Goodbye, Dan

Dan O'Bannon is dead.

Most people probably have no idea who Dan O'Bannon is/was. He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and saw "Return of the Living Dead" for the first time.

It's difficult to describe how profoundly that film affected me. Funny, sexy, scary, with one of the coolest soundtracks my pubescent mind had ever heard. One of my very favorite movies of all time, right behind "Phantom of the Paradise".

O'Bannon collaborated with a young John Carpenter to make the absurdly entertaining "Dark Star" back in 1974.

Then he worked as a special FX artist on the original "Star Wars" film before co-writing one of the greatest science fiction films ever: Ridley Scott's "Alien".

He worked on "Heavy Metal" and "Dead & Buried" (another classic) before making his masterpiece in 1985: "Return of the Living Dead" (!!!).

His work tapered off after that, contributing to the screenplays for Tobe Hooper's "Lifeforce" and his "Invaders From Mars" remake, as well as co-writing the script for what became Paul Verhoven's gleefully violent "Total Recall".

After that, O'Bannon kind of faded away. I noticed his screenwriter credit on the Peter Weller sci-fi flick "Screamers" back in 1995.

His name surfaced once again on the direct-to-video "Bleeders" in 1997, starring my favorite hitchhiker, Rutger Hauer.

I remember liking the movie well enough, but the video cassette box always stood out in my mind, because the front of the box was covered in a clear plastic card filled with fake blood. It was a novelty thing, for sure, but it was the first time I ever saw anything like that.

After that... nothing.

I hear a few of his unfilmed screenplays are currently in development, but who knows what will come out of that.

It seems to me that O'Bannon never got his due in Hollywood, despite having his hand in one of the biggest franchises of the last 30 years.

Now he's gone. I'll miss the man.

And I'll watch "Return of the Living Dead" again in his honor, tonight.

As if I needed an excuse to watch it...