JAMES. H. HARRIS producer of THE BLOB and DARK STAR has passed on. The original BLOB put Harris on the map, and he followed it up with cult faves like DINOSAURUS! and THE 4-D MAN. His biggest most mainstream success was Producing THE EYES OF LAURA MARS (based on a John Carpenter script and released by Columbia Pictures).

Surprisingly, the original BLOB has only shown once (SF/10). The pretty good remake showed at SF/14. But, it's DARK STAR which has a place in the Marathon Hall of Fame. As many of you know, DARK STAR began as a tiny indie fim by Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon. Harris came in and (much like he had with EQUINOX) helped expand it to feature length. When HALLOWEEN hit big, DARK STAR was given a new lease on life as "Carpenter's first film" and became a signficant cult item (including a showing at SF/4 - Before HALLOWEEN was even released in Boston!). DARK STAR returned to the 'thon for SF/12 and SF/32. It also became a 'pinch-hitter' at SF/24 when the scheduled print of 27TH DAY was unshowable).

I am bit DARK STAR-ed out myself, but, a showing of THE BLOB or 4D MAN would be welcome.