On this day in movie history - Contact (1997 movie & novel):

Contact

directed by Robert Zemeckis,

written by James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg,

based on the novel by Carl Sagan,

was released in the United States on July 11, 1997.
Music by Alan Silvestri.

Cast:

Jodie Foster, Jena Malone, Matthew McConaughey, David Morse, Tom Skerritt, James Woods, John Hurt, William Fichtner, Angela Bassett, Jake Busey, Rob Lowe, Geoffrey Blake, Max Martini, Steven Ford, Jay Leno, Larry King, Ann Druyan.

Recommended reading:

Contact

By Carl Sagan.

Published 1985.

A science-fiction novel.

ISBN-10: 0671004107

ISBN-13: 978-0671004101

Description:

In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history.

Who – or what – is out there?

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe.

In Contact, he predicts its future – and our own.

On this day in movie history - Alien (1979 movie & books):

Alien

directed by Ridley Scott,

written by Dan O'Bannon,

based on a story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett,

was released in the United States on May 25, 1979.
Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Cast:

Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton, Eddie Powell.

Recommended reading:

Alien

By Alan Dean Foster.

Filmed as Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott.

Published by Orbit.

Published 1979.

ISBN-10: 0708816789

ISBN-13: 978-0708816783

Description:

Where was Earth?

This was not their galaxy. A strange sun lit the sky with orange rays. In their long cold sleep, the seven space travelers had left their own universe behind, and now their monitor told them that on the planet revolving below them, someone was signalling for help. By space law, they must descend, explore and render assistance. But they would carry weapons. For who could tell what being called to them – or why. All they knew was that it was Alien.

Alien: Movie Novel

By Dan O'Bannon.

Edited by Richard J. Anobile.

Published by Avon.

Published 1979.    

ISBN: 9780380466313

ISBN 10: 0380466317

ASIN: 0380466317

Description:

A Movie Novel of the film 'Alien' - a graphic novel using photographs from the film.

On this day in movie history – M*A*S*H (1970 movie & book):

M*A*S*H

directed by Robert Altman,

written by Ring Lardner Jr.,

based on the novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker,

was released in the United States on March 18, 1970.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Rene Auberjonois, David Arkin, Jo Ann Pflug, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Michael Murphy, Indus Arthur, Ken Prymus, Bobby Troup, Kim Atwood, Timothy Brown, John Schuck, Dawne Damon, Carl Gottlieb, Tamara Wilcox-Smith, G. Wood, Bud Cort, Danny Goldman, Corey Fischer.

Recommended reading:

MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors

By Richard Hooker.

Filmed as M*A*S*H (1970), directed by Robert Altman.

Published by William Morrow Paperbacks.

First published 1968.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0688149553

ISBN-13: 978-0688149550

Description:

Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth. The doctors who worked in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) during the Korean War were well trained but, like most soldiers sent to fight a war, too young for the job. In the words of the author, "a few flipped their lids, but most of them just raised hell, in a variety of ways and degrees."

For fans of the movie and the series alike, here is the original version of that perfectly corrupt football game, those martini-laced mornings and sexual escapades, and that unforgettable foray into assisted if incompleted suicide – all as funny and poignant now as they were before they became a part of America's culture and heart.