When one stops to think about just how many now-classic projects the man was involved in, often simultaneously serving in wildly different capacities, it's downright amazing.

The early 70's, while at USC, O'Bannon, along with fellow film student John Carpenter, shepherds DARK STAR into being. Carpenter directs, and O'Bannon serves as screenwriter, editor, and one of the lead actors. In hindsite, DARK STAR was a small miracle, in that funding was secured to expand the short into a feature, and that it actually saw a theatrical release. Albeit a small one, but it was a harbinger for things to come. Birthing two major film careers, DARK STAR was also a fine example of Mr. O'Bannon's ability to (and this is putting it lightly) multi-task.
 
The mid-70's, O'Bannon ends up working as one of the early computer animators, and helps put together the how-to-attack-the-Deathstar animation sequence at the end of STAR WARS. Then, comes a flirtation with what could have been Movie History, and I capitalize that term on purpose. O'Bannon was to be special FX advisor on Alejandro Jodorowsky's screen adaption of DUNE. French fantasy artist extraordinaire Moebius was involved in the design work. Space rock pioneers Pink Floyd were involved in the soundtrack. Holy Spice! Just to ponder what that film could have been boggles this film geeks mind. But, alas, the dream falls apart, having been too good to be true. O'Bannon ends up surfing couches, while he and Ronald Shusett write the original draft of what will become the mega-classic ALIEN.
 
*Pause for dramatic effect. I mean c'mon, it's ALIEN!*

ALIEN.

It's now the 80's, ALIEN is a massive success, and O'Bannon and Shusett are on a creative hot streak. The script for DEAD AND BURIED springs forth from their collective minds and fingers. Now, as history has it, DEAD AND BURIED has played out to be one of the most original and hard-to-define horror films ever made. Eldritch, yet familiar, like H.P. Lovecraft chaneling Shirley Jackson reading Jack London. A beautifully crafted offering to a genre too often dumbed down for the lowest common denominator. Or what Hollywood, in their infinite wisdom, perceives to be the lowest common denominator. Sadly, DEAD AND BURIED kind of came and went.
By this time, slashers were hacking their way through teenagers on multiplex screens and into the hearts of the new breed of horror fans, mainly teen-aged boys with a FANGORIA under one arm and an IRON MAIDEN album under the other. A little  gothic seaside tale of slow burning horror was a bit quaint for the current audience. Thanks to videotape. and now dvd, DEAD AND BURIED has now found it's deserved place in the pantheon of horror. And pretty close to the top shelf at that.

This is a good place to also add, that nowadays most "high concept" screenwriters with a blockbuster like ALIEN in their ouvre', would of course now be hitting their afterburners and going after those franchise titles that spell uber dollars. O'Bannon and Shussett? They go from an insanely huge hit, where they could have gone on writing sequels or knock-offs, raking in easy money, and opt instead to produce a quiet horror tale, DEAD AND BURIED, about a foreboding fishing village called Potter's Bluff, and it's strange inhabitants. DEAD AND BURIED is one of horror cinemas lullabies.

You've gotta love it.
 
Then, switching gears yet again, O'Bannon reconnects with his friend Jean Giraud, aka Moebius. Having bonded together during the aborted DUNE project, they collaborate to create the graphic story THE LONG TOMORROW, a dystopian futuristic fantasy, which in turn becomes the major visual influence on the film BLADE RUNNER. O'Bannon also writes both the trippy SOFT LANDING opening, and the nightmarish B-17 segment for the film adaption of HEAVY METAL.

Damn, I always looooved the B-17 segment of HEAVY METAL, with the WWII era scenario, bombers falling out of the sky, a lone pilot parachutes to safety, landing on a small island, only to then find the other crashed aircraft, and the fact that their pilots are shambling zombies. Awesome stuff.

But I digress.
 
O'Bannon returns fulltime to screenwriting, and goes on to pen the police thriller BLUE THUNDER, which in turn becomes a box-office hit. Then come two screenplays co-written with Don Jakoby, for director Tobe Hooper. The duo adapt an old Colin Wilson sci-fi/horror story about space vampires, as LIFEFORCE. They also reimagine the 50's B-movie classic, INVADERS FROM MARS. Both films go on to only do so-so at the box office. LIFEFORCE was a bit too Quatermass and not enough Dracula for horror fans, and INVADERS FROM MARS was just a mess all the way around. Choppy editing and stilted performances, the movie is just "off".

Gladly, and more importantly, during this period O'Bannon also makes his directorial debut. Having maybe his greatest artistic impact, next to ALIEN, he helms the zombie comedy RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. Zombie comedy, or the nausea inducing tag Zomcom, are almost common terms and sub-genres now, but back then it was one hell of a bold move.  A blend of horror, broad comedy, and rock and roll, O'Bannon impacts the genre, both sending up, and unofficially sequelizing, Romero's classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Scripted by Romero's old NOTLD writing partner, John Russo, O'Bannon brings the comedic element to RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD with his contributions and changes, basically spinning what is a normal zombies-run-amok script by Russo into the mondo, free for all, gonzo, freak-out of a flick we all now know and love. No pun intended, but those zombies in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD broke some seriously hallowed ground, and opened the genre up to new opportunities, showing some fans that screams and laughs don't have to be exclusive of each other. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD also had a cool, almost 50's Cormanesque sensibility to boot. Movies don't get much more fun than this one.

The mid to late 80's roll around, and O'Bannon reunites with his ALIEN writing partner, Ronald Shusett, to adapt Philip K. Dick's WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, as TOTAL RECALL, which became a megahit, earning more than 100 million dollars at the box office. Here is where the brakes come on though, and things kind of all skid to a halt. Unfortunately, barring a couple of last forays into low budget films, with an old script that becomes the forgettable direct to video releases BLEEDERS, another Phillip K. Dick adaption SCREAMERS, and O'Bannon directing once more, with THE RESSURECTED, based on an H.P. Lovecraft tale, the story basically ends here.

Always a little passed-by in Hollywood, O'Bannon seemed to be one of those guys that helped make a ton of carreers, but never quite got ahold of the golden ring himself, at least for long. His legacy is a strange one, with all the wildly diffirent creative roles he occupied, it almost gives his body of work a schizophrenic quailty.

What was Dan O'Bannon?

Actor? Producer? Special effects engineer? Screen writer? Comics writer? Director?

Dan O'Bannon was all of these things.

Connecting the dots, it's clear the film world has lost an autuer, a cinematic jack of all trades, and one of the most important contributors to the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre ever.

Now, after years of battling, Crohn's disease has finally claimed Dan O'Bannon's life, and on December 17, 2009, he passed away.

But Dan, if you can hear me...

This kid, who writes this now, who saw DARK STAR on a bizarre double bill with the last re-release of THE 7'TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD sometime around 76'-'77, at The Senator Theater in Chico, CA...
This kid, whose Mom took him to see ALIEN on opening day at the California Theater, in Berkeley, CA...
This kid, who saw HEAVY METAL a dozen times at the Shattuck Cinemas, in Berkeley, CA,...
This kid who had one of his first dates going to see TOTAL RECALL at the Shattuck Cinemas, in Berkeley, CA...
This kid who snuck in the side door of the Parkway Theaters in Oakland, to see RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD...

THIS KID THANKS YOU!

For all the wonderful, and luminous times.

You will be missed.

Never forgotten.

Dan O'Bannon -
September 30, 1946 - December 17, 2009