The man who created ``Alien'' is named Dan O'Bannon.

"Alien" synopsis

A mysterious alien invades the spaceship Alien, which is in a hurry to return to Earth. The invisible enemy follows its instincts and takes the lives of the crew one by one. No weapon possessed by humanity will be effective against life forms that have undergone unknown evolution. Inside the closed spaceship, a desperate battle is about to begin between the invisible perfect creature and Ripley, the only survivor...

Index

• Dan O'Bannon, the man who came up with ' Alien'
• O'Bannon to Walter Hill to Ridley Scott
• Dan O'Bannon and "Alien" and their subsequent relationship

Dan O'Bannon, the man who came up with ' Alien'

It may seem obvious, but the ideas that form the basis of a movie are not necessarily created by the movie director. In most cases, there is a script and project first, and then the producer selects the director who will be entrusted with the work. The same was true for ``Alien,'' and Ridley Scott was hired to direct ``Alien,'' which had already been produced and the script had been completed.

So who first came up with the story of "Alien"? It's Dan O'Bannon. He was the man who co-wrote the screenplay with John Carpenter, played one of the main characters, and did the special effects for the cult science fiction film Dark Star (1974), which was John Carpenter's directorial debut.

``Dark Star'' is a prototype for ``Alien'' in which a dangerous space creature is released inside a closed spaceship, but this space creature is just a beach ball with legs attached. That should be it. ``Dark Star'' is an ultra-low-budget black comedy that Carpenter and O'Bannon self-remade from their student films.

Although ``Dark Star'' later gained a cult following, it was only shown in 15 theaters at the time of its release. And the person who happened to be watching ``Dark Star'' at a small movie theater in Hollywood was Alejandro Jodorowsky, the ``cult film genius'' known for `` El Topo '' and other films. At the time, Jodorowsky was planning to make a film version of the science fiction novel series ``DUNE'' and approached Douglas Trumbull, who was in charge of SFX for ` `2001: A Space Odyssey '' (1968), but Trumbull's I didn't like his attitude and we broke up. I happened to see ``Dark Star'' and fell in love with O'Bannon, who was an unknown young man.

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However, Jodorowsky's ``DUNE'', which was supposed to be an unprecedented blockbuster, failed halfway (David Lynch later directed ` `Dune' ' (1984) based on the same original story). Broken by the dream he had with Jodorowsky, O'Bannon returns to Los Angeles from Paris, where Jodorowsky was based, and moves in with a friend.

Although O'Bannon was in the depths of despair, he took a leap of faith and began writing a low-budget sci-fi horror script that he could direct. ``Dark Star,'' which was aimed at comedy, didn't really appeal to the audience, so I decided to try to scare them as much as possible, so I decided to use the same motif of a Monster appearing inside a spaceship, but it was more of a thriller/horror movie.

At first, the title was too cliche, ``Space Beast,'' but O'Bannon himself later changed the title to ``Alien.'' It is 100% O'Bannon's credit that he gave the word ``alien,'' which used to mean ``Alien'' or ``from outside,'' the meaning of ``space Monster.''

O'Bannon to Walter Hill to Ridley Scott