December 2015

Leading from

updates 2015

December 29th 2015
1) Begun the production timeline for Aliens showing events from November 1985 featuring details from three of the November 1985 callsheets.
2) Updated Dave Dorman's Predalien: mid 1990s with information from The Geek Twins interview

December 28th 2015
1) Added image of the Sutton Farm extraterrestrial encounter drawing sot HR Giger's Illuminatus (1978)
2) Added thoughts on Mordor XII (work 296) . Questions about it being related to someone's episode with flu and a steam inhaler

December 26th 2015
1) Added more details about HR Giger's involvement with Timothy Leary at the time of the painting Illuminatus, from Vice magazine
2) Added HR Giger's Landscape X

December 24th 2015
1) Added Pantheistic winged Bes incorporated into The Spell I
2) Added stele of Horus with Bes as guardian inspired The Spell I

December 23rd 2015
1) Made The Spell I into an index page for pages dealing with the painting.
2) Added: Giger incorporates features from the Egyptian god Bes into The Spell I 
3) A separate page has been made for Mental expansion through the 2001: A Space Odyssey's stargate
4) A separate page has been made for  Giger's The Spell I  compared with Cristo Redentor of Rio De Janeiro

December 22nd 2015
1) Comparison between The Spell I  and Cristo Redentor of Rio De Janeiro

December 21st 2015
1) Started developing Giger: The Concept Of The Biomechanoid further into a sort of an essay by itself. It previously was a couple of notes in connecting with the Giger and the Necronom series but is expanding. Writing something like this can often simply melt into pointless words that people can often have absolutely no clue what the point of anything being said is which has been a problem with Giger's work because none of it was intended to be verbally specific.

December 20th 2015
1) Added Giger's drawing Die Atom Kinder to Giger's Artwork.
2) Added Giger's afterthoughts on Necronom IV to  The Development of Necronom iv
3) Re-edited Giger and the Necronom series

December 19th 2015
1) Added details from the Aliens interview from Science Fiction Film Making In the 1980s also published in L'Ecran Fantastique to Aliens:writing the script and Aliens: Signing up Weaver


December 17th 2015
1) Exploration of H R Giger's unused Dragon Sketch For "Reign of Fire""

December 14th 2015
1) Added Prometheus: Pilot chamber platform inspired by Warhammer 40,000 illustration? 
I understand that this might all seem unlikely but some of the artwork from the first book was interesting for its time as a British publication.
2) Added question about Techno-Medieval Look to Event Horizon inspired by Warhammer 40,000 to Event Horizon

December 13th 2015
1) Added a general observation about Giger's The Spell i 
2) Added words about Giger's views on Aleister Crowley to HR Giger's Crowley

December 12th 2015
1) Added Aliens: Writing the script, however at the moment there isn't much there apart from the exploration of what Ripley was doing as a character and Cameron's interest in trauma and Vietnam war. However I will continue to write summations of the various bits of information from various sources for this.
2) Created an index page for Alien: Covenant. The page that was formerly linked to has been broken down into two pages which have been linked to the index page.

December 9th 2015
1) Added some basic information from an Alien call sheet about the plan for November 24th 1978 to 
Alien production timeline November 1978
2) Added Richard Hoagland chats about Alien and HR Giger on "The Other Side Of Midnight"
3) Added Necronom II inspires Hellboy 2's Angel of Death?

December 8th 2015
1) Added namepage for Akihito Ikeda
2) Added Alien vs Predator: Alien Queen Quarter Size Maquette sculpted by Akihito Ikeda
3) Added Alien/Predator hybrid maquette sculpted by Akihito Ikeda
4) Added Alien vs Predator: Various alien maquettes at the moment just as a page to with links to the Akihito Ikeda 
5) Added The Ripley influence on "Fear The Walking Dead" (I'm sorry about the level of excitement it might cause for Alien saga fans, but this is about cultural impact)

December 7th 2015
1) Updated Patrick Tatopoulos' concept images for an Alien Queen with statements about the works and a comparison between the Alien Queen head and a canard winged jet fighter plane.
2) Corrected link from Transformations In Vlad Tepes (1978) to Giger's Vlad Tepes change from Mickey Mouse to Vlad The Impaler
3) Added Illustration by Enrique "Quique" Alcatena inspired by Giger's The Spell?
4) Added a name page for Enrique "Quique" Alcatena

December 6th 2015
1) Added Chris Cunningham's Appreciation for Alien
2) Added Connecting the Chris Cunningham's "All is full of love" video to Alien

December 5th 2015
1) A note about the fact that Giger took opium: I've just been listening to an interview with Stanislav Grof who knew Giger and wrote a book about his work fairly recently. There was back at the time when Giger and Dan O'Bannon met each other for the first time in Paris for the Dune project that Giger offered O'Bannon some opium. Grof revealed that Giger had been prescribed large doses of opium to deal with the depression that he was suffering from. I might imagine he was still traumatised over the death of Li Tobler. That revelation came from The Expanding Mind podcast hosted by Erik Davis (http://expandingmind.podbean.com). I've now added that piece of information to "Dune And The Gathering". 
2) Created a separate page for Similarities between Giger's "The Spell III" and "Stillbirth Machine"

December 4th 2015
1) Added Neil deGrasse Tyson saw Prometheus
2) Added another section to hr giger's biomechanical landscape 1979 asking if there's some sort of connection to the 1961 movie, The Mask

December 1st 2015
1) Added Necronom V's Upper figure's boat shaped body inspired by Easter Island Rei Miro sculpture
2) Added Necronom II: Inspired by Egyptian winged scarab
3) Added index page for the two articles on Necronom II.  Indeed I count the connection with Lord of the Rings as still valid.

Dr. David Watling

a) David Watling's Alien Head

b) The Alien's Tail

Alien Echoes

leading from

Alien 

1. Ron Cobb's Nostromo concept inspires Terrahawk's Battlehawk
2. Chris Foss's derelict concept inspires Firefly's Serenity?
3. Illustrated Story from Starblazer comic book  
4. Clive Barker (writer/film maker) on Alien 
5. Philippe Caza's Alien (Ou les enfants, le pere et l'autre) Metal Hurlant 104 (1983)
6. Patrice Garcia's 1992 concept for a Mondoshawan from Luc Besson's The Fifth Element.
7. Moebius Alien derelict inspires Dalek building in Doctor Who 
8. Cocoon (1985) 
9. Monster concept for John Carpenter'sThe Thing (1982) inspired by Alien?
10. Did the cocoon scene Ridleygram inspire the movie Brainstorm's hell?
11. "Ship of fools" comic book story from Doctor Who Weekly #23-24 
12. Record cover illustration by Dan McPharlin for "The Sword" by Warp Riders features a Narcissus inspired spaceship?
13. Carlos Huante's The Pilot 
14. Australian surrealist James Gleeson draws an alien arm
15. Marc Caro (illustrator and film maker) and Alien 
16. Joe Cornish (film director) on Alien
17. Chris Cunningham (illustrator and film maker) and Alien
18. Sylvain Despretz (illustator) and the Space Jockey
19. Gareth Edwards (film maker) and Alien
20. Christophe Gans (film maker) and his appreciation of Alien
21. William Gibson (writer) inspired by Alien 
22. Jon Landis (film maker) and Alien
23. Neil Marshall (film maker) on Alien
24. Greg Nicotero (film maker and special effects makeup creator) on Alien
25. Nicolas Refn (film maker) on Alien 
26. Eli Roth (fllm maker) was inspired by Alien 
27. Bragi Schut (scriptwriter) and Alien 
28. Ben Wheatley (film maker) and Alien
29. Edgar Wright (film producer) on Alien
30. When Noomi Rapace (actress) saw Alien
31. When Michael Fassbender (actor) first saw Alien
32. Billy Crudup (actor) liked Alien
33. Alex Garland (Film maker and writer) on Alien 
34. S. T. Joshi on Lovecraft's influence on Alien
35. Distant Echoes of Alien as a box in Hannibal S.3, Ep 2 ?
36. The Ripley influence on "Fear The Walking Dead" 
37. Star Wars comic # 38 (1981) : Riders in the void 
38. Chat about Alien and HR Giger on Richard Hoagland's The Other Side Of Midnight   
39. Anthony Peake on the chest burster experience as a reflection of an altered state   
40. Anthony Peake and the matter of "In space, no one can hear you scream"
41. JA Bayona hires Sigourney Weaver for A Monster Calls, as a fan of Alien
42. David Rubin's concept art for Alex De La Iglesia's El Santo, (Cancelled in 2017)
43. Guillermo Del Toro (film maker) and Alien 
44. Chris Nolan (film maker) on Alien, Alien 3 and Blade Runner 
45. Alien beast by Fraco (often attributed to Moebius)

Alien 5: The return of Michael Biehn as Hicks

leading from
Neil Blomkamp and Alien 5
 

a) Biehn's appreciation of Blomkamp's work
When Michael Biehn saw District 9, he was glued to his seat uttering words such as "Wow"

b) Biehn's understanding of the film story
Neill Blomkamp brought forth the idea of making another Alien movie, or more so an Aliens movie that would include Michael Biehn as Hicks. 

 

Despite the fact that Biehn's character Hicks and the young girl Newt died at the beginning of Alien 3, both characters would be brought back to life for this movie as if Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection had never occurred. 

 

It would be a question of passing the torch onto the character Newt , who would be about twenty seven years old but would be played by someone other than Carry Henn.

1. Icons of Fright: You mentioned your 40-year career point and I’m curious, at this point in your career, having played so many iconic characters, is there perhaps a type of film you look for that you haven’t yet had the chance to do or how do you decide whether or not do a film?
   Michael Biehn: I don’t work that often. At this point, I’ve been able to be a part of some many great movie, but I don’t think there’s going to be another TERMINATOR or ALIENS or THE ABYSS or TOMBSTONE. If it does come along, I’ll see it and I’ll know it and will definitely jump on it, but the older you get, the less likely you are to get those parts. I’m really pleased with my resume’ and what I’ve done in my life so far, as far as an actor and a director. I directed one thing and that was THE VICTIM and  having to write that movie in twelve days and doing pre-production while writing it and even shooting it in twelve days, I’m very proud of that little movie. Who knows though? They’re talking about doing another ALIENS movie, with Neill Blomkamp, and Fox came and announced it and Sigourney (Weaver) has come out and announced it. The basic idea is acting like ALIEN3 and 4 never existed, so if you go on Neill Blomkamp’s site, everyone can see all of the artwork for that. I know Ridley Scott is doing his movie first and is going to be the executive producer on this one, so I’m really looking forward to that. I know that Ridley’s focus is on the second PROMETHEUS (now titled ALIEN: COVENANT) and I’m sure that he and Fox both don’t want that and Neill’s movie to come out right next to each other, because they’re kind of two different worlds, with ALIENS taking place thousands of years later, which is how they explained it all to me, but at the same time, they want to give them a similar feel. I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.
   Icons of Fright: Oh trust me, I agree with you, I’m dying to see THAT one. 
   Michael Biehn: I think when they put that out there and have pictures with me as Hicks again, people were excited and though I’m not into online stuff much, my kids saw a lot about it on Reddit. They were excited. They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old. I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that’s what the bottom line is now: money. That’s why you end up seeing TERMINATOR 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10 and THE FAST AND FURIOUS 7, 8, 9, and 10. So when that happens, the ALIENS film, maybe that will be one more movie that I can make a mark with, plus, Neill is such a talented guy. When I saw DISTRICT 9 for the first time, I was glued to my seat, going “wow”. So I’m hopeful for that one. (http://iconsoffright.com/2015/11/18/interview-michael-biehn-talks-comedy-series-24-hour-rental-alien-5/ - 18th November, 2015)

Alien: Umbilical

leading from

Physicality of the humanoid Alien creature

a) Working with Ridley's fragmented impressions

a.i) Ridley  abstract words

Ridley was a man very approachable and down to Earth.

Ridley was always trying to grasp words to describe verbally what he wanted in terms of picture and then he'd get frustrated and just grab a camera to do it himself . 

 

Ridley would come out with statements such as a "no, I want is er, you know I want these umbilicals, all hanging you know, like you know an aliens 'umbly',"

a.ii) Guy Hudson does impressions of Ridley

Then Guy Hudson who was one of the younger production members of staff who liked to poke fun at people.

 

It got to a point where he would start behind doing impressions of Ridley behind his back "what I want is these umbilicals and the like alien's like fucking you know hanging there, you know".

a.iii) Ridley's tolerance for Gyt's humour

 

Someone pointed out, "Ridley's right behind you" and Ridley was there.

 

Jon Sorensen saw how he accepted this behaviour without complaining, and so appreciated the way Ridley was able to handle this, although Guy knew that he had been caught out.

Model of 7 month old foetus with umbilical cord
and placenta (source; www.anatomystuff.co.uk )

b) The Umbilical

b.i) Intermediate stage

 

Asked about the creature's intermediate stage, Ridley talked about the alien's tale being referred to as an "umbilical"  but it was not so much a tail in his point of view but a muscle of immense tensile strength. 

 

He wanted it to seem to look like an umbilical cord most probably more than a phallus. and it was in the scene where the creature comes down from the inside of the landing leg and kills

b.ii) Brett's death

 

He had to make sure it seemed like an umbilical cord for the scene where the alien was suspended in the air in the shaft and the tail needed to hang down if the tail was going to suddenly come down between Brett's legs to pierce his spine.

b.iii) Organ curiously protruding from the groin

It was here that tail like structure was certainly protruding from the creature's groin area. However we might ask if Ridley kept using the term "Umbilical" for the tail all the way through the production.

Quote source:

1. Jon Sorenson: But was very quickly that Ridley Scott was a force to be reckoned with, he was so approachable, erm and seemed to be very down to Earth, there was no bluff and bluff, there, this was highlighted by the fact that one day Guy was doing one of his impersonations of him, and he said er, Ridley was,  he always trying to grasp and and and and and sort of describe verbally what he wanted in terms of pictures and then he'd get frustrated and he'd just grab the camera, you know do it himself, this is Ridley, and he said "no, I want is er, you know I want these umbilicals, all hanging you know, like you know an aliens 'umbly," anyway this was Guy doing this, he said "what I want is these umbilicals and the aliens like fucking you know, hanging there, you know " and "Ridley's right behind you", and he took it completely on the chin and I thought he was alright, and Guy was like that banished for a bit.  (Alien Makers I, (53:00 onwards))
2. Fantastic Films: In the alien's intermediate stage, when it kills Brett, how did you plan to show its growth since "birth"?
   Ridley Scott: We wanted to show he was big, but we didn't want the audience to know how big. You're not quite sure whether he stands, hangs or what.  At that point we wanted the whole interest of the audience to be focused on the head and the "umbilical cord". It's really just a long muscle with immense tensile strength but it looks like an umbilical. (Fantastic Films, #12, p22)

Alien: Flying Bedstead

leading from

Nostromo

 

 

a) The Flying Bedstead was a small vehicle for making manual repairs outside of the Nostromo that would have been used by Brett and Parker, but they never got around to shooting the scene, and so it seems that the vehicle was never actually made. Ron Cobb's design looks roughly inspired However. by the shape of the Nostromo exterior with the engines specifically.

b) Ridley's sketch for thing thing makes the vehicle look very single to the extent it might turn out to be like a cross between a child's go-cart and foldaway work bench

c) The name is taken from the nickname for a thrust measuring rig in 1954 that was a vertical take off and landing vehicle developed by Rolls Royce that was nothing much more than a machine with a frame

1. Ridley Scott: The one we were going to use in the sequence where they go outside to make repairs on the ship.  (Fantastic Films, #12, p22)

 

Ridley's storyboard

Flying Bedstead in flight, 1954

The original Flying Bedstead from 1954 now
in the Science Museum

Greeblies

Leading from

Lexicon

Michael Seymour: "We developed this thing called, what we called Greeblies, and greeblies were bits of anything from bits of plastic washing up bottles to wiring, fuse boxes, pipes, anything you can... and they were, dressing crews got very good at this, you, you you'd have this empty corridor and you go to the dressing room and say there would be Greeblies all over that wall and they would set to it, they would do it and they were very good, and they were very creative and when they were all screwed into place with lots of wiring coming out and pipes and so on and then we'd spray it all more or less the same colour, and then put like red signs on something here, bit of lettering there, so we built up this, this it was a texture really, a sort of a high tech texture going on everywhere in the ship" (Alien Makers III, 57:47 - 58:36)

Multiple Eyes of Horus / Wedjats / Ujdats

 leading from

The Eye of Horus /Wedjat 
Scaraboid multiple eyes of horus/ Wedjat/ Udjat

and 

Vestigial remains of the Eye of Horus

During the Third Intermediate Period, (1070 BC- 664 BC) examples of multiple wedjat eyes appear, in belief that more protection would be bestowed upon the wearer than with a single Wedjat . Some are just one eye placed upon the other and others are often carved into a scaraboid form. 
(See also scaraboid multiple eyes of horus)

Faience Triple Wedjat Eye.  Once a property of the Royal Athena Galleries.  
During the Third Intermediate Period, examples of multiple wedjat eyes appear, 
in belief that more protection would be bestowed upon the wearer. 
(http://www.fragmentsoftime.com/faience_triple_wedjat_eye.htm)

Triple Wedjage 
www.antiquesnavigator.com/

A fine spacer from a three-strand necklace with representations 
of nine udjat eyes (the Eye of Horus).( source http://www.uned.es/)

This rare faience amulet is a disk that presents a convex side with twenty
eight human eyes neatly arranged in four rows, and a flat reverse side
with a single, large, deeply engraved Udjat eye with the traditional black
markings. It was probably worn as a pendant, offering twenty nine times
the magic power of a single eye pendant.

“The function of an eye amulet, reinforced by multiple forms,
was the provision of sight in the Other World.” (Andrews 1994:69-70)
(http://www.virtualegyptianmuseum.org/)

Alien: The Nostromo's garage borrows ideas from the Chamber of the Gods from Jack Kirby's The Eternals?

leading from

Alien: Nostromo: The garage leading to the Claw room

and 

Jack Kirby

 

a) While I have noted such things as Tutenhkamun's tomb as an inspiration as well as the Egyptian tomb scene from Tintin and the Cigars of the Pharoahs, 

I also think that the strange tomb from the Jack Kirby's The Eternals plays a part where we discover the giant sculpture of a space craft, as well as curious three passenger descent vehicle, and later another aerial vehicle.

This would help inspire the garage with the various vehicles that Ridley imagined being like a strange temple or tomb

 

b.i)  Double page spread The Eternals #1, July 1976

In The Eternals, the group fo explorers discover a giant sculpture of the Incan's space god in his chariot. Since I think that it looks as if Ridley Scott's production team were looking for ideas in this comic books series, perhaps that could be turned into one of the human sized vehicles of Alien.

 

 

 

 

b.i.1) Illustration by Jack Kirby from The Eternals

 

 

 

b.i.2) The drawing of the helijet by Ron Cobb

b.i.3) The rear of the helijet in the Nostromo garage set

b.i.4) Side view of the front of the front of the helijet on the film set

b.ii) Three passenger descent vehicle from The Eternals #1, July 1976

 Perhaps that's something that could be seen hanging like the landing leg in the Claw room

 

b.iii) The chamber with a small aircraft hanging from ceiling from the tomb in #2 in a scene where a crypt door is being opened

b.iv) Very large doors leading into another chamber

 

b.iv.2) When the Eternal named Ajak who had been perceived as a Sky god has been revived in issue 2  a large pair of open doors are opened to reveal a control room and beyond a titanic giant humanoid suspended like a giant idol in the air. 

 

A flight controls room is revealed

 

That might be something that contributes to the giant doors that lead into the landing leg room

The panels here are not shown as they are in the Eternals comic book but they are in the right order

 

 

 

 

 

b.iv.2) The Nostromo garage leads up to two large doors that open up to the landing leg room

b.v) Giant Celestial as the hanging idol

b.v.1) A following panel would show a giant Celestal seen in the distance hovering in the distance over a plinth in #3 and perhaps it too looks almost like some sort of giant hanging idol

 

 

 

 

b.v.ii) The landing leg set which Ridley Scott would compare to a hanging idol

Alien: Afterthoughts

leading from

Alien

See:  Terry Gilliam inquires about the funding
Terry Gilliam sees Alien
 

 

See:  Carl Sagan and the Alien

See:  Kubrick wanted to know about the chestburster scene

 

See:  J G Ballard on Alien

 


See:

See: Alien vs High Rise 



See: Into the Minds of the Production Crew

See:   Galactic Geography.

See:  Harboring the remains of Li Tobler

See:   Jean Delville's influence on Giger  




See:  The Development of Necronom IV 


 
See:  HR Giger 's Life Cycle Hieroglyphics Tableau

See:  Necronom V: Biomechanised Pakal Votan Tomb Lid.

  

See:  Space Jockey's origins in "Swiss Family Robinson"?

See:  Echoes of ideas from Star Trek The Animated Series?

Alien by way of Tintin
a) See: Traces of "The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure" in Alien?
b)See: Triangle image found with alien pilot remains from original 

Alien script references "The Adventures of Tintin: The Black Island"? 
c)See:   Brett's death scene references The Adventures of Tintin and The Cigars of the Pharaoh by Hergé as published in La Petit Vingtieme #4, January 1933 ?  
d)See: "Waldo-like" repair vehicle by Chris Foss references panels from a page from Les Adventures de Tintin: Les Cigars du Pharaon published in Le Petit Vingtième no.4, p9, January 1933, by Hergé?

Alien by way of The Pink Panther
a) See: HR Giger: On the trail of the Pink Panther
b) See: Alien: Development by way of the Pink Panther movies?

  See: Giger's alien spore, a homage to Lovecraft's The Old Ones ?

 

 

 

See: Jack Kirby's The Living Totem referenced in the Alien suit?

 

 

 

 

See:  Chestburster design references creature from panel in 

The New gods #5 (October-November 1971) by Jack Kirby?

See:  Mystery of the poster in relation to Jack Kirby's Manhunter "The Stone of Vengeance"

See:  Asterix and Alien

  See: Human To Spore Stage Like Saprophytic Fungi?
 

See: The Moray's Eels Pharyngial Jaw

See:  History of The Beast with Metal teeth

Asterix and Alien

 

Alien male face rape theme stemming from José Farmer's "Strange Relations"?

 

 

 

Alien in relation to Blade Runner

Francis Bacon vs Alien vs Eraserhead vs Shivers

 
Ivor Powell's treatment for an Alien prequel/sequel

 

The derelict as a rescue ship and crypt?

 

Trails of inspirations for the derelict ship scenario

Alien and the anti-life equation

 

 

  

 

The Space Jockey's Story

 

 

 
Temple Of Mysteries 
a) Nostromo interior echoes Kabbalah tree of life?
b) The Secret Doctrine & Simon Deering's Auto Destruct Panel
c) Treasure room temple environment
d) H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries
e) Inspired by Von Daniken's concepts?
f) Summoner of the Demon
g) Pazuzu 
h) Alien In The Brain

i) Jewel associations

 

 

Alexandre O Philippe's "Memory-origins of Alien"