THE OMEN The Omen is a 1976 British suspense/horror film directed by Richard Donner. The film stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson and Leo McKern. It is the first film in The Omen series and was scripted by David Seltzer, who also wrote the novel.
A remake, The Omen 666, was released on June 6, 2006, a release date chosen because of its reference to the Number of the Beast (666). But it's crap, so i don't want to writte about it.
PLOT
THE OMEN
The premise of The Omen comes from the end times prophecies of Christianity. The story, set in Fulham, England, tells of the childhood of Damien Thorn, who was switched at birth in Rome with the supposedly stillborn child of a wealthy American diplomat with only the husband's knowledge, in order to keep it from affecting his wife. Damien's family is unaware that he is actually the offspring of Satan and destined to become the Antichrist.
CURSE
A documentary entitled "The Curse of 'The Omen'" was shown on British television in 2005. The production of The Omen was plagued with a series of incidents which some members of the crew attributed to the operation of a curse. They wondered if these events were due to supernatural forces trying to prevent the filming of the movie. Instances include the following:
Scriptwriter David Seltzer's plane was struck by lightning.
Gregory Peck, in a separate incident, had his plane struck by lightning.
Richard Donner's hotel was bombed by the Provisional I.R.A..
Gregory Peck canceled his reservation on a flight. The plane he had originally chartered crashed, killing all on board (a group of Japanese business-men).
A warden at the safari park used in the "crazy baboon" scene was attacked and killed by a lion the day after the crew left.
Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers.
On the first day of shooting, the principal members of the crew were involved in a head-on car crash, one of whom was decapitated like a character in the actual film.
This documentary later appeared on the two-disc thirtieth anniversary DVD release of The Omen and in the Pentology DVD set.
Scriptwriter David Seltzer's plane was struck by lightning.
Gregory Peck, in a separate incident, had his plane struck by lightning.
Richard Donner's hotel was bombed by the Provisional I.R.A..
Gregory Peck canceled his reservation on a flight. The plane he had originally chartered crashed, killing all on board (a group of Japanese business-men).
A warden at the safari park used in the "crazy baboon" scene was attacked and killed by a lion the day after the crew left.
Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers.
On the first day of shooting, the principal members of the crew were involved in a head-on car crash, one of whom was decapitated like a character in the actual film.
This documentary later appeared on the two-disc thirtieth anniversary DVD release of The Omen and in the Pentology DVD set.
NOVELS
David Seltzer, The Omen. (Futura, 1976). 
Joseph Howard, Damien: Omen II. (Futura, 1978).
Gordon McGill, Omen III: The Final Conflict. (Futura, 1980).
Gordon McGill, Omen IV: Armageddon 2000. (Futura, 1983).
Gordon McGill, Omen V: The Abomination. (Futura, 1985).
Both the movie and the novelization were written by David Seltzer (the book preceded the movie by two weeks as an effective marketing gimmick). For the book, Seltzer took liberties with his own material, augmenting plot points and character backgrounds and changing details (such as character names — Holly becomes Chessa Whyte, Keith Jennings becomes Huber Jennings, Father Brennan becomes Father Edgardo Emilio Tassone, et cetera).
The second and third novels were novelized forms of their respective movies and more-or-less reflected movie continuity. Interestingly, Gordon McGill retroactively changed the time period of The Omen to the 1950s, in order to make The Final Conflict (featuring an adult Damien) take place explicitly in the 1980s. Although neither the first Omen movie nor its novelisation mention what year the story takes place, it can be assumed that its setting was intended to be the year the movie was released (i.e. 1976).
Gordon McGill, Omen III: The Final Conflict. (Futura, 1980).
Gordon McGill, Omen IV: Armageddon 2000. (Futura, 1983).
Gordon McGill, Omen V: The Abomination. (Futura, 1985).
Both the movie and the novelization were written by David Seltzer (the book preceded the movie by two weeks as an effective marketing gimmick). For the book, Seltzer took liberties with his own material, augmenting plot points and character backgrounds and changing details (such as character names — Holly becomes Chessa Whyte, Keith Jennings becomes Huber Jennings, Father Brennan becomes Father Edgardo Emilio Tassone, et cetera).
The second and third novels were novelized forms of their respective movies and more-or-less reflected movie continuity. Interestingly, Gordon McGill retroactively changed the time period of The Omen to the 1950s, in order to make The Final Conflict (featuring an adult Damien) take place explicitly in the 1980s. Although neither the first Omen movie nor its novelisation mention what year the story takes place, it can be assumed that its setting was intended to be the year the movie was released (i.e. 1976).
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