Hendrix and the asteroid movie boom of the late '90s: Michael Fairchild explains the connection
While we were researching asteroid movies for Monday's honorary tribute to Earth's near collision with an oncoming asteroid, one thing was pretty apparent: In the late '90s there were a relative shit-ton of asteroid/meteorite/comet/basic space-junk-getting-hurled-at-Earth movies. Turns out, Michael Fairchild, author of Rock Prophesy, Hendrix researcher for the Experience Music Project in Seattle and former author of liner notes for many of Hendrix's CDs, already noticed Hollywood's obsession with space rocks and had an inkling why this occurrence took place -- and it all links back to Jimi Hendrix, Paul Allen and Microsoft. Also, it's pretty weird.
The theory is pretty complex, so here's a basic outline:
- Michael Fairchild was hired to work on a movie about Hendrix, which was set to come out in the mid-nineties. He was also working with the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, putting together research.
- During his research, he found a theory written by Hendrix that predicted the end of Earth as we know it, the result of an asteroid collision.
- Fairchild sent the transcript of his book, about Hendrix's fascination with asteroids and his prophetic theories, to the Library of Congress right before. . .
- Fairchild lost his directorial status in the film and his work fell through on the project at the museum when Paul Allen funded a lawsuit filed by Al Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix's father, to break the contract with the company Fairchild worked with and instead signed a contract with him.
- Paul Allen, who is the co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, got a hold of Fairchild's manscript during the process of settling the lawsuit. He was connnected with Dreamworks, and consequently gave money to the production of Asteroid, Deep Impact and Armageddon just six months later.
Some people attribute the spike in asteroid movies to a response in public interest in the 1994 occurrence of an asteroid hitting Jupiter, Fairchild writes on his website, but those people are wrong: The asteroid movie craze was in direct response to the theories posited by Hendrix in his unpublished work, which were essentially stolen and manipulated by Paul Allen and Microsoft, according to Fairchild. In case you're still a bit confused (I am), here's some answers from the man behind the theory, Michael Fairchild:
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