Dan O'Bannon
O'Bannon in 2008
Born
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon

(1946-09-30)September 30, 1946
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
DiedDecember 17, 2009(2009-12-17) (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, director, actor
Spouse
Diane Lindley
​
(m. 1986)​
Children1

Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres.[1]

O'Bannon wrote the screenplay for Alien, adapted from a story he wrote with Ronald Shusett. He also wrote and directed the cult horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead. He contributed computer animation to Star Wars and worked on cult classics such as Dark Star, Heavy Metal, and Total Recall.

Early life

O'Bannon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Bertha (née Lowenthal) and Thomas Sidney O'Bannon, a carpenter.[2] During his childhood he was a science fiction and horror enthusiast. He attended the art school of Washington University in St. Louis,[3] where he did stand-up comedy routines, did make-up for campus theater productions, and provided illustrations for Student Life, the student newspaper. While there he roomed with future movie producer Michael Shamberg. O'Bannon moved home briefly after Washington University and attended Florissant Valley Junior College where he wrote and directed a short science fiction satire titled "The Attack of the 50-foot Chicken." O'Bannon also attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. During this period he pursued a psychology degree,[4] but later became interested in becoming a film director. According to O'Bannon, he was reading an issue of Playboy when he found an article discussing the best film schools, which led him to the University of Southern California (USC).[4] He received a bachelor's degree in film from USC in 1970.[5] While at USC he lived near the Los Angeles Campus in an old two-story house affectionately called the "Menlo Manor" which he shared with other USC students (Don Jakoby, who collaborated on several screenplays with Dan including Blue Thunder; and Jeffrey J. Lee). As a student, O'Bannon spent many late nights in old Hollywood editing his and other student films.

Career

1970s

It was at USC that he met John Carpenter and collaborated with him on a student film, which they eventually expanded into the feature-length science fiction movie Dark Star.[6] Part of the movie was filmed at Menlo Manor. Released in 1974, it had a final budget of only US$60,000 (equivalent to $360,000 in 2022). O'Bannon served in a number of capacities, including scripting, acting in one of the leading roles ("Sergeant Pinback") and editing, for which he used a 1940s Moviola. In 1975, Dark Star won the Golden Scroll award (the Saturn Awards' original name) for Best Special Effects.

He was retained to supervise special effects for an Alejandro Jodorowsky production of Frank Herbert's Dune.[7][8] That project fell apart in 1976 and the movie was never made, reportedly because the major Hollywood studios were wary of financing the picture with Jodorowsky as director. O'Bannon's role is prominently featured in the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. The collapse of Dune left O'Bannon broke, homeless, and dependent on friends for his survival.[9] According to The Guardian, "George Lucas was impressed enough with his hand-animated, faux computer screen graphics to hire him to do similar work on Star Wars, but otherwise this was an incredibly lean period for him."[10] He eventually abandoned technical film work for scriptwriting. While living with his friend Ronald Shusett, they came up with the story for O'Bannon's career-making film Alien (1979), for which he wrote the screenplay and supervised visuals.

1980s

In 1981, O'Bannon helped create the animated feature Heavy Metal, writing two of its segments ("Soft Landing" and "B-17"). O'Bannon voiced his displeasure with his next big-budget outing, John Badham's Blue Thunder (1983), an action film about a Los Angeles helicopter surveillance team. Originally written with Don Jakoby, Blue Thunder also underwent extensive rewriting, losing some of its political content. He and Jakoby also scripted Lifeforce (1985), a movie based on Colin Wilson's novel The Space Vampires and directed by Tobe Hooper that veers from alien visitation to vampirism and an apocalyptic ending. It was not well received at the time, and was considered a box office flop. O'Bannon would again collaborate with Jakoby and Hooper for the 1986 remake Invaders from Mars. Purists considered it inferior to the 1950s original and it also performed poorly at the box office.[11] O'Bannon also worked as a consultant for C.H.U.D., helping to create the design concept for the title creatures.[12]

In 1985, O'Bannon moved into the director's chair with The Return of the Living Dead, a sequel to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.[13] Like Alien, the film met with success, spawned numerous sequels, and became a cult classic. That year, he was awarded the Inkpot Award.[14]

1990s

In 1990, O'Bannon and Shusett again teamed up as writers on Total Recall, an adaptation of the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick.[15] This was a project the two had been working on since collaborating on Alien. With a cast featuring Sharon Stone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall earned well over US$100 million.

An earlier screenplay by the duo titled Hemoglobin was also produced as the low budget feature Bleeders (1997).

O'Bannon's second directorial feature, The Resurrected (1991), was a low-budget horror effort released direct-to-video. Based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, it focused on a family's ancient rituals that awaken the dead. In 1995, O'Bannon received a co-writing credit for the sci-fi film Screamers adapted from the Philip K. Dick story "Second Variety", having written the initial version of the screenplay with Michael Campus in the early 1980s.[16]

2000s

In 2001, O'Bannon was the filmmaker-in-residence at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.[17]

O'Bannon and Shusett were credited as writers on the 2004 science fiction film Alien vs. Predator, a prequel to Alien.[18]

Posthumous

In 2013, Dan O'Bannon's Guide to Screenplay Structure was released, co-written with Matt R. Lohr.[19]

Personal life and death

He and his wife Diane had a son, Adam.[20] O'Bannon died from complications of Crohn's disease in Los Angeles on December 17, 2009.[1][21] He credited his experiences with Crohn's for inspiring the chest-bursting scene from Alien.[22]

Filmography

Title Year Director Writer Other Notes
Blood Bath 1969 Yes Yes No Short film
Foster's Release 1971 No No Yes Short film / Role: "The Killer"
Dark Star 1974 No Yes Yes Role: "Sergeant Pinback" / Editor / Special effects supervisor / Production designer
Star Wars 1977 No No Yes Computer animation and graphic displays: miniature and optical effects unit
Alien 1979 No Yes Yes Visual design consultant
Dead & Buried 1981 No Yes No Claims he didn't actually write this screenplay
Heavy Metal 1981 No Stories No Segments: "Soft Landing" and "B-17"
Blue Thunder 1983 No Yes No
Blue Thunder 1984 No Yes Yes Writer (episode: "Arms Race") / Story (episode: "The Island") / Executive story consultant (6 episodes)
The Return of the Living Dead 1985 Yes Yes Yes Role: "Helicopter Loudspeaker Officer / Bum Outside Warehouse (voice)"
Lifeforce 1985 No Yes No
Invaders from Mars 1986 No Yes No
Total Recall 1990 No Yes No
The Resurrected 1991 Yes No No
Screamers 1995 No Yes No
Bleeders 1997 No Yes No
Area 51: The Alien Interview 1997 No No Yes Documentary film / Role: "Interviewer 1989"
Delivering Milo 2001 No No Yes Role: "Clerk"
Alien vs. Predator 2004 No Story No
Total Recall 2012 No Story No Posthumous release

Also uncredited re-writer in Phobia (1980).

References

  1. 1 2 Bruce Weber (December 20, 2009). "Dan O'Bannon, 63, Who Wrote Screenplay for 'Alien,' Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2014. Dan O'Bannon, whose screenplays for "Alien," "Total Recall," "The Return of the Living Dead" and other films made him a cult hero among science fiction aficionados, died on Thursday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 63.
  2. ↑ "Dan O'Bannon Biography (1946-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  3. ↑ McClellan, Dennis. "Dan O'Bannon dies at 63; screenwriter of 'Alien'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Newton, Steve (May 1992). "Dan O'Bannon: A Career Resurrected". Fangoria (112): 36–39, 68 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ "Los Angeles Times op cit".
  6. ↑ "Los Angeles Times op cit".
  7. ↑ "Los Angeles Times op cit".
  8. ↑ O'Neill, Phelim. "Remembering the Late, Great Dan O'Bannon". The Guardian. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  9. ↑ Miska, Brad (December 18, 2009). "R.I.P. Dan O'Bannon". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  10. ↑ "The Guardian op cit".
  11. ↑ "Invaders from Mars". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Financing". chudfacts.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011.
  13. ↑ "The Return of the Living Dead". American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  14. ↑ Inkpot Award
  15. ↑ "Total Recall". American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Rest in Peace: Dan O'Bannon". Dread Central. Archived from the original on December 19, 2009.
  17. ↑ Script Magazine (February 13, 2013). "Screenwriting the Dan O'Bannon Way". Script Magazine. F+W. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Alien vs. Predator". American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  19. ↑ Hurwiztz, Mathew (December 1, 2012). "Dan O'Bannon's Guide to Screenplay Structure by Dan O'Bannon & Matt R. Lohr". Cinemachine. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  20. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (December 18, 2009). "'Alien' writer O'Bannon dies, aged 63". Digital Spy. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  21. ↑ Williams, Owen (December 18, 2009). "Dan O'Bannon 1946–2009". Empire. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  22. ↑ Levi, Lawrence (July 5, 2011). "The Horror! The Horror! Fright Flicks Finally Get Their Due". The New York Observer. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
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