About this Item
1972 revised script, C. Whittaker, Ltd. (Los Angeles, California), 9 3/4 x 11 inches tall burgundy leather hardcover, gilt lettering to front cover, four raised bands and gilt ruling and lettering to spine, white moire pastedowns and endpapers, typescript printed only on recto side of each leaf, illustrated with black-and-white photographs of the Madero Revolution, [5], 190 ff. Very slight soiling and rubbing to covers. Minor marginal staining to moire endpapers. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked, and splendidly bound - of this rare screenplay with a fascinating and extensive backstory. Unpublished, with no listing in OCLC or other indices. Note that this is a heavy and oversized book, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~ZZ~ [4.0P] The never-produced first script of legendary American film screenwriter and director Dan O'Bannon (1946-2009), who is perhaps best known for writing the 1979 sci-fi horror classic film, Alien, and for writing and directing the 1985 cult horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead. Not long after he began at USC film school in 1968, O'Bannon began passing around his first iteration of 'The Devil in Mexico,' which centered around the disappearance of writer Ambrose Bierce ('The Devil's Dictionary') into Mexico during the Revolution of 1917. Eventually the script found its way into the hands of Orson Welles, who reportedly liked it, passed it around and encouraged O'Bannon. William Froug (1922-2013), a TV writer and producer whose credits included The Twilight Zone and Gilligan?s Island, also read and was impressed with the script, which he eventually reworked as this 1972 revision and shopped to producers, according to Froug in his 2005 autobiography, How I Escaped from Gilligan's Island (Univ. of Wisconsin Press). The script was picked up by actor, filmmaker and writer Peter Ustinov (1921-2004), but the movie was never made. 'With the single exception of his command of the English language, the character of Pancho Villa as depicted in this screenplay is as truthful as history permits.' - Dan O'Bannon, in his author's note preceding the script. Seller Inventory # ZZ-1132-14021
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