Several sources on the web have reported that Hollywood screenwriter and film maker Dan O'Bannon has passed away at age 63 following a short period of illness.

He is most well-known for having written such science fiction classics as the original "Alien" (1979) and "Total Recall" (1990), but holds a special place in my heart as the writer and director of one of my top 5 films ever made, "Return of the Living Dead" (1985).

O'Bannon always gave great interviews and was one of the most unique personalities working in the genre. Often seen in a bow tie or suspenders when speaking on camera, his appearance was a great compliment to his outspoken nature.

This Thursday's Cinema File column will be about the new film "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire‎". As with "Ponyo" (mentioned in my previous blog entry), this was a movie I'd been waiting months to see and couldn't stand the wait for Athens theaters to get it.

My wife and I drove the hour to Mall of Georgia for a 3:45pm show yesterday and paid $21 for a pair of tickets (I never buy drinks or food unless we're at Ciné), but "Precious" was well worth all of it.

While the box office receipts place it at #11 for the weekend in terms of earnings, if you figure in the relatively small amount of screens "Precious" is currently playing on and average it out, it was actually the #4 movie in the nation.

Look for my review in this Thursday's Marquee section, then hopefully look for it to open in town the following day.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but a quick scan of tomorrow's show times for Athens theaters showed zero listings for "Ponyo", the latest animated feature from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Back in 2005, my wife and I had to drive to Buford to catch the brilliant "Howl's Moving Castle" (which went on to be nominated for an Academy award), and it looks like we'll be doing the same tomorrow for "Ponyo".

The film is being distributed by Disney and features the voices of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, and a couple kids by the name of Noah Lindsey Cyrus and Frankie Jonas. Miyazaki's 2002 release, "Spirited Away", was the first anime film to ever win an Oscar, and beat out "Titanic" for highest-grossing film in Japanese history. In 2006, Time magazine listed Miyazaki as one of the most influential Asians of the last 60 years.

Here's the trailer for "Ponyo", his latest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG22jOUNJg

There are several reasons why I didn’t turn in a Cinema File column this week - I couldn’t bring myself to watch “Transformers 2”, the film I did end up seeing (“The Hangover”) made “Dude, Where’s My Car?” look like “Crimes Of The Heart”, I haven’t taken a week off in the three months I’ve been writing for the Banner-Herald – but those are really just excuses. The honest truth is that I haven’t been able to think about much else since meeting Linnea Quigley at a film festival last weekend in New York City. And though she may not be a name in your household, a true horror movie fan’s heart should have skipped a beat reading that last sentence. From the late ‘70s on through the present day, she has starred in over 100 movies, two of which (“Return Of The Living Dead” and “Night Of The Demons”) are in my personal top ten list of all time. I'll freely admit I had a poster of her in my school locker when I was in seventh grade, okay?

Ten years after the release of "House On Haunted Hill", Dark Castle Entertainment have announced plans to remake 1965's "I Saw What You Did". Originally formed to exclusively produce remakes of films by the late, great William Castle, the firm (lead by Hollywood heavy Joel Silver) only managed to churn out one other modern update, 2001's "Thirteen Ghosts" before derailing into various other non-Castle projects in the years that followed.

The recently released "Drag Me To Hell" (Sam Raimi's first horror movie since the 1987 sequel to "Evil Dead") proved to be the most fun I've had at the movies in quite a long time (you'll have to wait for Thursday's Cinema File column to get the full story, but let this blog serve as a warning shot: full-steam geek times are ahead) despite the fact that an entire scene of the film was ruined by a section of the audience.

Having a blog to supplement my weekly movie column was my idea. Writing the first entry about cancer and dressing in drag wasn’t something I’d anticipated, but here we are, so this will have to serve as my introduction.

Last summer marked my ten-year anniversary as an employee here at the Banner-Herald. Less than month later, I attended the funeral of the gentleman who was responsible for hiring me. Cancer really, really sucks. I don’t know how else to say it. Throughout my life, it has taken away several people close to me, and it is currently in the process of adding to that number.