Dan O'Bannon had been working on the screenplay for Screamers (1995) as early as 1981. The October 10, 1984, draft credits Michael Campus as co-writer. It is unknown whether Campus also intended to direct. O'Bannon and John Carpenter attended USC together; the result of their meeting each other in college was the low-budget cult science-fiction parody Dark Star (1974), which started out as a student movie and was eventually expanded into a theatrical feature. Has one son, Adam. O'Bannon was reputed to suffer debilitating stress-induced stomach aches (which some detractors attributed to hypochondria). Upon his death, Diane O'Bannon revealed that her husband had been managing Crohn's Disease for about thirty years. He was considered one of the most brilliant, if volcanic, alumni of the USC film school.