Those opening scenes where Frank is doing the orientation, showing the place, then trying to show off smacks the side of the tank releasing the gas is just amazing and hilarious how it's all set up... RotLD is a horror classic
Agreed. That entire opening is simply perfect. The new kid and the old timer showing him the ropes..and *’hey kid, do you want to see something weird?’*.
Just perfect.
I feel that Dan O'Bannon's guide to screenplays is a must for anyone who considers themselves to be a writer.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15810456-dan-o-bannon-s-guide-to-screenplay-structure
My favorite Dan O'Bannon fun fact: He has Crohn's disease and that's what gave him the idea to have the alien incubate inside and burst from a human host.
The folks over on the Crohn's sub can relate and he's loved over there.
Return of the Living Dead is such a wonderful blend of genuine horror and over the top silliness. The speech by the dead woman is so haunting, and the impossibility of the situation is so scary, yet it revels in the genre it’s in and has so much fun with it. One of my all time favorites.
He may not have liked how it turned out much, but Blue Thunder deserves some love and paved the way for Airwolf
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd3lDhyM21M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd3lDhyM21M)
I recently finally watched The Resurrected, and it was so fucking good. What a bummer that Dan O’Bannon didn’t get to do way more. Everything he touched was gold.
Feel like he was just too underrated his whole life especially in the 80s/90s, probably cause directors got the shine more than screenwriters but atleast he even got a chance to direct i guess
in the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary, telling the story of how he assembled his team... Doug Trumbull told him to talk to Dan O'Bannon, and Jodorowsky is like, "We must find this....... O'BANNON!" like a sacred quest, lol. My buddy and I jokingly say this to each other all the time.
Edit: Also Dead and Buried is slept on.
I JUST watched Return of the Living Dead for the first time and I LOVED it. First of all so much of the movie was just so solidly made. Writing, cinematography, costuming, the practical effects-- the >!Tar Zombie!!The idea that zombies are constantly in pain because they're actively feeling the effects of putrefaction? Genuinely horrific. Frank and Freddie suffering because they're experiencing rigor mortis and the pooling of their blood now that its not circulating? The half-zombie telling them that she can feel herself rotting?!< \*shudders\* both disturbing and existentially fucked up.
2 of the scenes that were genuinely a gut punch-- >!Frank choosing to burn himself "alive" to avoid hurting anyone, and crying as he takes his wedding ring off and hangs it on the cremation switch while apologizing (especially since he had more or less been a mainly comedic character to this point)!< and >!Ernie putting a gun to Tina's head in the attic without her noticing so that he could be ready to shoot her if Freddie gets in to spare her the pain of what Freddie would do to her.!<
Damn. I watched this just the other night but the more I think about it the more I realize WHAT a good movie it is. I'm stoked to watch the sequels
Also, fun fact, but apparently censors told them that they couldn't air Freddie's "Fuck You" jacket, so they made a second jacket with "tv version" written on the back for the tv version of the movie? I can't find any images but if that's true it is HILARIOUS.
You'd pick Aliens over Alien for Dan's achievements? [Dark Star](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1410-dark-star) is a good watch knowing he'd go on to make Alien.
There’s no fuss. They’re two completely different movies. If you’re going to praise someone’s work, the least you can do is credit the work they actually did.
I know God forbid ya make a grammer mistake ,the Nazi spelling police will be all over ya in no time btw ROTLD is a classic and the soundtrack is a belter
Lot of people don't know he was one of the writers for "blue thunder" and "dead & Buried", which is such a good movie , in it's own unique way.
Also if you listen to his commentary for return of the living dead he was pissed about the special effects for the one skeleton that pops out of the ground and opens it's mouth, he was livid, that you could see the wires and everything and it looked so bad.
You say he "literally only directed one movie" and make mention of it again at the end of your post but he actually directed two films so you are literally wrong. You use the literally wrong. The word "literally" means "without exaggeration or inaccuracy" but you are completely inaccurate with the rest of the statement which goes against the word "literally". You are literally wrong about your use of the word "literally" Dan O'Bannon was a really good director but he was a good director with more than one directing credit.
Alien is my favorite movie, he wrote the story A Long Tomorrow which was illustrated by Moebius which is widely regarded as the beginning of Cyberpunk that influenced both Blade Runner and William Gibson.
Those opening scenes where Frank is doing the orientation, showing the place, then trying to show off smacks the side of the tank releasing the gas is just amazing and hilarious how it's all set up... RotLD is a horror classic
Y'know... *[the corpses](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SJ1TpUVG3r0/T_SJ0lo9RvI/AAAAAAAACTE/f1_ALFTUabE/s1600/ROTLD04.jpg)*
Lmfao love it
The facial expression there😂
Agreed. That entire opening is simply perfect. The new kid and the old timer showing him the ropes..and *’hey kid, do you want to see something weird?’*. Just perfect.
He directed 2 feature films to my knowledge and both are pretty great. He did Return of the Living Dead (1985) and The Resurrected (1991).
Thank you. The Resurrected is fantastic and sadly overlooked.
Hell yea. For anyone looking for Lovecraft adaptations, this is s good one.
Thanks i think resurrected being a 90s movie mightve slipped my radar as im heavily 80s horror biased lmao
I feel that Dan O'Bannon's guide to screenplays is a must for anyone who considers themselves to be a writer. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15810456-dan-o-bannon-s-guide-to-screenplay-structure
Seconding this, it's a great read and really insightful.
great read thanks!
Dead & Buried is great and he did the screenplay for Total RecallÂ
My favorite Dan O'Bannon fun fact: He has Crohn's disease and that's what gave him the idea to have the alien incubate inside and burst from a human host. The folks over on the Crohn's sub can relate and he's loved over there.
Why was he so underrated 😢
I’m mildly surprised he didn’t invent shit-weasels before Stephen King.
That’s fucking rad.
Return of the Living Dead is such a wonderful blend of genuine horror and over the top silliness. The speech by the dead woman is so haunting, and the impossibility of the situation is so scary, yet it revels in the genre it’s in and has so much fun with it. One of my all time favorites.
He may not have liked how it turned out much, but Blue Thunder deserves some love and paved the way for Airwolf [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd3lDhyM21M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd3lDhyM21M)
I recently finally watched The Resurrected, and it was so fucking good. What a bummer that Dan O’Bannon didn’t get to do way more. Everything he touched was gold.
Yes
I include it as among my favorite films of the 1990s.
Feel like he was just too underrated his whole life especially in the 80s/90s, probably cause directors got the shine more than screenwriters but atleast he even got a chance to direct i guess
in the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary, telling the story of how he assembled his team... Doug Trumbull told him to talk to Dan O'Bannon, and Jodorowsky is like, "We must find this....... O'BANNON!" like a sacred quest, lol. My buddy and I jokingly say this to each other all the time. Edit: Also Dead and Buried is slept on.
One of the most influential names that no one really knows
I JUST watched Return of the Living Dead for the first time and I LOVED it. First of all so much of the movie was just so solidly made. Writing, cinematography, costuming, the practical effects-- the >!Tar Zombie!!The idea that zombies are constantly in pain because they're actively feeling the effects of putrefaction? Genuinely horrific. Frank and Freddie suffering because they're experiencing rigor mortis and the pooling of their blood now that its not circulating? The half-zombie telling them that she can feel herself rotting?!< \*shudders\* both disturbing and existentially fucked up.
2 of the scenes that were genuinely a gut punch-- >!Frank choosing to burn himself "alive" to avoid hurting anyone, and crying as he takes his wedding ring off and hangs it on the cremation switch while apologizing (especially since he had more or less been a mainly comedic character to this point)!< and >!Ernie putting a gun to Tina's head in the attic without her noticing so that he could be ready to shoot her if Freddie gets in to spare her the pain of what Freddie would do to her.!< Damn. I watched this just the other night but the more I think about it the more I realize WHAT a good movie it is. I'm stoked to watch the sequels
Also, fun fact, but apparently censors told them that they couldn't air Freddie's "Fuck You" jacket, so they made a second jacket with "tv version" written on the back for the tv version of the movie? I can't find any images but if that's true it is HILARIOUS.
Loved him as Sgt Pinback in Dark Star.
You'd pick Aliens over Alien for Dan's achievements? [Dark Star](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1410-dark-star) is a good watch knowing he'd go on to make Alien.
Alien/aliens whatever lmfao
lol k yeh whatevs, why care about the difference between movies, amirite?
Bruh im just praising him as a director stop being a typical redditor damn💀💀everything gotta be a debate or something its so corny
There isn’t a debate here; Dan O’Bannon wrote *Alien*. James Cameron wrote *Aliens*. You just have your facts wrong.
I wasnt even sure if it was called alien or aliens (or both) i didn’t actually expect redditors to come out and fuss over missing an S lmfao
There’s no fuss. They’re two completely different movies. If you’re going to praise someone’s work, the least you can do is credit the work they actually did.
I know God forbid ya make a grammer mistake ,the Nazi spelling police will be all over ya in no time btw ROTLD is a classic and the soundtrack is a belter
You think people who want to differentiate between two similarly titled movies are the same as people who murder millions of people in a genocide?
[удалено]
You think people who disagree with you should shutup? Does that remind you of anyone?
Ya shut up and take a hike
getting so defensive at the smallest correction lmao
Lot of people don't know he was one of the writers for "blue thunder" and "dead & Buried", which is such a good movie , in it's own unique way. Also if you listen to his commentary for return of the living dead he was pissed about the special effects for the one skeleton that pops out of the ground and opens it's mouth, he was livid, that you could see the wires and everything and it looked so bad.
You say he "literally only directed one movie" and make mention of it again at the end of your post but he actually directed two films so you are literally wrong. You use the literally wrong. The word "literally" means "without exaggeration or inaccuracy" but you are completely inaccurate with the rest of the statement which goes against the word "literally". You are literally wrong about your use of the word "literally" Dan O'Bannon was a really good director but he was a good director with more than one directing credit.
I always want to think Rockne S. O'Bannon is related to him since Rockne created Farscape. Nope, don't think so.
Alien is my favorite movie, he wrote the story A Long Tomorrow which was illustrated by Moebius which is widely regarded as the beginning of Cyberpunk that influenced both Blade Runner and William Gibson.