UFO Movie Spoofs Roswell Alien Autopsy Footage

Roughly a decade ago, a London-based film collector named Ray Santilli stumbled upon a top secret government film that stunned the world. The 17-minute, 16mm footage showed an autopsy being performed on the body of an alien, one whose flying saucer crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, now the stuff of legend. The unearthing of such secret footage is the subject of parody in "The Top Secret UFO Project," filmmaker R. J. Thomas' spoof of UFO documentaries.

"The Roswell UFO Incident of 1947 was kicked off by a rancher who found the debris of a crashed flying saucer in one of his fields," Mr. Thomas said. "People claim there were alien bodies inside the spaceship, and that the government performed an autopsy on one of the bodies while a camera rolled. In my film, I spoof the uncovering of such old, controversial government footage."

Based on Thomas' 2004 novella of the same name, "The Top Secret UFO Project" chronicles the UFO-related events experienced 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. After a farmer spotted a spaceship fly over his house, 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.

"The Top Secret UFO Project" has created some internet buzz and landed Mr. Thomas a guest spot on "The 'X' Zone," Rob McConnell's internationally-syndicated radio program which deals with the unproven and the unexplained.

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 1970s like "Overlords of the UFO," and of TV programs like "In Search Of."

Mr. Santilli's discovery took place in Cleveland, when the film collector was looking for rare home movies of Elvis. He met a man who claimed to have shot footage of the Roswell alien autopsy, which showed two men in white contamination suits cutting open the body of a creature from outer space. Mr. Santilli bought the footage and sold it to the Fox Network, which broadcast it as a special in 1995.

In "The Top Secret UFO Project," Mr. Thomas portrays a
documentary filmmaker who, in 2003, discovered (by accident) some top secret government films at a yard sale in Chatsworth. The films turned out to be about the Jasper Incident of 1956, and the secrets the government kept from the public. 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.

"The debates over whether the alien footage is real or not will go on forever," Mr. Thomas said. "Most believe it was a hoax, cleverly faked in grainy black and white with the camera going in and out of focus. It only added more controversy to the Roswell legend."

"The Top Secret UFO Project" is available on DVD at
BooksAndSuchMart.com.

"The Top Secret UFO Project (DVD Promo)" is available for viewing on GoogleVideo.com and YouTube.com.