[clarification needed] Between writing jobs he worked in a zipper factory in the garment district and as a story analyst for the New York office of Columbia Pictures.
[3] In 1970, Ayres served as producer of The Model Shop directed by French author Jaques Demy and starring Anouk Aimee and Gary Lockwood, but was not credited because of his position as studio executive.
[citation needed] At that time he tried unsuccessfully to secure financing for Demy's wife, Agnes Varda, to direct a script she had written, Peace and Love.
Ayres next produced for Columbia the small film, Cisco Pike in 1972, starring Kris Kristofferson, Gene Hackman, and Karen Black.
For TNT Ayres wrote 1993's Crazy in Love, starring Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, Bill Pullman and Julian Sands.
He developed another original for David Field and Stephen Bach at United Artist; a long-form HBO script for Rick Rosenberg and Robert Christiansen on the life of Dorothy Parker.