an O'Bannon first "I got married, had a kid and just lost burst onto the fan­ interest for a while in chasing that con­ tasy cinema scene stant Hollywood grind," O'Bannon says. "I with Dark Star­ was interested in my family, taking it easy which he co-wrote with and stuff. I tried to completely write down director John Carpenter and starred in­ movies in my own heart, because they've and subsequently with his darker version changed so much.n (co-scripted by Ronald Shusett) of the Luckily, he thought about it again and same story, Alien. The film was an imme­ one simple element changed his mind. "I diate hit, made stars of Sigourney Weaver haven't completely ruled Hollywood out and director Ridley Scott and is regarded because I can't think of a better way of as one of the best horror films ever. making money, n he laughs. "Two years ago O'Bannon has since had a strange I had decided to forego Hollywood, but career as a filmmaker, with Return of the lately I thought about that decision and Living Dead-which spawned numerous said, 'Wait a minute, that's stupid. There's imitations and (now four) sequels-and a lot of money there!' There's still a pro­ The Resu"ected his only directorial efforts ject or two of mine that I would very much to date. He has been busier as a screen­ like to put on the big screen. If I get lucky writer, and his work has been helmed by and sell an occasional script, I can get a many of the genre's best-known filmmak­ lot of cash. I can't turn my back on Holly­ ers: Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Tobe Hooper, wood completely, because of the possibili­ etc. Then, following a pair of lower-bud­ ties of an occasional big sale, the practical geted Canadian projects (Screamers and value of that income. I wish I could say Bleeders, a.k.a. Hemoglobin), he vanished I'm through with it, but it still has some from the movie scene. It turns out he was value to me. In the meantime, I've invest­ --= • disappointed by the industry, especially by ed my sincere creative heart in other pro­ the fact that he didn't get final cut on The jects that are a little less grandiose than a Resu"ected. Fans wondered what had hap­ film, but they were things that I was actu­ pened to the man behind the concept of ally able to do without interference. n one of the scariest movies ever made. As it Nevertheless, getting back into the turns out, he was simply living his life ... business wasn't as easy as you would & think. "When I got interested again, I was it into the actual movie. "Well, I was sur· fused and because Ronnie's and my situa­ cold. I was nobody in the business, plus at prised," O'Bannon says. "This credit arbi­ tion was so clear. There's so much going g the same time the moviemaking industry tration procedure ... The only time I did on that you have to care. You have to say, ~ itself has completely changed," he ex­ ever really care was on the first picture, 'Oh, my God! There goes my career, I have ~ plains. "Everybody does business at every Alien. I fought really hard for my credit to care!' Buddha says, 'Suffering comes ·~ level and all of the people have changed. there. Every movie subsequently, if some through desire,' you know? ~ So when I decided to get back to work and other writer wanted to have a credit, my "I did give them one idea [for A VP) that ~ re-enter the Hollywood mainstream, I general tendency was not to bother. Some· they did not use," O'Bannon reveals, "and :g found out it wasn't there anymore. I had to times I've had co-writers who have cared, I'll tell you what it was. The most obvious a. spend the last couple of years building up so I had to arbitrate. Don Jakoby [his co­ creative thing you have to solve on a movie my existence again. All of my representa· scripter on Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars like this is: What's the connection tives-my lawyer, my agent, my mana­ and Blue Thunder] was always concerned between the species? What they came up ger-were gone. I had to get a completely about credit. with was that Predators bred Aliens as new team. And this time they're all "What happened in the case of Alien vs. part of a complicated ritual. But my idea younger than me, so I'll die first [laughs]. " Predator was complex," he continues. was, what if the Predators are the Aliens? Yet while the filmmaking machine has "Ronnie Shusett was very concerned and In the first Alien movie, there's a part in changed significantly during the last 10 wanted me to be involved, and I said, 'OK, the end when they blow up the ship. years, O'Bannon feels the public hasn't we'll go after an arbitration, after my orig­ And it still has one stage left, and my even noticed. "Hollywood inside now is inal spec screenplay.' They took every· idea was that if it metamorphosed one very different from what the public sees thing they could find that had not been more time it would have become the .• on the outside," he says. "They still have filmed in the first Alien. They found a par· Predator, but they didn't use it. It was big studios making blockbusters with big ticular element from my screenplay, which good, though! My one great idea for ta stars, but boy ... right behind those block­ was the big pyramid. They also used the them and they didn't use it." busters, everything is different." legendary cocoon scene, which was shot Surprisingly, O'Bannon enjoyed the A few months ago, O'Bannon and Shu· but never used back then. They just took critic· and audience-maligned movie, even sett received "screen story" credit on ideas from that first script in order to put if he doesn't like the notion of Alien se­ Alien vs. Predator, even though they had together a story, and it was on that basis quels in the first place. "I thought AVP nothing to do with the actual script. Tums [that we got credit], and also because the was totally enjoyable, anyway. I mean, out, the filmmakers used material from situation among the guys who wrote the artistically, there isn't any excuse for any the first Alien screenplay that never made finished screenplay was so massively con· of the Alien sequels. I wrote that to be a shocks again, not just finding out that they have a Queen. When I first thought about sequelizing Alien, when that came up, I found it a difficult task, being as concerned as I am with maintaining high standards in terms of the story. I thought it was impossi­ ble to do. If I had done it, it would have been an entirely different movie, with only a nominal link to the origi­ nal. And if I'm gonna do that, I might as well call it something different." Ironically, one of the several irons O'Bannon now has in the fire is an update of a work attempted by sev­ eral artists before: a new and defini­ tive version of The Necronomicon, the "book" created by H.P. Lovecraft. According to O'Bannon, his version (based on the work of the late French author Jean-Baptiste Cohen) will be the one to end them all. "There have been a couple of books published as the Necronomicon stand-alone, without the during the last four decades," he notes. intent of doing sequels to "Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you that it. It doesn't lend itself to those books are frauds. They're not actu­ more movies. You're auto­ ally the Necronomicon. This is the first matically stuck with a time that the actual content of the Necro­ film that is not going to be nomicon will be widely available to the as exciting as the origi­ public. Unfortunately, the author, Jean­ nal. My opinion is that if Baptiste Cohen, is deceased. He died very you're gonna do a sequel, young, at 25, in 1999, and didn't quite fin· you're still under the ish this particular dissertation. He wrote same obligation to be as most of it, but his death interrupted its interesting and original completion. I had to finish the last part." as the first story, what· But what exactly is the Necronomicon? ever it was. Some movies "It's a grimoire, or a book of black magic lend themselves to se­ spells," O'Bannon explains. "It's legendar­ quels, and they make ily known as the blackest of them all. It good follow-ups to 'em. In was written by an Arabic scholar. The cen­ this case, a valid sequel tral theme of the Necronomicon is that our to Alien would have been world, the Earth, was once inhabited by more different from the another race, who in practicing black original than they have magic lost their foothold here and were been. I mean, there would expelled. Yet they continued to live out­ have had to be a connec· side our realm, waiting to take possession tion of some sort to the of the Earth again. And the Necronomicon first film, and the mood contains incantations to hasten their re· would have had to be the turn, as well as other spells to repel them. same, but you shouldn't That's the basic content of the book." have to see what was His main impetus to take on this pro­ going to happen because ject was his dissatisfaction with all the you saw the first one. currently available editions. "When I first "Uames] Cameron did bought aNecronomicon, I was dying to read one of the few things one it," O'Bannon recalls. "I was really inter· could have done to make ested. I think it was the British one, writ­ a half-decent sequel, ten by Colin Wilson [author of The Space which is he turned it on Vampires, the inspiration for Lifeforce]. I its head and made an enjoyed that, but I was really disappointed action -adventure film," by the parts they chose to publish. A cou­ O'Bannon continues. "But ple of years later, another one was put out, it still wasn't different this time in America. I bought it, took it enough. If I had been home and had the same reaction. They're involved, I would have really not worthy of Lovecraft. They've turned the whole project just taken the name. Even Lovecraft him· upside down altogether, self used to say that he didn't have the or I would have been imagination to write the Necronomicon. much more radical in the And that should have been a warning to treatment of the Alien everyone. If he didn't have the imagina­ itself. So if you saw the tion, no one else should mess with it. So I movie, there would be got fed up with these other fake Necro­ plenty of surprises and nomicons-not because they were fake, but because they were not any good. It was an amazing coinci­ dence, but at that exact moment I came across a copy of Cohen's work. And I decided that it was a good time for me to make this translation into English and show people what the Necronomicon should be." O'Bannon has been fascinated by Lovecraft's legacy since his childhood; The Resurrected was based on the author's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. "I first en­ countered Lovecraft's writings when I was 11 years old," he says. "I read a story of his called 'The Colour Out of Space,' and it was riveting to me. I hunted down more Lovecraft stories; they were hard to find back in the '60s, when I was a kid. They weren't as widely published as they are now. I was fascinated by his profound sense of imagina- tion. Of course it was a morbid imagina­ far at publishing houses. If the Necro­ tion, but that's all right, I have morbid nomicon does well and people like it, taste. In a dark way, in a kind of scaty that will improve the quality of what­ realm, Lovecraft's writings are what you ever deal I might get for it. So anybody might call numinous-that is, invested who might be interested in this will have with a sense of the supernatural. Love­ to contact me through my website." craft was able to add a dark and scary Recently, O'Bannon began talks with quality to his stories. Very few other the video game industry to bring his authors can achieve that. I've always dark vision to that media. First up may been a terrific admirer of his stuff. And be a zombie game for Ubisoft. But the Alien was strongly inspired by Love­ most exciting news is that he also has craft, except he laid out all of his stories another film project in his hands: a sci­ here on Earth. The Old Ones come to us; ence fiction script that he wants to in Alien, people go to the Old Ones. You direct as well. might say that the Alien is a minor or "The tone of this project is much lesser Old One." closer to Total Recall than to Alien," ••• After all these years, one thing O'Bannon says. "It's not a scary and O'Bannon feels is very important is his dark movie, it's a big, exciting adven­ communication with the audience. He ture like North by North­ feels that he has never been able to say west. I wrote it long ago, things his way without interference. and reread it recently, so I "One thing I've always wanted, and nev­ could approach it with er did have, was the opportunity to speak some freshness. And it's directly to the public in my own creative really worth putting on the voice," he notes. "I've always had it fil­ screen. The problem is, the tered through other people, who were only person in the world interpreting my voice. The Necronomicon who can direct it is me, will be the first time I've ever done [it because anybody else all my way]. The closest I've gotten was would f**k it up. Nobody doing interviews like this. During an in­ else could make this movie terview, I get to speak in my own voice. as well as me. Any other The Necronomicon will be the first time a director can be better than work of mine will be available for the me on another project, but public in its pure form. So, I'm picky." nobody is better than me And when will we be able to see the for this one. I care so much finished book? O'Bannon says it might about this project, and I've be sooner than expected. "I'm gonna seen so much of my origi­ self-publish, because I don't have any nal material interpreted by contacts in that world, and I want to be other people and not be as able to control the thing in terms of the good as I wanted. I'm not quality and artistic content, and to make gonna make another direc­ it look really, really close to the first dis­ tor's career for him. Espe­ tribution. I want to get this thing out cially because I should into the world looking its best, and then direct this; I know how to I'll see if I can get a mainstream pub­ get this wonderful script lisher interested in putting out an edi­ onto the screen." tion. Believe it or not, my reputation Are you listening, tt from Alien carries very little weight so Hollywood? ~