Dan O'Bannon only worked in romance and action.
Daniel Thomas `` Dan '' O'Bannon ( September 30 , 1946 -- December 17 , 2009 ) was an American film screenwriter , director , visual effects supervisor , and occasional actor , usually in the science fiction and horror genres . He also contributed computer animation to Star Wars , worked on cult classics such as Dark Star , Heavy Metal and Total Recall , and both wrote and directed the horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead . Lifeforce is a 1985 British science fiction horror film directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby , based on Colin Wilson 's 1976 novel The Space Vampires . Total Recall is a 1990 American science-fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven , starring Arnold Schwarzenegger , Rachel Ticotin , Sharon Stone , Ronny Cox , and Michael Ironside .