Vestigial remains of the Eye of Horus

leading from
H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

Wadjet - Eye of Horus

a) Once I worked out the heavy inspiration from embalming ritual image form Necronom IV, I had on my computer page a selection of Googled Egyptian images which contained somewhere down the line Eye Of Horus and I had my Necronom IV image open and I noticed something similar about the latter's pipes to the structure of the Eye Of Horus, and it made more sense when I turned the Necronom IV painting upside down and remembered the fact that when I turned the Necronom painting around I found some clues to how it might have inspired part of the structure of the Space Jockey and its contraption at which it sits.   
(see part A of Evolution via Giger's Necronomicon part 2 of Unlocking the design of the Space Jockey)

wadjet from Papyrus of Ani

b) We're told about the Eye of Horus symbol: "The Wadjet (or Ujat, meaning "Whole One") is a powerful symbol of protection in ancient Egypt also known as the "Eye of Horus" and the "all seeing eye". The symbol was frequently used in jewellery made of gold, silver, lapis, wood, porcelain, and carnelian, to ensure the safety and health of the bearer and provide wisdom and prosperity. However, it was also known as the "Eye of Ra", a powerful destructive force linked with the fierce heat of the sun which was described as the "Daughter of Ra". The "eye" was personified as the goddess Wadjet and associated with a number of other gods and goddesses (notably Hathor, Bast, Sekhmet, Tefnut, Nekhbet and Mut). " (source: www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/eye.html)

Wadjet - The Eye of Horus

c) If we further look at Egyptian symbolism, we can take the Necronom image, flipping upside down and back to front. The pipes begin to resemble the lines that make up the eyebrow and eye rim of the Eye of Horus. The coil at the end of the part that sprouts from below the Eye of Horus to the right can be compared to the phallic rear part of the creature's long cranium.

d) See more versions of (i) The Eye of Horus /Wedjat/ Udjat , (ii) Multiple Eyes of Horus/ Wedjats/ Udjats and (iii) Scaraboid Multiple Eyes of Horus/ Wedjats / Udjats 

e) See Also Alien In The Brain

Inverted Necronom IV

Giger's Facehugger inspired by the opening of the mouth ritual

Leading from:
H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries
and
Giger's early facehugger concept

work 364, (Giger's Alien, p11)

1. H.R.Giger "Since it had to pry open the victim's mouth, I gave it an instrument something like the old Egyptians used on their dead to force open the mouth and let the spirit out" (Cinefex 1, p36)

   

   Opening of the mouth ritual

2.  "At the entrance to the tomb, the mummy was raised to an upright position, the Sem-Priest would then speak the words of ritual while lesser-ranked priests would purify the coffin with water and incense. At this point a 'adze' was raised to the lips of the face of the coffin / mummy - the adze was raised in this way twice, then a forked instrument (a Pesesh-Kef) a knife or wand touched the mummy - this was very important! - Now the senses of the mummy were magically restored - an ox was then slaughtered and one its forelegs offered to the face of the mummy (with the possible reason of restoring the sexual powers of the deceased)." (Taken from www.ilikeegypt.com)

   

   a Pesesh-kef

3. "The Peseshkef, a prehistoric flint knife in the shape of a fish tail, was used in Egypt to cut the umbilical cord at birth, circa 5000 BC. This was the first special-purpose surgical instrument.
   
   Because of the importance of rebirth in the Egyptian religion, a stylized knife with magical properties became part of the equipment for the "opening of the mouth" ceremony to permit a mummy to partake of nourishment in the afterlife. It also became the emblem of the birth goddess, Meskhenet." (source http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8190422)

The Was-Sceptre, the head of the alien?

seated humans and deities bearing was-staffs from the Papyrus of Ani

Leading from :

H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

&

The Development of Necronom IV

a) Comparison between Was-Sceptre head and the head of Necronom IV
In the head of the Necronom IV beast, we find a curved dip in the pipes handing from the side of the head and creatures the impression of a space for a false eye and perhaps one can compare it to the placement of the eye on a certain Was-sceptre found amongst the treasures of Tutenkhamun,

Detail of head from Necronom IV. Notice the false eye 
shape where he pipes dip half way along the head

Was-sceptre from treasures of Tutenkhamun. Compare the eye with 
the placement of the pipe didps in the head of the Necronom IV

b) My introduction to the Was-Sceptre connection
My attention to the question about the alien head being inspired by the form of a Was-sceptre came from a post by "Batchpool" at Prometheus-movie.com who on September 7th 2012 presented the a photo of a sculpture of Ptah holding a was-sceptre which I managed to see 3 days later. (This statue of Ptah has been thought to be the inspiration for the Oscar awards statue)

statue of Ptah holding a was-sceptre

c) Background behind the Was-Sceptre
On the walls in various tombs, depictions of various deities and pharoahs carrying the Was-Sceptre

have been found bearing the stylised head of a beast known as a set-animal or a Typhonic beast. Used as symbols of power and then a symbol of control over chaos. The stylised representation of the head found in wall  paintings looks curiously like the alien in the most generalised way.

"The was (wahz) ("power, dominion") sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art, and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion. It appears as a a stylized animal head at the top of a long, straight staff with a forked end.
Was sceptres were used as symbols of power or dominion, and were associated with the gods (such as Set or Anubis) as well as with the pharaoh. Was sceptres also represent the Typhonic beast or Set-animal (the mascot of the Egyptian god Set). In later use, it was a symbol of control over the force of chaos that Set represented.
In a funerary context the was sceptre was responsible for the well-being of the deceased, and was thus sometimes included in the tomb equipment or in the decoration of the tomb or coffin. The sceptre is also considered an amulet. The Egyptians perceived the sky as being supported on four pillars, which could have the shape of was sceptres. The was sceptre is also the symbol of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, the nome of Thebes (called Waset in Egyptian).
Was sceptres were depicted as being carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests. They commonly occur in paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and often parallel with emblems such as the ankh and the djed-pillar. Remnants of real was sceptres have been found, constructed of faience or wood, where the head and forked tail of the Set-animal are visible, with the earliest examples dating back to the times of the first dynasty.
The was is also the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that stands for a word meaning power. (Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Was)  

 H.R Giger's Black Room, Egyptian Burial chamber,
on the third floor of his parents' house at Storchengrasse 17, Chur, 1958
(source,  WWW.HRGIGER.COM (book) p9)

wall carving of Horus  holding was-sceptre
from the Dendera temple complex

Horus carrying a was-sceptre from the
 tomb of Nefertar

detail of was-sceptre head

d) Giger's Black Room
We can find Giger's painting on the wall of his Black Room when he was a teenager, and it shows images of Ra carrying a was-sceptre so we know he was familiar with the idea of this object. What is more, intended for the film premier he created design for a staff that bore the head of the alien on the tip similar to the head of a was-sceptre, based on an idea from Mia Bonzanigo.

H.R.Giger in his Black Room,  Egyptian Burial chamber,  1957
 (source: Giger's Necronomicon p12)

Giger's design for silver Alien walking stick walking stick,
 for Premier in Hollywood (work 405, Giger's Alien)

e) See also Was-Sceptre. the hammerhead tip of the derelict?

f) For more information about Was-Sceptres see www.joanlansberry.com

 

Just over 4 inches (10.5cm) at the Cairo museum #61787
Photo from Tutankhamun, text T. G. James, photos A. DeLuca
http://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/nk-was.html

 

Was-Sceptre head at the Victoria and Albert museum,
complete with an upper body at the top, 

A was sceptre from Kmt.
(source :egyptsearchreloaded)

was-sceptre(source: ancientegyptonline)

Alien: Alternate endings for Alien

Leading from
Alien: Making the Movie  

a) Alien in a flask?
A storyboard (above) by Ridley Scott for Alien showed a version of the creature huddled in a perhaps a stasis flask, with no further words given about the idea.

b) Alien kills Ripley and pilots the Nostromo
Gordon Carroll and Ridley during their evening ruminations after the shoot, would always sit there with a drink, mostly like the Little Rascals that Gordon made, with their feet throbbing on the desks and they would be asking "How will we finish the movie?"

Back in 1978, a person could drink and drive, no one really cared. Correctly made vodka Martinis are lethal, but Gordon was the master of making the, Ridley learned from him and that would be his favourite drink for many years to follow.

They would be drinking in his office just before they wrapped up for the day at 8pm, sitting there ruminating saying "you know this ending, and you know it's not quite right" and so Gordon and Ridley like a pair of typical genius, after two vodka martinis on that occasion started having a conversation

Obviously wanting something slightly different from the idea that Dan had come up with for his original Alien script. One night they came up with a bright idea about killing Ripley, they thought,  "wouldn't it be great if he comes out the wall, comes out the box, Sigourney gets the suit on, the thing comes at her, she gets the space gun and shoots him in the chest, and he goes out through the door but it makes no difference, he just rips the harpoon out of his chest, comes forward, and this thing can rips through the visor, tears her head off and basically kills her?"

So they were going "wow, that's a great idea"

And then Gordon asks "And then what"

Ridley continued "Well, then what? You got the desk with all the buttons"

And then this hand comes in and starts you know, pausing over the buttons, taking them all in, big shadow of the great head, ok. And then the hand, tap tap, tap, tap tap tap, so we have intelligence. You even hear the creak and he& then a quite good interpretation of Dallas   voice comes from this creature behind you which has been listening to Dallas or listening to her, maybe, maybe copying her voice and does the last signing off speech saying `hopefully the network system will pick me up, this is Lieutenant Ripley da da da, signing off, hopefully you ll pick me up , cut into space and see this capsule shooting into space with an alien in it. Ok?

Then the scene cuts to the desk and the audience sees the shadow of the great kind of horse's head shape of the alien's head, and there is the creak as it sits in the leather seat and the hand comes in over the buttons and starts to press them tentatively, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, so we have intelligence. You even hear the creak. Then a voice comes out, and it would be a pretty good mimic of either Dallas or Ripley, maybe copying her voice sending a message back to Earth doing the last signing off saying "Hopefully, the network will pick me up, this Lieutenant Ripley" da da da "signing off, hopefully you'll picking me up" cut into space, see this capsule shooting through space towards Earth with an alien in it OK?"
 
Ridley and Gordon in their slightly inebriated state thought this was such a great end that they decided to get on the phone immediately with Hollywood, and

Ridley talked about this with Laddy (Alan Ladd Jr) and perhaps Gareth Wigan, perhaps Tuesday night. Laddy and Wigan would always talk in the speak phone so you always knew you were talking to a room full of people and Ridley described the end and there was this huge pause, silence, and they said "Well, we don't think that's a good idea."

Perhaps within 18 hours or certainly by Thursday morning, Gareth Wiggan and David Giler arrived from LA in the studio saying, saying "What the..., what are you talking about? Are you crazy? Are you out of your minds?"
Ridley admitted "Yes,  I know I had a bad idea"

So they never got to do that, and Ridley admitted that they were right

c) Spore beneath the Nostromo

Online version of Dan O'Bannon's original script mentions that the escape shuttle has a spore pod adhered to the underbelly of the craft.

d) Spore in the Nostromo
One idea was to have an egg on board the Narcissus, Once they showed a preview to the audience a final scene where there was a cocoon in a corner of the shuttle. Giger thought it was very nice but they cut it out, he wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to take it out, he saw some rushes which he liked but decided that if Ripley thought it should be taken out, then it should be

e) Facehugger alert
Bill Pearson had heard talk at the end of the film about doing a shot of the facehugger clinging to the Narcissus ending which inspired  Geoff Topping an interviewer for Fantasy FX International to remember that had seen a storyboard where is looked as if the Alien was realised as an amorphous piece of jelly secured to an engine, Bill went on to further talk about what he remembered, how Sigourney would be seen in the hypersleep chamber and then the camera pulls back through the hull to see a living part of the alien. Miniature models of the alien were made up to be positioned around the engines of the Narcissus but they were never shot. There was also extensive use of bluescreen of the side view of the Narcissus. Dolly passes on the large section of the Nostromo were filmed, so that they could be used as a background element as the Narcissus flies past at the end of the movie. Dennis Bartlett oversaw the filming and they were shot on the model stage but were never used

Quote source

1. As SNARK 2 drifts past camera, we suddenly see that A SPORE POD IS ADHERED TO THE UNDERBELLY OF THE CRAFT. (Online version of the original Alien script) 
   
2. HR Giger:  Oh, yes. There was an egg on board. Once we showed a preview audience a final scene where there was a cocoon in a corner of the shuttle. That was very nice but now it is no more. There were a lot of different ideas in the original version that they thought it was best to take out. I don’t know whether it was a good idea to take it all out. I just saw some rushes and they looked good. But if Ridley decided to take it out, then it should have been taken out, because I think he is a genius. We always agreed about things so I think if I saw both versions, I would like his final version better.  (Famous Monsters of Filmland #158, p32)
3. Bill Pearson: There was also talk at the end of the film that we were going to do a shot of a face hugger clinging to an engine
   
   Geoff Topping: There is a similar concept in one of the early Alien storyboards - where the Alien is realised as an amorphous piece of jelly - where it is secured in an engine
   
   Bill Pearson: The idea was that you would see Sigourney in the hypersleep chamber and then pull back through the hull where you would see a living part of the Alien
   
   We also made up miniature Aliens to position around the engines of the Narcissus but they were never shot. There was also extensive use of bluescreen of the side view of the Narcissus. Dolly passes on the large section of the Nostromo were filmed, so that they could be used as a background element as the Narcissus flies past at the end of the movie. Dennis Bartlett oversaw the filming and they were shot on the model stage but were never used (Scifi & Fantasy FX International 48, p26)
4. (1:50:08) Ridley Scott: Er, it's an interesting thing... anecdote to say but um we thought, at one stage, er, Gordon Carroll and I, much rumination in the evenings after shooting, we'd always sit there with a drink and our feet up throbbing on the desk and er, we were saying "How will we finish the movie?" And we came up one night with the bright idea of actually, at the very end, killing Ripley, and erm, we thought, "wouldn't it be great if he comes out the wall, comes out the box and she shoots him in the chest and he goes out through the door but he just rips the harpoon out of his chest, comes forward, and basically kills her?" Then you cut to the desk and you see the shadow of the great kind of horse's head over the desk and you hear the creak of the seat as the.... sits in the leather seat and the hand comes in over the buttons and starts to press tentatively on the buttons. And then this (01:51:00) voice comes out, which is a pretty good mimic of either Dallas or Ripley sending a message back to Earth saying that they're on their way.  And therefore you have the alien hurtling through space in a shuttle going towards Earth. Of course I recounted one evening over the telephone to Laddy and I think Gareth Wigan. I think that was a Wedn.... Tuesday night. By Thursday morning we had two executives arrived from LA saying, "Are you out of your minds?" you know. And I said" Yes I know I had a bad idea" but ye-huh-huh-huh, (chuckle) but erm , err, whether they do another one or not, I don't know. And erm, Ripley still lives, so there you go.  (Commentary from Alien Quadrilogy)
5. Ridley Scott:  And there always a funny story cause Gordon Carrol and I we d always ruminate every evening after a day s work or however late it was cause Gordon was the master of making a vodka martini. And so he would& in those days he s drink, you could drive and drink, I mean nobody cared. Now of course correctly vodka martini is lethal. And but Gordon is the master of vodka martini. That s how I learned to make vodka martini, off Gordon Carrol you see. And they re still one of my favourite drink. And so we d had one of those before you wrapped at 8, sitting in the office. So we d always sit in there ruminating saying `you know this ending and you know it s not quite right... and Gordon and I like a pair of geniuses, I think we d had 2 vodka martinis on this occasion, we started talking saying if we have, and... Sigourney gets the suit on, this thing comes at her, she gets the space gun, she shoots this thing in the chest but it makes no difference. And this think hand, rips through the visor, tears her head off and we then& kills her. So we re going wow, that s a great idea. And then what, Gordon said. I said Well, then what? You got the desk with all the buttons. And then this hand comes in and starts you know, pausing over the buttons, taking them all in, big shadow of the great head, ok. And then the hand, tap tap, tap, tap tap tap, so we have intelligence. You even hear the creak and he& then a quite good interpretation of Dallas   voice comes from this creature behind you which has been listening to Dallas or listening to her, maybe, maybe copying her voice and does the last signing off speech saying `hopefully the network system will pick me up, this is Lieutenant Ripley" da da da," signing off, hopefully you ll pick me up' , cut into space and see this capsule shooting into space with an alien in it. Ok?
   Interviewer that 's a great end.
   Ridley Scott: so, Gordon and I thought it was such a great end we decided get on the phone immediately with Hollywood and I remember getting Alan Ladd and Gareth Wiggan on the phone and they d always talk in the speakphone so you always knew you were talking to a room full of people and I described the end and there was this huge pause, silence, saying `well, we don t think that s a good idea   and I think within 18 hours I think Gareth Wiggan arrived... with David Giler in the studio saying `what the... what are you talking about?   you know, `are you crazy?   so we never got to do that. And they were right of course.  (As reported from the interview for Alien Evolution)

Ridleygram of the Refinery

leading from

Ridleygrams

and 

Nostromo

Ridley Scott's sketch of the refinery , with towers perhaps loosely
inspired by the skyline of Oxford known as City of the Dreaming Spires.

(from Alien: The Archive, p82, upper background cleared up using 
Photoshop because the picture was printed overlaying another)

 



(source: http://university.which.co.uk/university-of-oxford-o33)

Alien : Space Jockeys with Sommelier Knife bodies ?

leading from

Unlocking the design of the Space Jockey
and
HR Gigers art
and 
Giger's Necronom V

detail from Necronom v

a) I wondered for years about design ideas that Giger seemed to have had behind the strucuture of  entities in his artwork that would inspire the final Space Jockey. The form of the Space Jockey fused together with its space ship pilot seat and telescope in Alien appears to have been inspired by the form of the ancient Egyptian Henu barque and it's cradle and sometimes the entity without cradle were still inspired by the form of the henu barque because of the skull being placed upon one end of a bow shaped body.  I wasn't so sure that a Space Jockey should have two legs like a human being but for the sake of adapting the design of the Space Jockey as a humanoid, it can.

b) However Giger had drawn some depictions of the entity with a near noticably single lower limb and whatever was shown of the thing, some people had been inspired to ask whether it had one leg or two? Perhaps the other leg was hidden, but it reminded me of a complicated pen knife apparatus. Giger's painting "The Samurai" was of a "space jockey" type entity but a different body and then I soon realised, November 1st 2013 that its body reminded me of a sommelier knife which is a foldable wine opener invented by a German named Karl Wienke back in 1882, which is something that virtually every household is going to have . The depictions of such entities with a single visible lower limb also reminded me of an unfolded sommelier knife, sometimes known as the "Waiter's Friend". Since the invention of this device, there have been numerous slight variations, some with shapes extremely more organic than others. In Giger's view this figure at the centre of Samurai is a "nucleus" composed from sword like elements.

Detail from painting of the planetoid landscape (work 385) 
showing Space Jockey with one visible lower limb

dead alien astronaut sketch from Giger's Alien Diaries 
with one visible lower limb with an almost blade like foot

Laquiole Wine Opener

HR Giger's The Samurai (1976)

Giger: "Samurai, 1976, Work no. 295, (100 cm x 70 cm), is similar to Work no. 312, as far as the fusion of the figure with the surrounding environment is concerned. The painting is of a cross-section of a tissue containing a metallic nucleus. The Samurai is constructed out of sword-like elements and is suspended in an organic case, suggesting a link between the Samurai and the case. "  (http://www.hrgiger.com/boards.htm)

Bordeaux Wine Openers

Tuscany Wine Opener

Famous Monsters of Film Land, #159, p29, 197

leading from 

Organic box like thing

 and 

Alien Resources

ROSS- Our Man About Hollyweird and active filmonster buff, shares some fascinating inside info with us:

Something moves in the darkness.

Ripley spins, turns her lights toward the movement.

Hanging from the ceiling is a huge cocoon. The body of Dallas inside.
COCOON?

Where? When?

Well, as the story goes, if the higher-ups at 20th hadn't had their way, you would have seen it. Strangely enough, prior to the first (studio) screening in LA, I'd spoken to Ronald Shusett (a co-writer & the producer) and he too wondered if 20th would leave the scene intact. As a matter of fact at that same LA screening he was not invited. 20th would fly the principal writer & some technicians to a public sneak preview out of state in order to see the audience reaction.

Well, as it happened (allegedly), the people screamed, were sickened or left the theatre. So in came the scissors and bits and scenes thought too graphic were snipped. Still sticking with an R rating sure to a stomach wrenching scene to the film. 20th played it safe

When I spoke to Dan O'Bannon at a later sneak preview his commentary on the editing was one of very escapist nature. "You should have seen the more graphic version." he said. But he defended the cuts too, saying 20th chopped for length.

What  scene went? First, if you remember Parker & Lamber being attacked near the end, recall the alien's tail slowly rising between her booted legs; well, earlier in the film, when Brett was the first attacked, that same tail, with its knife-edged point, rose between his legs and droves its end into his spine, killing him and pushing his body forward. Why they allowed the suggestion of this without completion during the film puzzled me and why her body was unclothed when Ripley came upon the corpses lacked explanation.

As for the cocoon, during the earlier portion of the film after the deaths of Brett & Dallas, Parker loudly questions where the bodies are etc. Near the end, during Ripley's frantic rush about, she stumbled onto the place where the alien made its nest, In it, hanging from the ceiling, are cocoons, one weblike & transparent, one dark, stone-fray like the alien egg. Inside the web is Dallas, seemingly dead, maggots eating thru his face - and suddenly his eyes flair, scaring Ripley. His voice almost inaudibly weeps for mercy. "Kill me! Please ... kill me!" She raises her flame-thrower and blasts the chamber into an inferno.

Some scenes were shot of the alien closeup, of it folded like a weird-looking box, but it was decided this would give us too graphic a look at the beastie, so snip! snip! snip!

Finally, returning to Lambert & Parker's murders, when we see the result of the creature's attack we notice that her bare legs are hung midair, but we are not shown why. Well, the alien came thru the airs shafts; that's where it shoved the body. This footage & more exists and the Good Word is that ALIEN might be re-released later on with the X-rated footage included for the strong of stomach & spine who have survived the R-Rated version and want to go All the Way with ALIEN.

 

full article from Famous Monsters of Film Land, #159,

October 2015

Leading from

updates 2015

Wednesday 14th October 2015
1) Continued to develop the page The story so far on Dali's Soft Construction with boiled beans (Premonition of civil war) with full understanding that about 99.999% of people with an interest in Alien would absolutely have no idea what it has to do with anything to do with Alien, but I have just come to realise that the strange construction may as well be a plough. which would be quite a resonable thing for him to transform like this.

Tuesday 13th October 2015
1) Added " Goya's "Unos á otros" also inspire the shape of the buttocks in Dali's painting" to Goya etchings inspired Salvador Dali's "Soft construction with boiled beans (premonition of civil war) " ? 
2) Added image of Tree of Life as seen in the Mayan Dresden Codex to the page about Ron Cobb's birth temple for Alien. This tree of life looks as if it is a tentacled monster coming out of the human victim, and there is something similar in Cobb's artwork.
3) Created a main page for Salvador Dali's "Soft construction with boiled beans (premonition of civil war)" which links to other pages dealing with the various subjects about the painting 


Monday 12th October 2015
1) Added William Gibson on Alien 3
2) Changed "Salvador Dali's  "Soft Construction With Boiled Beans (Premonition of civil war) inspired by Francisco Goya's "Subir y bajar"to "Salvador Dali's  "Soft Construction With Boiled Beans (Premonition of civil war) inspired by Francisco Goya's "Subir y bajar" to
with the discovery of another Goya etching Goya's "Todos caerán"(All Will Fall) that  inspired the form of the buttocks in the named Dali painting  that has now been added to the page
Goya etchings inspired Salvador Dali's "Soft construction with boiled beans (premonition of civil war) " ? 


Saturday 10th October 2015
1) Added Blade Runner: The City talking about the ideas for the city in Blade Runner generally coming from the minds of Ridley Scott and Syd Mead and also something to point out would be that when William Gibson started thinking about an idea for Alien 3, he wanted to have it set in a Blade Runner type sey, but this was seen as being too expensive. This article will be expanded on more and more


Wednesday 7th October 2015
1) Updated Reaching "Alien: Paradise Lost" (Prometheus 2) with information from awardscampaign.com/2015/10/07/ridley-scott-teases-new-group-of-travelers-in-prometheus-sequel-alien-paradise-lost/  
 


Tuesday 6th October 2015
1) Updated Carl Sagan and Alien with information from ( https://www.yahoo.com/movies/Ridley Scott on Bringing 'The Martian' to Life and How He's Reviving 'Blade Runner' , September 29, 2015)


Saturday 2nd October 2015
1) Further alterations to The Thing (2011)


Friday 1st October 2015
1) Added Derelict scenario for The Thing (2011) but now it is turning into an article about The Thing (2011) going beyond the simple need to talk about the background scenario. Indeed this blog seems to want to talk about the whole genre of films connected with the Alien franchise

2) Added Kuiper's Monster concept for John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)

Alien: Chris Foss' Leviathan Sketch No.3

leading from

Chris Foss' early Nostromo concepts

a) Sketch no 3 suggests by its number that it may be a continued development of Sketch No. 2 although No2 was a near finished illustration.

 

 Chris Foss' Sketch of Leviathan, no.3 (courtesy of Charles Lippincott at Facebook, 1  and 2 )

from Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss

b) Mike Jackiw at Charles Lippincott's Facebook page offers a comparison between the 

design of this vessel that is the Earth Defense Flagship Andromeda from mid 1970s 
Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamoto, and this can also be said about Chris Voss'
Sketch No. 2

Flagship Andromeda from 1974-75 anime series Space Battleship Yamoto

Alien : Egg silo exterior

leading from

The Egg silo

a) Where Ridley had been going
Ridley Scott had been experimenting with the idea of an egg silo inspired by the Castle Harkonnen,
and had been exploring the idea of a giant rocket capsule shaped derelict ship with Moebius before he left.  (see: Moebius derelict exterior and Ridley Scotts Early Egg Silo Exterior )

Ridleygram of structures on the planetoid (image from weyland-yutaniarchives)

b) What Giger drew
HR Giger designed a breast shaped building called the Egg Silo, a hundred and fifty metres tall and two hundred metres in diameter.  He drew the images in April of 1978. Perhaps he borrowed the shape from Ridley's early idea for a derelict ship that he work on with Moebius. It also included ideas from Giger's painting Dune I which showed an entrance to the Castle Harkonnen.

Egg Silo exterior (uploaded by me, taken from Giger's Alien)

Egg Silo exterior (uploaded by me, taken from Giger's Alien)

Egg Silo exterior (uploaded by me, taken from Giger's Alien)

Giger's Dune I (Entrance to Castle Harkonnen), 1976

Ridleygram of explorer climbing up the side of the egg silo

c) Giger's Painting
In the painting, in the rock formations, suggestions of perhaps long fossilized life forms. Perhaps the  rock sticking out of the lower ground to the left of the building is a half formed impression of Cthulhu type entity with its tentacled face and thick claw. Giger had brought his designs at the time over to Shepperton for approval on March 30th of 1978, although they were met with general approval, he is told that his egg silo would be too expensive to build.

Quote source

1. HR Giger: The designs I brought with me meet general approval. The eggsilo (plate 378) can't be built because it would be too expensive. Pity! (Giger's Alien, p14)

378: Egg Silo exterior (uploaded by me, taken from Giger's Alien)

d) Kenner Alien Logo

The design of this structure would be used in the logo for the Kenner Alien toys that would soon be sold.

e) Also see Candidate for a Giger Cthulhu

curious detail from 378: Egg Silo exterior