Released on = October 31, 2006, 2:34 am

Press Release Author = Temple Productions

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = Gordon Cooper believed in UFOs, and, being a two-time space
traveler, he may have known more about them than most. But did he know about the
Jasper Incident of 1956? The mysterious tale of a little Colorado town is the
subject of \"The Top Secret UFO Project,\" filmmaker R. J. Thomas\' parody of UFO
documentaries.

Press Release Body = If anyone should know something about Unidentified Flying
Objects, it would be someone who has actually been in space. Gordon Cooper was the
first astronaut to make two orbital flights, and he made no secret of his steadfast
belief in the existence of UFOs. But did he know about the Jasper Incident of 1956?
The tale of the little Colorado town\'s close encounters is the subject of filmmaker
R. J. Thomas\' \"The Top Secret UFO Project,\" a parody of UFO documentaries.

In 1985, the then-58-year old Cooper spoke before a U. N. Panel Discussion on UFOs.
\"I should point out that I am not an experienced UFO professional researcher. I
have not as yet had the privilege of flying a UFO nor of meeting the crew of one,\"
he said. \"However, I do feel that I am somewhat qualified to discuss them, since I
have been into the fringes of the vast areas of which they travel. Also, I did have
occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of
different sizes flying in fighter formation, generally from west to east over
Europe. They were at a higher altitude than we could reach with our jet fighters.\"

\"Cooper told a TV audience on Merv Griffin that aliens have been on earth and are
here regularly,\" Mr. Thomas said. \"He believed he\'d seen UFOs and that other
astronauts did too and that the government covered the stories up. My film is a
spoof of those types of government cover-ups.\"

Based on Thomas\' 2004 novella of the same name, \"The Top Secret UFO Project\"
chronicles the UFO-related events experienced by the town of Jasper. According to
the film, the town dealt with one unusual event after another in the summer of 1956.
After a farmer spotted a flying saucer zipping over his property, 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 does not 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.\"

\"My film deals with people who try to tell the world that UFOs exist and no one
listens,\" Mr. Thomas said. \"There is always this great paranoia and drama. Doesn\'t
any government official want to step forward and say that UFOs exist and be on the
cover of Time? No, it\'s all a big secret. Gordon Cooper was someone who spoke up
and said that all this crazy stuff was real.\"

Cooper, one of the original astronauts of the Project Mercury, was launched into
space on May 15, 1963, aboard the Mercury-Atlas 9. He orbited the earth 22 times
and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined.
Two years later, Cooper flew as command pilot of Gemini 5 on an eight-day, 120-orbit
mission with Pete Conrad.

He is portrayed by Dennis Quaid in the 1983 epic \"The Right Stuff.\"

\"Cooper died in 2004 at the age of 77,\" Mr. Thomas said. \"Like MacArthur, he went
to his deathbed believing in UFOs and picturing a future with alien wars. These men
were pretty smart. Is anybody going to say that these guys were kooks?\"

\"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.



Web Site = http://www.BooksAndSuchMart.com

Contact Details = CONTACT: R. J. Thomas
Temple Productions
310-288-6605
rjt1976@yahoo.com