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Filmmaker Takes on Dan Aykroyd in UFO Video Market
"The Top Secret UFO Project" and "Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs" are both documentaries about UFO legends and government cover-ups. The difference? One is dead serious and the other is decidedly not.
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June 6, 2007 (FPRC) -- Filmmaker R. J. Thomas and legendary SNL alumni Dan Aykroyd both have UFO videos on the market, though their approaches to the subject do not meet eye to eye.
Mr. Aykroyd's documentary, "Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs," is a conversation between Aykroyd and UFO expert David Sereda interspersed with footage of unexplained objects in flight and comments from experts like former astronaut Gordon Cooper.
Mr. Thomas' DVD, "The Top Secret UFO Project," is a parody of everything that Mr. Aykroyd's film takes so seriously.
"Aykroyd said there are many, many people interested in UFOs," Mr. Thomas said. "And, of course, he's right. But I also believe that people who don't believe in UFOs have a general curiosity about it. Everybody likes a campfire story. And my film is about a legend."
Mr. Aykroyd said that he's been interested in the paranormal for years and has had two personal encounters with the unknown.
"I didn't know Dan Aykroyd was like that," Mr. Thomas said. "In 'Sneakers,' his character was a man with a dead-serious belief in conspiracy theories. He was hilarious. And now it turns out that he's just like that in real life."
On Martha's Vineyard, Mr. Aykroyd once saw glowing magnesium discs travelling across the sky, which
one expert later told him was probably a meteor formation.
His other encounter was a telepathic experience in Canada. He woke up about 3 a.m. wanting to go outside into a field and look at the sky, but decided against it. The next morning newspapers and radio reports from across the region were filled with eyewitness accounts from some of the estimated 12,000 people who saw a pink spiral in the sky. The military later said it was a Chinese rocket.
Mr. Aykroyd didn't believe in any of these explanations.
And Mr. Thomas' film is a send-up of the government's attempts to cover up such UFO sightings.
Based on Mr. Thomas' 2004 novella of the same name, "The Top Secret UFO Project" chronicles the UFO-related events experienced by Jasper, a tiny Colorado hamlet some seventy-five miles south of Denver. According to the film, the town dealt with one unusual event after another in the summer of 1956. Scientists rushed into Jasper to investigate, reporters rushed in looking for stories, and government officials rushed in to keep it a secret from the world.
Billed as "the movie the government doesn't want you to see," "The Top Secret UFO Project," is a parody of the cheesy UFO documentaries of the 70's like "Overlords of the UFO," and of TV programs such as "In Search Of."
Mr. Thomas plays a documentary filmmaker who, in 2003, discovered (by accident) some top secret government films pertaining to the 1956 Jasper Incident. This inspired him to make a documentary about Jasper's UFO story, and to discover the truth behind what really happened that mysterious summer in Colorado.
"Dan Aykroyd is a comic genius," Mr. Thomas said. "I hope he sees my film and finds it amusing. I hope I don't make him mad spoofing all he takes as scientific fact!"
"The Top Secret UFO Project" is available on DVD at
BooksAndSuchMart.com.
Mr. Thomas has been a guest on "The 'X" Zone," Rob McConnell's internationally-syndicated radio program which deals with UFOs and other such mysteries.
A 30-second promo for "The Top Secret UFO Project" is available for viewing on YouTube.com.
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Send an email to R. J. Thomas of Temple Productions
310-288-6605
Keywords:
ufos
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