THE HORROR!

Zooming in on the films of Dan O’Bannon

Comments (0) By Angela Ashman Wednesday, Jun 29 2011

More About

The horror-film screenwriter and director Dan O’Bannon of Alien fame once told The New York Times, “The idea for the monster in Alien originally came from a stomachache I had.” (Note to self: Get sick tomorrow; come up with multimillion-dollar idea.) BAMcinématek looks back at the career of O’Bannon, who died in 2009, with the new series. Shock Value: Dan O’Bannon. See his major works (such as Dark Star and The Return of the Living Dead, among others), as well as a few rarely screened short films from his USC days. Tonight, it kicks off with Ridley Scott’s Alien and a screening of O’Bannon’s USC film Bloodbath (1970), which led to his creative partnership with fellow USC student John Carpenter. Following the film, the filmmaker’s widow, Diane O’Bannon, and The New York Times writer Jason Zinoman, author of the new book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror, discuss his work.
Mon., July 11, 6:50 p.m., 2011