, witnesses said.
It was a shocking indication of how Rodger targeted women for murder in cold-blood as more videos emerged posted by Rodger online in which he expressed his bitterness about women and his failure to find a girlfriend.
It is understood that three bodies were also found at his apartment block.
Troubling questions were raised last night about whether the US authorities missed crucial warning signs about Rodger’s mental health.
A lawyer for Peter Rodger said that his son, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome as a child, had been receiving psychiatric treatment from several mental health professionals.
His parents contacted police after being alarmed by earlier YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people”, said Alan Shifman, the attorney.
