On this day in movie and book history - Aliens (1986)

Aliens

directed and written by James Cameron,

based on a story by James Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill,

was released in the United States on July 18, 1986.

Music by James Horner.

Cast:

Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, Ricco Ross, Colette Hiller, Daniel Kash, Cynthia Dale Scott, Tip Tipping, Trevor Steedman, Paul Maxwell, Valerie Colgan, Alan Polonsky, Alibe Parsons, Blain Fairman, Barbara Coles, Carl Toop, John Lees, William Armstrong, Jay Benedict, Holly De Jong, Jill Goldston, Christopher Henn, Elizabeth Inglis, Mac McDonald, Stuart Milligan, Eddie Powell, Bob Sherman, Chris Webb, Tom Woodruff Jr.

Recommended reading:

Aliens

by Alan Dean Foster.

The Official Movie Novelization.

Published by Titan Books.

First published 1986.

ISBN-10: 178329017X

ISBN-13: 978-1783290178

Description:

In the sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Ellen Ripley is forced to return to planet LV-426, where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature. There they discovered hundreds of eggs, and just one slaughtered everyone but Ripley. This time she's accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines, but even their firepower may not be enough for them to survive and learn the fate of the colony known as Hadley's Hope.

Ripley is going back ... The sole survivor of the terror that struck her space comrades years ago, she now steels herself to help lead an expedition to the hell she once escaped. For on a planet far from earth, alien beings swarm, hungry for the human face, ready to make the human race their living nesting ground. Here waits the ultimate nightmare of Alien, hundreds of times stronger, more insidious, and practically invincible. Here Ripley must re-enter a world of sudden, unspeakable horror ... one that attacks without warning again and again and again.

On this day in movie history - Damien: Omen II (1978)

Damien: Omen II

directed by Don Taylor and Mike Hodges,

written by Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges,

based on a story by Harvey Bernhard,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1978.

Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Cast:

William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth, Nicholas Pryor, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Lance Henriksen, Elizabeth Shepherd, Lucas Donat, Allan Arbus, Fritz Ford, Meshach Taylor, John J. Newcombe, John Charles Burns, Paul Cook, Diane Daniels, Robert E. Ingham, William B. Fosser, Corney Morgan, Russell P. Delia, Judith Dowd, Thomas O. Erhart Jr., Sorin Serene Pricopie, Robert J. Jones Jr., Rusdi Lane, Charles Mountain, Cornelia Sanders, Felix Shuman, James Spinks, Owen Sullivan, William J. Whelehan, Ian Hendry, Gus Kaprales, Leo McKern.

On this day in movie and book history - Dead Man (1995 and 2000)

Dead Man

directed and written by Jim Jarmusch,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 27, 1995.

Music by Neil Young.

Cast:

Johnny Depp, Mili Avital, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Jared Harris, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Mark Bringelson, John North, Peter Schrum, Mike Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton, Michelle Thrush, Gibby Haynes, Richard Boes, George Duckworth, Thomas Bettles, Alfred Molina, Daniel Chas Stacy, Todd Pfeiffer, Leonard Bowechop, Cecil Cheeka, Michael McCarty, Steve Buscemi, John C. Carlucci.

Recommended reading:

Dead Man

by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Published by British Film Institute.
Published 2000.
 
ISBN-10: 0851708064
ISBN-13: 9780851708065
 
Description:

“The book follows the narrative and picks out some of the stand-out cameos as well as some of the choice of dialogue, music, style and violence within. Just another good choice from the BFI/Palgrave on another solid film with heavy content.” – Filmwerk.

When it was released in 1995, Dead Man puzzled many audiences and critics. Jim Jarmusch's reputation was for directing slick, hip contemporary films. And Dead Man was a black-and-white Western. As time has passed, though, the number of its admirers has grown rapidly. Indeed, Dead Man, with its dark and unconventional treatment of violence, racism and capitalism, may be Jarmusch's finest work to date.

This is Jonathan Rosenbaum's view. For him, Dead Man is both a quantum leap and a logical next step in Jarmusch's career. Starring Johnny Depp as the uprooted accountant William Blake and Gary Farmer as his enigmatic Native American companion, Nobody, and with startling cameos from Robert Mitchum, John Hurt and Iggy Pop, Dead Man is by turns shocking, comic and deeply moving. This book explores and celebrates a masterpiece of 1990s American cinema.