Dan O'Bannon

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Dan O'Bannon (March 2008)

Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (born September 30, 1946 in St. Louis , Missouri , † December 17, 2009 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American screenwriter and director . He mainly worked on science fiction films .

Life

When Dan O'Bannon was studying at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television , he met John Carpenter , with whom he made the 45-minute short film Dark Star in 1970 . Carpenter later expanded the joint project into a feature film that was released in 1974 on a budget of only $ 60,000 . In 1975 Dark Star was awarded the Golden Scroll Award , today's Saturn Award , for the best special effects . O'Bannon wrote the script, played one of the leading roles ("Pinback") and was also involved in the film editing . O'Bannon, who grew up as a science fiction and horror film enthusiast, gave up his job as a film technician - including a brief stint on the set of George Lucas' Star Wars - to devote himself to writing screenplays again.

In 1975 he was the scriptwriter of the Moebius comic The Long Tomorrow , which is a kind of blueprint for the visual design of many SF works such as the groundbreaking film Blade Runner .

After Star Wars , O'Bannon was supposed to direct the special effects for Alejandro Jodorowsky's film adaptation of Dune , but the film project could not be realized due to a lack of funding. O'Bannon, who had invested in the project himself, was now destitute and without a permanent residence.

Together with his friend Ronald Shusett , he wrote the template for Alien - the uncanny creature from a strange world - in his apartment . In his next major commercial film, The Flying Eye ( Blue Thunder 1983) by John Badham , he expressed his displeasure that the script, which he had originally written with Don Jakoby , had been stripped of its political content through extensive changes. In 1985, together with Jakoby, he wrote the screenplay for Lifeforce, which was filmed by Tobe Hooper , and directed the zombie comedy Return of the Living Dead , which is based on George A. Romero's classic Die night of the living dead (night of the living dead) increases from the 1968th His remake of Invasion From Mars (1986), again directed by Tobe Hooper, fell far short of the quality of the original in the eyes of critics.

He had been married to his wife Diane since 1986 and had a son with her. According to his wife, O'Bannon died of complications from Crohn's disease .

Filmography (selection)

Screenwriter:

Director:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune" by Frank Pavich from 2013 tells the story of this never realized film project, last broadcast on February 15, 2019 on Arte .
  2. ↑ Biography on cbc.ca
personal data
SURNAME O'Bannon, Dan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES O'Bannon, Daniel Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter and director
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 2009
Place of death Los Angeles , California