So Long, and Thanks for All the Braaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinsssssssss

Sad news for genre fans: Dan O’Bannon died yesterday. I had the pleasure of interviewing the writer/director for a 2007 Rue Morgue cover story on his 1985 zombie comedy The Return of the Living Dead – one of my all-time favourite horror films. He had fought Crohn’s disease for three decades, and you could hear the weariness in his voice, but despite that, I found him to be very friendly, passionate when talking about his work and unafraid to throw stones. He was what you’d call “a character.”

O’Bannon was still working on scripts (there are a couple upcoming projects listed on the IMDb and Wikipedia), so I hope we get to see more of his stuff hit the screen yet. The one thing that he emphasized that really stuck with me was how important he felt it was, above all else, to be original when writing stories.

The filmmaker was responsible for a lot more than just The Return of the Living Dead, though. I’ve compiled a list of ten reasons we’ll miss Dan O’Bannon.

1. Helped launch John Carpenter’s career.

When he was attending the USC School of Cinema-Television in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, O’Bannon met John Carpenter and the two of them collaborated on the sci-fi horror comedy Dark Star, which Carpenter later expanded into his first feature. O’Bannon served as co-writer, editor, production designer, FX supervisor and co-starred as Sgt. Pinback. The film became Carpenter’s calling card when he was trying to break into the film biz.

2. Worked on Star Wars.

Before he decided to abandon the tech side of filmmaking for the more creative side, O’Bannon did some computer animation work on Star Wars. I hate to think what would’ve happened if he’d loved the work and pursued a career making space ship models move around instead of writing, and sometimes directing, cool stories.

3. Almost made an awesome version of Dune with Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The budding filmmaker traveled to Spain to work with mad surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) on an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. After spending months and months working on the project, funding fell through. Of course, David Lynch would later make it, but it’s considered one of his lesser films. The combination of O’Bannon and Jodorowsky’s talents could’ve made for one insane and original sci-fi film. Regardless, O’Bannon told me that the time he spent with Jodorowsky had a profound impact on him.

4. Wrote Alien, launching Ridley Scott’s career.

After the Dune debacle O’Bannon returned to the U.S., where he was broke and couch surfing. Instead of giving up on the film business, he was motivated to write Alien (original title: Star Beast), one of the greatest sci-fi films ev-er. In interviews he discussed his fascination with taking a cue from nature and making the aliens parasites that use other species as food and incubators. It made Ridley Scott an A-list director, creature designer H.R. Giger an art superstar and everyone else scared of face-huggers.

5. He was a cyberpunk pioneer.

In the mid-‘70s, O’Bannon also wrote comic stories that appeared in Heavy Metal magazine, including “The Long Tomorrow,” which is considered an early “true” cyberpunk tale. According to Wikipedia, it was used as reference material by Ridley Scott when he was making Blade Runner.

6. Penned one of the greatest H.P. Lovecraft-inspired films.

O’Bannon co-wrote the 1981 film Dead & Buried, directed by Gary Sherman, about a creepy seaside Rhode Island town where inhabitants are killed but return – leading to the discovery of a cult-like conspiracy surrounding an undertaker. Celebrated by horror geeks for its atmosphere of dread, bizarre twists and – surprise – an original plot, it’s an unsung classic.

7. Gave us brain-eating zombies.

Whenever someone imitates a zombie by saying “braaaaaains,” he’s referring to The Return of the Living Dead. For his comedic punk-rock riff on the Romero zombie archetype, O’Bannon (who also directed) felt it was vital to bring something new to the ghouls, so he gave them the ability to speak (“Send more paramedics…”), allowed any part of their bodies to keep on (un)living regardless of whether or not the head was removed, and he made them crave brains (as the zombie torso explains, it eases “the pain of being dead”). Plus, he created the coolest zombie ever in the form of the mucky, frightening Tarman.

8. Wrote the weirdest vampire movie ever.

That year (1985) also saw the release of Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce, which O’Bannon wrote, based on a Philip K. Dick story. You’ve never seen anything like this wacked-out genre mash-up, which ties together Haley’s Comet, alien vampires (they suck your life force!) in suspended animation, telepathy, a zombie-like plague that ravages London and a lot of animated laser effects. Silly but totally fun. Although it was a flop at the time, it’s got a considerable following among horror fans who are fascinated by it’s utter weirdness. Proof here.

9. Helped put a governor on Mars… in drag.

I’m referring to the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring, Paul Verhoeven-directed, 1990 film Total Recall (also based on a Philip K. Dick story), which has the famous “two weeks” sequence. O’Bannon had a hand in the script, in which the future governator’s hi-tech female disguise fails in the most awesome way possible.

10. He was not afraid to speak his mind.

Often, when you’re interviewing someone in the film biz, they’re very diplomatic when discussing troubled projects, as not to burn any bridges. But O’Bannon was very candid about his work, whether he was talking about his disdain for Tobe Hooper directing Lifeforce, his anger with anyone who monkied with his scripts or (as he told me) his frustration at not being able to do all the gore gags he wanted to pull off in The Return of the Living Dead. Although he sometimes came off as a negative, when I interviewed him, he also had a lot of praise for artists he loved working with, calling Jodorowsky one of the most influential people on his life. One suspects that O’Bannon’s uncompromising nature didn’t help his career in terms of working well with others, but the more he fought to protect his vision, the better the results probably were in the end, with The Return of the Living Dead, being the best example.

So long, Dan, and thanks for all the braaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinsssssssss.

[photo: Dan O'Bannon in 2008, used under Creative Commons license, courtesy JaSunni]

-Dave Alexander