David Giler

David Giler July 23 1943 December 19 2020 was an American filmmaker who has been active in the motion picture industry since the early 1960s He started his career as a writer providing scripts for television programs such as Kraft Suspense Theatre and The Man from UNCLE He then moved to screenplays in the 70s helping to write films such as The Parallax View and the original version of Fun With Dick and Jane He produced his first film in 1970 the critically reviled Myra Breckinridge an adaptation of Gore Vidals controversial novel he also cowrote the film with director Michael Sarne He helped Walter Hill produce the legendary horror thriller Alien in 1979 and it is for this film that he is probably best remembered He and Hill became embroiled in a muchpublicized behindthescenes fight with Aliens original writer Dan OBannon over who was to receive screenplay credit Giler and Hill claim that they completely rewrote the script from top to bottom and therefore they wanted to relegate OBannon to a story by credit only OBannon claims that they did little more than change the names of the characters and dialogue and felt that the two were trying to bully him out of the more prestigious screenplay credit As evidenced by the interviews on the supplemental DVD features the two parties were extremely antagonistic when it comes to this topic OBannon has since died though OBannon was the only one to receive credit for the screenplay in the final film The various drafts can be found online allowing audiences to decide for themselves Giler worked with Hill on several more projects including the continuation of the Alien franchise The two were responsible for the final and very controversial rewrite of the Alien 3 story which killed off the Bishop Hicks and Newt characters from Aliens Some of the films that he wrote during this period include The Money Pit Southern Comfort and an uncredited rewrite for Beverly Hills Cop II He also directed one film The Black Bird 1975 Description above from the Wikipedia article David Giler licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia