Ridley Scott’s legendary sci-fi horror Alien finally returned to its horror roots with the latest franchise installment. Fade Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus seems to be a worthy successor to Scott’s space horror film, bringing the franchise a much-needed hit. Though many filmmakers have taken over the franchise, Scott’s original remains the best.
The filmmaker recounted the painstaking process of getting the film made and how four directors before him rejected the script due to the chest-bursting scene. He also mentioned the design process of the Xenomorph and how designer HR Giger was insistent on making the alien even more disturbing.
Ridley Scott Had To Stop His Designer From Overworking In Alien
After his debut feature film, The Duellist won Best First Work at the Cannes Film Festival, Ridley Scott reportedly caught a screening of Star Wars and abandoned his plan to make a film on Tristan and Iseult. According to THR, the filmmaker was unsure how to make a medieval romance when George Lucas was making space operas.
As fate would have it, Scott manifested what he wanted to do and the script for Alien reportedly came into his lap and he agreed to helm it. The filmmaker employed Swiss designer HR Giger, known for his Lovecraftian creature designs, to design the Xenomorph, the alien in the film.
While Scott felt they had cracked the design when he saw Giger’s work Necronomicon, the designer wanted to give a better and more disturbing design. However, Scott wanted him to work on the other aspects of the film as well and stopped him from doing so. He said to THR,
He kept saying, ‘I can design something better.’ I kept saying, ‘No, this is it. You’ve got enough to design with face huggers, chest bursters, eggs, etc. And by the way, I’d like you to take on board designing the planet and the ship.’ I said, ‘Listen, let’s put this alien to rest on the basis that I think we have it. We can always come back to it.’
The filmmaker also mentioned that his experience as a designer led him to make sure he gave Giger enough time to work on the other stuff and not spend all his time and resources on the Xenomorph.
Ridley Scott Had To Convince Fox Studios To Hire HR Giger As They Did Not Like His Work
Swiss artist HR Giger was known for his work that was categorized as ‘biomechanical’ art. The artist was known to toy with monochromatic designs of aliens and mythical creatures resembling the works of HP Lovecraft. While his design in his book Necronomicon was perfect for Ridley Scott’s Alien, the studio reportedly did not think so.
Ridley Scott mentioned that he had to convince Fox Studio executives to the point of him almost losing his job to keep HR Giger as they felt his work was too s*xual. He said,
Fox at the time thought Giger was a bit obscene and a bit rude and a bit s*xual. And I said, ‘This all sounds good to me,’ which nearly saw me off the case.
The filmmaker also had to convince Giger to join the film and bring him to London by train as he was not keen on flying.
Alien is currently available to stream on Hulu.
