David Giler, a writer and producer best known for his work on the Alien film franchise, has died at the age of 77. He passed away in his Bangkok home on December 19th. A cause of death hasn’t been revealed at this time.
His longtime friend and fellow Alien producer Walter Hill announced the news in a statement. “If you knew David, you knew he was special,” he said. “The magic of his personality is hard to describe: funny, angry, extremely knowledgeable, extremely well read; it was my privilege to write and produce with him, and more importantly, to have his close and deep friendship for nearly 50 years.”
Giler’s first breakout moment in Hollywood arrived in 1962 when he wrote the teleplay for an episode of ABC’s The Gallant Men. Throughout that decade, he spent his time penning scripts for various episodes of shows like Burke’s Law, Kraft Suspense Theatre, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Come 1970, Giler ventured into the world of feature films when he got the opportunity to write the screenplay for Myra Breckinridge. While working on the movie, he also picked up an uncredited role as a producer — the secret key to his eventual career as such later on. Writing for films like The Parallax View, The Black Bird, and Fun with Dick and Jane followed suit. Finally, in 1979, he landed the role of producer on the first-ever Alien.
Since then, Giler has worked on every single Alien movie in the franchise. He served as a writer on both Aliens and Alien 3, in addition to executive producing the first and producing the latter. He went on to produce 1997’s Alien Resurrection and 2017’s Alien: Covenant, as well as both Alien vs Predator movies in the 2000s.
Giler was already on board for the third Alien prequel that’s in the works, too, and tragically will not be able to see his work as a producer come to fruition, reports Variety.
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