A Number - Airing Tonight on HBO

Starring Tom Wilkinson and Rhys Ifans, A Number tells the story of a world where human cloning has become a reality. Two genetically identical men confront their father in separate, chilling encounters, each looking for explanations into their shared past.

Based on a play, A Number debuted at The Royal Court Theatre in London in 2002. The production was directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) and designed by Ian MacNeil and starred Michael Gambon and our latest James Bond - Daniel Craig. The play won the 2002 Evening Standard Award for Best Play. It made its U.S. premiere in 2004 in a production starring Sam Shepard and Dallas Roberts. 


I'm always curious to see how plays translate onto the screen, even if it's for the small screen. Themes about identity and father-son dynamics have been fodder for many dramas before, so this could be an interesting twist.

RIP Dan O'Bannon / 1946-2009

Some influential artists you know by name, others merely by their work. Dan O'Bannon was one of the latter. Over a career spanning almost 50 years, this writer (Alien, Lifeforce, Total Recall), director (Return of the Living Dead) and all around amazing guy helped to push the boundaries of pulp sci-fi into heady stratospheres.

 

O'Bannon got his start writing Dark Star, a low-budget cult sci-fi short directed by fellow USC student John Carpernter while they were still in school. Started as a short, it eventually was expanded into a feature (how they managed to get the rights from USC is a feat unto itself)

But my favorite O'Bannon project never saw the light of day. In the heady, early 1970's, director Alejandro Jodorowsky (of mind-melting El Topo & Holy Mountain fame) approached O'Bannon to script a science fiction film to rival his psychedelic classics. With Production Design by Morpheus & H.R Giger, Music Pink Floyd and starring David Carradine and Salvador Dali (in the role of the insane Emperor), Jodorowsky's version of Frank Herbert's Dune is one of those mystical 'what if's' of history that Hollywood is littered with.

http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/jodorowsky.asp

Dan O'Bannon's wife had this to say last week: "My Great Heart finally lost his 30-year battle against Crohn's disease. The O'Bannon Company will go on - I have to publish the Necronomicon which he finally finished, and of course there are scripts to sell. The website was almost finished, and it will be up sometime soon."

RIP Dan. Tonight there is one less star in the sky.