A malevolent extraterrestrial entity explodes in a shower of viscera from the chest of an unsuspecting astronaut. A sexy nude blue-skinned ghoul emerges from a thick fog to devour some unsuspecting schmuck with her oversized maw. A 1960 Corvette parachutes to Earth from outer space, kicking up sand to the sounds of a blaring rock n' roll track. These images are disparate, bizarre, ...and iconic. And they are all the work of Dan O'Bannon, a man whose contributions to the world of genre entertainment are neither unimpressive nor few. A man who was taken from this world after having given so much to it. A man who, despite passing at the age of 63, was taken far too early, for the promise of what he could offer the world in future years was so great and so full of potential.
Dan O'Bannon was born in 1946. For more than 30 years of his life, O'Bannon suffered from a severe inflammatory bowel disease known as Crohn's Disease. Complications from Crohn's are what ultimately took his life.
At the time of his death, he had recently completed a project that had been underway for many years, his own version of The Necronomicon, the fabled book of ancient evil from H.P. Lovecraft's stories. He was also working on a number of scripts, including a new flesheater flick called "ZOMBIES: FRUIT OF THE TOMB." Just writing that title made me smile a little bit just now.
O'Bannon's contributions to the genre are so numerous, it feels a bit mind-boggling to consider that one person connects so many different, and utterly awesome, motion picture projects. In 1970, he and John Carpenter, both still in film school, collaborated on the making of the original 45-minute version of DARK STAR. This sharp sci-fi satire, which O'Bannon not only scripted but also acted in, supervised the special effects for, and helped to edit, would eventually be expanded to feature length and released to mainstream audiences in 1974. In 1975, a call from Spanish cinema alchemist Alejandro Jodorowsky got O'Bannon involved with the famed surrealist's ill-fated film adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. Following that disaster, he would go on to dig himself out of poverty by scripting the film that would eventually become his claim to fame, ALIEN. In the 1980's, Dan O'Bannon would step into the shoes of director for this first time with the punk rock zombie opus RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. Despite that film's success, he would direct only one other picture throughout the course of his career, 1992's THE RESURRECTED (an extremely good, and sadly oft-overlooked, movie version of Lovecraft's story of unholy undead, "The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward").
His other writing credits include such science fiction and horror fare as DEAD & BURIED, LIFEFORCE, Tobe Hooper's unfairly maligned INVADERS FROM MARS remake, the "Soft Landing" and "B-17" vignettes from HEAVY METAL (which, if you'll humor me with a moment to digress, I must say is one of my favorite freaking movies of all-freaking-time), SCREAMERS, and BLEEDERS. He was also one of the writers who worked on the Arnold Schwarzenegger-versus-Michael Ironside special effects headtrip TOTAL RECALL, and he himself worked in the effects department for George Lucas' mega-hit cash cow STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE.
Of all the artworks he brought into this world, however, I'm sure he would've said his son Adam, the product of his marriage to wife Diane (who he wed in 1986 and stayed married to all the way up until his recent passing on December 17, 2009), was his greatest masterpiece.
Dan O'Bannon, rest in peace. You will be missed.
Until next slime...
Stay sick!
Your pickled pal,
William Weird.
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william