A.D. After Disclosure

Dark Skies | Accept No Imitations

Friends and supporters have been contacting us, many with congratulations on how our “Dark Skies” has been made into a new film, starring Keri Russell, to be released by Dimension Films next February. While it sounds like a dream, we tell them, it’s actually a nightmare.

To set the record straight, we’re Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman, the two writer/producers who created the NBC series called “Dark Skies.” It was produced by Columbia TV (now Sony) and aired in 1996 and 1997. We wrote the pilot, multiple episodes and produced all twenty hours that were aired in primetime on Saturday nights.

Our original “Dark Skies” introduced viewers to an alien invasion that featured a continuing focus on the mysterious and terrifying abduction phenomenon. So our well-intentioned friends can be forgiven if they hear about the Dimension Films version that focuses on an alien abduction and assume we had something to do with it. While that is decidedly not the case, our definitive version may have inspired it.

Our “Dark Skies” had been in the news even before Dimension decided to use our title for their film. Our series was given a world-wide release on DVD in 2011 from both Shout Factory (US) and Medium Rare Entertainment (UK). In dozens of reviews, the work received critical praise as a classic that has stood the test of time in the sci-fi and UFO media. It also spawned new interest in the reboot of our series, something that we were talking to Sony TV about when the news from Dimension Films broke.

Our "Dark Skies" has established itself in the minds of a significant number of science fiction fans as a gripping piece of conspiracy drama set in the world of UFOs and abductions. It anchored NBC's Saturday night "Thrillogy" concept in the 1996 season premiere and starred Eric Close ("Nashville") and the late film character actor J.T. Walsh (“Sling Blade”). Its main title design won the Emmy award and its pilot screenplay received a Writers Guild nomination. The Syfy Channel aired the entire series multiple times. Since 2010 there's been a Facebook page where thousands of fans from many different countries push Sony for a TV revival. 

And yet here we are. A film in the same genre as our work is being promoted right now using the same exact title as our work. Most Hollywood businesses legitimately consider creative and artistic interests and rights in these cases. This one seems to have slipped through the cracks of acceptability.

Supporters of the creative rights of writers should ask Dimension Films to let their film stand on its own merits and call it by a different title. "Dark Skies" is taken. 

Join the Dark Skies Resistance @ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/darkskiesufo

See the Dark Skies Playlist @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A1058EDE798E4B1

Read more about Dark Skies @ AfterDisclosure.com
http://www.afterdisclosure.com/dark-skies/

Get the original, classic and definitive Dark Skies series @ Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Skies-Declassified-Complete-Series/dp/B00465I156

WGA (Writers Guild of America) Credit, 1996
“Dark Skies” | Created by Bryce Zabel & Brent V. Friedman

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115151/

Breaking News From Roswell? Or Journalistic Malpractice?

The long rumored crash of a craft of unknown origin outside of Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947 has just been solved. The US government was wrong. The US Army Air Corps was wrong. The US Air Force was wrong. And more amazing, over 500 witnesses directly or indirectly involved were wrong! The latest "theory of the month" has been proposed by author, Annie Jacobsen in her just released book about Area 51 and a single addendum about Roswell which for some reason is getting all forms of media attention. I will limit my response to address strictly the Roswell Incident of 1947.

Simply put, this represents another classic example of lazy journalism at its worst and investigative malpractice at its finest. I recall when the Air Force was planning on the Pentagon release of their "fifth" official explanation for the Roswell case. It was reported to us that the new "theory" was what actually crashed was a Russian flying wing with a... get this... crew of monkeys in silver jump suits. The story would continue that the fiery crash would burn off all their hair and leave all the witnesses bewildered as to what they truly were. We immediately sent off a FAX to Washington just asking one question: "Which monkey was flying?" End of story. And the same applies here.

The mere suggestion that the Soviets captured a Horton Brothers "flying wing" at the fall of Berlin in 1945 (mind you, none were operational at that time and they were mainly constructed of wood), manned it with 13 year-old mutants created by German scientist Joseph Mengele as to appear "alien", flew all the way from Russia, intended to crash in New Mexico, the heart of the most militarily sensitive territory in the world, to "scare us." To say totally absurd would be an under statement.

Donald Schmitt is the co-author of the best-selling book,Witness to Roswell, and is the leading specialist who continues to investigate the Roswell Incident. He is the former co-director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, where he served as Director of Special Investigations for ten years. Prior to that, he was a special investigator for the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek. The Showtime movie Roswell was based on first book, UFO Crash at Roswell. His latest book and life rights have been optioned, along with those of Stanton Friedman, as the basis for the feature film project, Majic Men.

The German brothers, Walter and Reimar Horton experimented with flying wings in much the same way that Jack Northrop did in California during the 1930s. Historically, all of the NAZI prototypes were destroyed by American forces at the fall of Berlin - so they would not fall into the hands of the Soviets. The only Horton H.IX to survive is now kept at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Writer Jacobsen claims that the Soviets created mutants to resemble the Martians described by H.G. Welles in War of the Worlds. Jacobsen should know that Welles modeled them from earthly octopus. That, and the fact that the Russians never did capture Mengele paints an illustration of pure fiction.

It never seems to matter what the new alternative explanation is. These theorists never address the unusual, exotic characteristics of the wreckage. The weightless, nearly indestructible material. The material that possessed perfect memory. The fiber optics. Except for the later, no one on earth has such material even today. And there must have been divine intervention to save us if either the Germans or Russians had it back in the forties.

The author states that Area 51 was named due to her one lone anonymous source's claim that the crashed craft and children were moved there from Wright Patterson in 1951. In reality, Nevada is divided into sections and the facility just happens to be in Section 51.

We have presented and named in our bestselling book Witness to Roswell, and previous books since 1991, hundreds of eyewitnesses who were actually there. Witnesses who right up to their deathbeds swore that what had crashed, what they held in their hands, and the bodies they loaded into ambulance trucks, were not from this world. These are all ignored by the US national media because it can't be therefore it isn't. Anything but UFOs is alright with these so-called guardians and keepers of the truth. Except, when it applies to Roswell -- the truth be damned no matter how ridiculous the alternative "theory." We chose to present the facts as presented to us by the truth bearers - the participants.

In recent weeks, we have all heard dozens of versions of what took place during the raid which killed Osama bin Laden. Have any of us noticed that none of these accounts come from the actual participants? For the same reason over the past twenty years, we have focused on the people who were there... not the so-called "truth" that some journalist or government official wants us to believe. Eyewitnesses send people to prison and serve as the staple for our judicial system for a reason. I can solve every crime ever committed by just siting at my computer and throwing out "theories." It's up to us as objective, free thinking, rational individuals to examine the evidence and decide which carries the greatest weight. Over 500 witnesses can't all be wrong and would certainly win hands-down in any courtroom throughout America.

And so I have just one question for Ms. Jacobsen regarding her new "magic bullet" solution to Roswell. After we obviously have wasted all of our time and effort all these years:  Which of the 13 year-olds was flying?

I just thought I would ask.