Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, Dead At 63 139
Dave Knott writes "The notable science fiction screenwriter and director Dan O'Bannon has died at the age of 63. O'Bannon's career began with a writing credit for John Carpenter's Dark Star and he went on the write many enduring science fiction and horror films such as Blue Thunder, Lifeforce, Screamers and Total Recall. He was also an occasional director, whose credits include The Return Of The Living Dead, the campy horror film that made popular the zombie chant of 'braaiiiinnnsss.' However, he will be best remembered as the writer of Alien, one of the all-time classics of both the science fiction and horror genres. O'Bannon died after a 30 year battle with Crohn's disease and is survived by his wife, Diane, and son, Adam."
Will be watching Dark Star again (Score:5, Interesting)
I shall watch Dark Star again today, one of my favourite films, in his memory.
Re:Unfortunate (Score:3, Interesting)
Avatar? Pass, that movie looks like a bad video game. Cameron's Aliens and the original terminator and the only films of his I've willingly sat through twice.
I thought Dan O'Bannons PKD adaptations were okay, Total Recall made for entertaining mainstream fare and Screamers I enjoyed (although it's far from being a good film). Alien is an example of what a good script can become when it's given over to someone with talent. It wasn't until the studio saw some of Ridley Scotts pre-production art that they realised what they had. Most hack directors would have seen a bug-eyed monster B movie, Scott saw something else entirely.
The time was right for Alien, by way of the never-made '70s Dune movie that a few of the team, O'Bannon and Geiger included, had worked on. Not to discount the 'Star Beast' script but what you see on screen was a group effort. I don't want to give the impression I'm pissing on the guys grave, the studio execs and writers reponsible for Alien3 and onwards have been pissing in that hole for a very long time.
Alien was a small part of what O'Bannon was responsible for. [denofgeek.com]
not "just" a screenwriter (Score:4, Interesting)
If anyone out there is interested in writing for the screen, find a copy of Alien and study it. It's a minimalist masterpiece, only the absolutely necessary words are there to describe scenes. That sounds simple and obvious, but it's really very rare indeed. Most screenwriters tend to add too much description and direction.
Re:My heart goes out to him... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm also on Remicade (infliximab), at a much higher than standard dosage (700 mg / 6 weeks). It has made a huge difference in my life: prior to starting it, I spent six months in bed with a near constant fever of 102-104F, weight loss of 60 lbs, night sweats, severe malnutrition, 20-30 bowel movements per day, vomiting, etc. About ten minutes after my first administration, for the first time in six months, I didn't have a fever.
Unfortunately, though, my Crohn's is very aggressive, and Remicade just isn't enough: colonoscopies demonstrate significant areas of active disease throughout my intestines. I'm still substantially ill and my quality of life, while much better, is still extremely low compared to a normal person. Part of the issue is that I have extreme thickening of 60 cm of small intestine just above the terminal ileum, and 30 cm of large intestine in the descending / sigmoid colon, so I get a lot of intestinal blockages (usually one partial blockage per day, sometimes more). Because of this, food is quite terrifying for me, and there are few foods I can eat that don't seem to affect me (right now my diet is limited to four foods that seem to be completely safe). This sucks, because I'm actually a huge foodie and absolutely adore food: it's my main passion in life and has been for many years. Indeed, at one point, I nearly left my PhD CS program to pursue culinary school. Thank goodness I didn't, as someone with a bowel disease like Crohn's would have many challenges in such a career.
Right now I'm receiving monthly blood transfusions to try to increase my hemoglobin levels and general nutrition, and waiting for surgery. Unfortunately, the wait time for my surgeon is 6-9 months (*sigh*... Canadian health care system is just too slow). My blockages have been getting progressively worse, so I'm not sure that I will be able to make it that long.
Thank goodness I was able to find a family doctor willing to prescribe pain medication. I would most certainly have killed myself by now had it not been for that. This seems to be a huge problem, though, for Crohn's sufferers: many people simply can't find doctors willing to help them manage their pain. When I moved a year ago, one of the GPs I visited in my attempts to find a new doctor, upon hearing my list of medications (which is extensive: I also take Cipro, Pentasa, Oxycontin, and Percocet for my Crohn's in addition to other medications for other health problems), basically spent 15 minutes telling me off and accusing me of being a junky who was trying to use him to feed my addiction. I was too sick at the time to argue or fight back, but I left in tears (and I'm not known to have a propensity for crying), and it was a terrible experience and made me feel absolutely horrible.
The demonization of opioids and the stigmas attached to them make it extremely difficult for one to seek adequate pain management. This is even more troubling because when one is in pain, it is already difficult to muster up the strength to perform basic daily tasks, let alone go through the process of interviewing doctors and advocating for yourself to find someone who will treat you properly. It seems that O'Bannon was well acquainted with this, based on the fact that, according to the article, he was working on a screenplay called "The Pain Clinic".
I'm so glad to hear that Remicade is working well for you, and I hope that that continues! Best of luck!
Re:My heart goes out to him... (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually that's not the "right" way to do it. There is too much of a chance that it won't kill you. Also, consider the poor people that have to clean up after you and consider the aftermath your family would have to be looking at.
There are painless, humane and 100% guaranteed ways to do it. I won't post the best method but there is a description on Wikipedia and I'm sure a simple search for assisted suicide will provide enough information.
Not that I in any way recommend this person kill themselves. Often it can be worth the suffering just for the benefit of your family and sometimes they have medical breakthroughs regarding whatever you are suffering from. With that said, I can see where suicide may be a viable option when all you experience is constant pain.
Re:My heart goes out to him... (Score:1, Interesting)
Great post and you're right that people should not kill themselves but I have to say that it sounds like you have never experienced real chronic pain.
It's real easy to say "get over it" when you have never experienced it at its worst (whether it be depression, anxiety, any other chronic pain, etc). I used to think I was open minded but it wasn't until I truly experienced something like this that I realized why people sometimes feel the way they do and make the choices they do.
Re:My heart goes out to him... (Score:3, Interesting)
Purposely infecting oneself with parasitic worms (helminths) and reaping the benefits of their immunosuppression. The results look promising.
Re:My heart goes out to him... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry, but that ‘don’t kill yourself” usually comes from people who can’t imagine a situation, where killing yourself actually is the best option. :)
Yes, this is very hard to swallow for everyone of us. Because these situations are very rare. And that’s why we say “don’t kill yourself” in the first place, and why it’s a good idea to use that mindset in general.
But, man. There are things that are so horrible, that forcing someone who is in that situation, to live anyway, is just being a heartless selfish bastard, and also is torture.
(Please don’t think I’d say that you are like that. I think not “walking past” by closing the window, is a wonderful character trait.)
As someone who already was in situations worse than dead (Not your emo “worse than dead”. Horrible nightmarish seemingly never ending “worse than dead”), I can tell you that the only reason I still exist, is that I KNEW... NOT guessed... KNEW, that this would end some day.
If it would be without end, then from a rational standpoint of a healthy thinking human, I would be dead already. And I would be happy with it. I don’t see death as something bad. In many cultures it is celebrated as something good. And we’re just bio-mass with ideas anyway. If we pass those on to *anyone*, then we *literally* continue to exist. Only a part went away. And that’s not bad at all, is it?
But no, please do not misunderstand this as me advocating death (I know you did ;). As I said, in general, I fully agree with you and the “don’t kill yourself’.
I just learned, that there are (rare) situations, where that would be delusional, irrational, cruel, and all around bad. Therefore I can’t be that generalizing in my views anymore. :) :)
Hey, I seriously wish that you will never know such situations for yourself.
And I wish that if you face such a situation, that you aren’t irrationally cruel too.
I had Christmas dinner at his house once (Score:4, Interesting)
A good friend did a Christmas dinner with O'Bannon and his wife. They invited a few friends to join them. James Karen from Return of the Living Dead was there. Sadly my friend died a year or two later from a drunk driver so I never saw O'Bannon again. He was quiet and kept to himself. He seemed to like having the people around but he kept disappearing into the kitchen while everyone else sat around and talked. I still remember a story my friend told me back in the late 70s. He said Dan was around when they put the actor in the Alien suit the first time. Geiger hadn't built a rubber suit before and Dan said he bet it would rip in three steps. He later admitted he was wrong, it ripped in two steps. My friend used to tell me about the lawsuit Dan had with 20th over alien. They were claiming Alien lost money. He finally won and received a settlement but it was better than ten years later. I think he largely retired after that. Probably due to health. I tried back in the 80s to get Vestron, long dead company, to produce his script "They Bite". A fun little script and a favorite among animators. Ask any old time animation fan about the Collie Beetles. I got Vestron in touch with O'Bannon but I think they had a string of flops by then and they weren't willing to risk the money on a big stop motion film. The script never did get produced although I take it he retitled it "Omnivore" years ago. I'm not sure how many unproduced scripts he had but that one dated to the late 70s.
I just realized another O'Bannon story. I can actually tell this one now. Anyone hear of Dead and Buried? O'Bannon's name was on it with Ron Shussett for screenplay. Well the first time O'Bannon heard about it was when he opened a newspaper and saw the ad for the film with his name on it. He calls up Ron saying, Ron what's up with this Dead and Buried film? Ron says I'll give you 20 grand, I can't remember the actual amount, if you don't say anything. Dan just says "Okay" and that was the last they said of it. Ron had been adding Dan's name to scripts to give them more weight but it was the first one he sold. Both my friend and Dan are gone now so it's safe to tell. Just a little Hollywood backstory.
Re:Alien Influence (Score:2, Interesting)
It works the other way, too. Alien shows clear signs of influence by the Ixtl sequence in A.E. Van Vogt's classic "Voyage of the Space Beagle." A book that also presaged Star Trek -- being an episodic novel about a crew of humans on board an exploratory vessel, travelling out into the stars for the first time and facing strange alien worlds and civilizations.
It also has the two greatest Bug-Eyed-Monsters in SF history, the aforementioned Ixtl, and the panther-like Coeurl.
Highly recommended. Van Vogt was one of the best SF writers of his era, at least until he got involved with Scientology in the 60's, when his writing turned to utter crap thanks to e-brainwashing.
- mantar
Re:Unfortunate (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm guessing in 20 years, they'll still be teaching Alien in film school while Avatar will only be a footnote.
I've been wrong before. But Alien is such an innovative, creative, masterpiece... it's hard to imagine otherwise. And other than the DOS-looking computer screens, the movie hasn't aged in twenty years.