Alien writer passes away aged 63…
Hollywood screenwriter Dan O’Bannon has died yesterday 17th December in Los Angeles after a short illness. A former USC graduate alongside director John Carpenter, the pair collaborated on Carpenter’s 1974 debut Dark Star (with O’Bannon co-writing, editing, working on the visual effects and production design, and appearing on screen) before a short stint as a computer animator on Star Wars.
O’Bannon achieved his greatest success in 1979 contributing the screenplay for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien (1979) alongside Ronald Shusett, with the pair later reteaming to adapt the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” for Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 actioner Total Recall. O’Bannon’s other writing credits include two segments of the animated feature Heavy Metal (1981), ‘video nasty’ Dead & Buried (1981), Lifeforce (1985), and another Philip K. Dick adaptation, Screamers (1995), while he also handled directorial duties on Return of the Living Dead (1985) and The Resurrected (1992).
