I don’t claim to be a giant fan of Dark Star, but I agree with the obituary writer, Alien simply one of the best movies ever made.
RIP, Dan.
No way.
I’m a huge fan. I think I have every movie he wrote.
This blows.
ETA: I just read the link in the OP, and the obit writer has no cred:
What a dipshit. It wasn’t a bean bag. It was a beach ball. Zero cred.
Scroll halfway down the page to see pic.
I bet Mr. Knowles is taking a beating over this on AICN.
That is too bad, I enjoyed many of his brains…er films. I expect that his undertaker will do a very brains job … er good job. I assume that trioxane will not be used during the brains … er process. Trioxane would just plain make his brains taste bad.
Thank you for posting this - I really respect the work he did.
Bummer.
I loved him as Sgt. Pinback/Bill Froog.
*Awww, I don’t wanna do that! *
Go on, eat it! Take it or leave it.
And, not one of O’Bannon’s lines, but directed to him: You are false data.
“Return Of The Living Dead” was one of my favorites. The pioneering movie depicting fast zombies.
Did anyone read the interview he gave after Alien became a hit?
The guy was psychotic - he went on and on about how he wrote Alien to get back at the girls who wouldn’t date him in High School.
Still - Dark Star was one of the all-time great B movies, and Alien, of course, a masterpiece.
R.I.P.
Agreed, fantastic flick. Completely quotable as well.
“What I want to know is, where do they find all of the skeletons with perfect teeth?”
Heavy bummer, great feel for dialog in his writing.
To this day I can get a huge laugh from mrAru by putting both hands together and tapping the nails like the claws on the beach ball alien … our first real date was watching Dark Star on video …
I do that sometimes. Nobody gets it.
And I do use the two lines I posted somewhat frequently, complete with an impression of O’Bannon’s nasal voice. I’ve linked the ‘false data’ .wav at a certain poster in the pit. I can’t look at a space suit without thinking of muffin tins and roasting pans, and I often imagine egg cartons in overhead lighting fixtures. Sometimes Benson, Arizona will pop into my head. Is there anyone reading this thread who hasn’t said, ‘Sounds good. Let’s vaporize it!’ or ‘Wanna blow it up?’? Dark Star, my first exposure to Dan O’Bannon, is chockfull of memorable moments and lines.
Only 63. Too young.
I thought he was blown away by Capone’s gang in his flower shop decades ago?
“It’s your turn to feed the alien.”
The man who took British gentleman Ridley Scott to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and changed movie history.
So long, Dan.
A broad-ranging talent. He acted in Dark Star and Return of the Livin Dead. He did special effects for the original Star Wars (The computer displays of The Rebel Moon behind the gas giant were by him), he directed Return of the Living Dead and, he claims, bits of Dark Star. And he wrote screenplays. He kept taking an idea until he got it right, and then, someimes, he kept going until he got it wrong again. Besides Aliens Loose on a Starship (Dark Star and Alien), he also did The Living Dead in the fabulously awful Dead and Buried before doing the decent Return of the Living dead, then going overboard with Lifeforce.
Interesting and talented guy, though. He managed to get his dreams transformed into film. I agree that 63 is too young.
RIP, Dan.
“Trash is taking off her clothes again!” Yeah, we could post these all day.
Linnea Quigley wore an appliance on her crotch, so she wasn’t technically naked.
‘You mean the movie lied?’
I suppose it could be called a SPOILER, so don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the film, but that argument with the bomb is one of my favorite movie scenes, ever!
R.I.P., and thanks!
When my erstwhile husband was gigging in bands, rather than soundchecking by going “Two… two… one two…” he would tap the microphone and say “Sergeant Pinback calling bomb number 19. Come in bomb.”
Loved Dark Star. Loved how it set the template for a spaceship being a grubby, claustrophobic workplace, with workmates thrown together that don’t really like each other. With an alien on the loose. Hmm… wonder what he did with that setup later?
RIP.
I recall reading somewhere that Dead and Buried was a contractual obligation screenplay that he pretty much disowned the second the second he pulled it out of his typewriter. I agree with you that it’s a wretched film but it’s an especially frustratingly wretched film. There were some interesting–and disturbing–ideas raised (perhaps inadvertently) in the movie but they were never developed and ended up being snuffed out by the film’s poor execution and heavy-handed direction.