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/

UFOs Over Kansas

Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel will both be speaking this week, March 18-20, 2011 at the OZUFO Summit being held in Lawrence, Kansas at the city's famous Liberty Hall.

Organizers Daniel Lauing and John Leathem have booked a very credible line-up of speakers and presentations that, besides Rich and Bryce, includes Stanton Friedman, Donald Schmitt, Stephen Bassett, Frank Feschino Jr., Peter Robbins, Butch Witkowski, Charles Halt, Robert Salas, Kim Carlsberg, Sam Maranto and Jesse Marcel Jr. Below is one of the ads running in the Topeka Capitol-Journal. 

If you live in the part of the country that makes this accessible to you, we think the organizers are offering good value and cutting-edge presentations. It's the first time, for example, that both Rich and Bryce are appearing together to talk about the world After Disclosure. Just click on the image above to go to the website for the conference.

In the three days and two nights, three key themes will be explored:

• an update on the Roswell investigation from researchers Stanton Friedman and Donald Schmitt, whose books and life rights have been optioned as part of a new film in development, Majic Men, being written and produced by Stellar Productions.

• the growing body of evidence linking UFO interference and observation to nuclear missile sites around the world, with testimony from Charles Halt (Bentwaters) and Robert Salas (Malmstrom AFB), two men who were at the September news conference held at the National Press Club.

• the emerging debate about Disclosure, exopolitics and life after contact, with presentations from Richard Dolan, Stephen Bassett of the Paradigm Research Group, and Bryce Zabel.

There are others topics being explored, of course, plenty to get anybody -- experienced or not in this topic -- to truly think about how our world is about to change.

Double Header: MUFON LA and MUFON OC

If you live in the Southern California area, I'd like to invite you to drop by either the MUFON Los Angeles or the MUFON Orange County monthly meetings in February.

I'll be speaking at both of them, mostly about the post-Disclosure world, in a presentation called "Life After Contact."

Expect to hear some new ideas that go even beyond the book Richard Dolan and I have co-authored, A.D. After Disclosure, but also Dark Skies as well as the entire issue of the relationship between Hollywood and the managers of UFO secrecy -- a subject that was the topic of a Coast-to-Coast AM interview with George Knapp on January 16.

Another matter on the table will be the status of Majic Men, the film project I'm currently writing the screenplay to, based on the life rights for Stanton Friedman and Donald Schmitt, and their respective books, Top Secret/Majic and Witness to Roswell.

Here are the details for the first night in LA:

MUFON LA (Los Angeles)

Tuesday, February 15, 8:00pm
Unitarian Universalist Church (Inside the Fellowship Hall)
12355 Moorpark Avenue
Studio City, CA 91604 
(818) 483-0864 
www.mufonla.com 

Here are the directions to the LA meeting. Apparently, MUFON charges $10 for members and $15 for non-members. On the other hand, there's free parking! :-)

The next night, it's down to Orange County's Costa Mesa. Here are those details:

MUFON OC (Orange County)

Wednesday, February 16, 7:30pm
Neighborhood Community Center
1845 Park Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(714) 520-4UFO 
www.mufonoc.org

This location is between the Costa Mesa library and the Costa Mesa Courtyards Shopping Center. Here are the directions. As I understand this one, it's $7 for members, $12 for non-members (except for first-timers who get in for $7). Refreshments, raffle, and more free parking!  :-)

Knowing that people are paying their hard-earned money to come to these events, I'm working on the presentation now. We'll have some books there, and also a surprise or two for those raffles. Hope to see you at one or the other!