Filmmaker Takes on Dan Aykroyd in UFO Video Market
http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=20097

Filmmaker Takes on Dan Aykroyd in UFO Video Market
by: rjthomas

(OPENPRESS) June 8, 2007 -- 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.