"Alien" | Ridley Scott + the franchise

[Tintin]

Still among my top ten favourite films ever are the first two films in the quadrilogy and especially Ridley Scott's treatments.

This fascinating 20 minute background video from Cinema Tyler titled: B-Movie to Masterpiece: How Ridley Scott Saved ALIEN | Making Film really does a very nice job of telling the story.

Description:

This is the story of how Ridley Scott saved Alien…before filming even a single frame.

The production company that bought the Alien script had a radical idea. They wanted to take what many would see as a B-level monster movie and make it deliver on an A-level. 20th Century Fox agreed to back the movie but they were skeptical and didn’t want to risk the amount of money necessary to make a serious science fiction horror movie.

It would ultimately be a little-known director named Ridley Scott whose first movie (The Duellists) had little success at the box office and second movie collapsed before it got started who would have to convince Fox to change their minds. But Scott would come to Fox armed with a unique vision and influences, including recycling ideas from a failed sci-fi epic…a sci-fi/fantasy take on the 12th-century romance story Tristan and Iseult.

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Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sG4JGn22fXA

We've also got the entire quadrilogy here in the library. I never tire of watching these.

Ridley was knocked off his feet when shown a copy of H. R. Giger's book Necronomicon as he had for certain then found the direct inspiration for the monster, right there, page 59:

[scotslad]

I thought Prometheus Was visually stunning and very absorbing that was a slow burn that pulled you right in

[yelik]

I suspect he had help and inside ET info like Stephen Spieberg

[Mari]

My abs fave Deep Space movie of all time - and Sigourney the best 'heroine', imho. Alien 2 wasn't bad either.

I remember reading somewhere that in the making of Alien, the cast and crew were seriously unnerved by the design of the creature.

[mountain_jim]

I owned an early graphics computer game in the early 90's (for my first pc) based on the art of Giger. (Dark Seed)

Dark Seed is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Cyberdreams in 1992. It exhibits a normal world and a dark world counterpart, which is based on artwork by H. R. Giger. It was one of the first point-and-click adventure games to use high-resolution (640 × 350 pixels) graphics, to Giger's demand.

Here's a good analysis review of Aliens I watched this week - though the first Alien by Ridley is my favorite.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3NRcq9-P4c

[meeradas]

Classic(s), def. Can remember that the first one's atmosphere nearly made me **** my teenage pants, back then.
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I keep watching the "2nd gen sequels" (Prometheus/ Covenant) for the amazing cinematography only, as i'm tired of the "creature"-side of things (just like Ridley himself).

[DeDukshyn]

Funny thing / synchronicity - Just the other day I was experiencing a hankering for some "Alien", but didn't know which one to watch ... then saw this thread and just tonight I settled on "Covenant". Not sure why all the hate for this title, It seems people who hated Prometheus automatically hated this even without watching it. Its not the best of the franchise but not bad either. It seems some people's issue was that it wasn't a reboot and carries on from Prometheus. I enjoyed it.

The original was amazing because it was a relatively low budget "B" movie that ended up over and above people's expectations. I do really feel though the later series movies lacked the giger-esque visuals, that helped make the first few episode. Alien and Aliens were classics.

[onawah]

I still remember the thrill of seeing the first "Alien" in a movie theater with a lot of other tense, gasping moviegoers.
Then what a suspenseful wait for the sequel!
Sigourney Weaver was superb and the special effects weren't bad, at least for that time.
I think my all time favorite scene was when she fought the alien with a forklift.
Ripley was a new kind of heroine for girls/women to aspire to.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=j51DfrLHUek

[Craig]

couldn't resist

[Sunny-side-up]

Yes classic films and mind openers.

I wish the last scene of the Alien tumbling off into space was different, It should have been tumbling towards the viewer and at the last second it motions to grab you, still alive in space o.0