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Saturday, January 4, 2014

"Alien" Explorations Index

Posted on 9:03 PM by thoms


Look out at The Alien Explorations page on Facebook for latest updates.,
or
Twitter.com/ExploreAlien
or even
View the Aliens Explorations thread at AVPGalaxy.net

1. Alien 

2. Aliens

3. Alien 3

4. Alien Resurrection

5. Aliens vs Predator

6. Aliens vs Predator : Requiem 

7. Prometheus


Other Alien blogs to explore:
Strange Shapes - Weyland Yutani Archives

Forums to visit
AlienExperience.com - AVPGalaxy.net - PrometheusNews.net- Propsummit.com

Sites to journey to
Dennis Lowe's website - Martin Bower's Model World - Monsterlegacy.blogspot.co.uk. 
& my exploratory Alien fan art and ideas site,
 AlienPredalienAdInfinitum


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Aliens

Posted on 8:34 PM by thoms
leading from
Aliens


Acheron

James Cameron removes the human to spore stage

The Alien Queen

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Alien 3

Posted on 8:30 PM by thoms

Renny Harlin and Alien 3

Riddle of  the Alien 3 beast with 4 legs

The Shadow of the Sphinx

The Beginning of Alien 3

ADI's Alien 3 dog alien 

Gino Acevedos alien painting guide 

Cocoons

Haven't a clue about Bishop 2

Sigourney Weaver photographed by Helmut Newton

 
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Alien Resurrection

Posted on 8:20 PM by thoms

Joss Whedon injects vampiric blood into the script
The Resurrection of Ripley
Homage to Ken Russell's "Mahler"?
The Viper Pit / Nest

Almost directed Alien Resurrection
Matthieu Kassovitz was considered for Alien Resurrection
Danny Boyle almost directed Alien Resurrection
Paul W Anderson almost directed Alien Resurrection

Artists
Sylvain Despretz
Chris Cunningham / Halls
Steve Wang
Jordu Schell
unnamed

Giger's responses to the issue of his credit in the film
 Giger's letter to 20th C Fox no.1 (November 13th 1997)
Giger's letter to 20th C Fox no.2 (December 19th 1997)

Echoes from Alien Resurrection
Chris Cunningham's "Africa Shox" music video.
Alien Resurrection inspires Pitof's Vidocq


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Alien vs Predator Requiem

Posted on 8:05 PM by thoms

The Evolution of the PredAlien
1) J. J. Booker's "Hy'brid" from the Facehugger fanzine 1993
2) Dave Dorman's Predalien mid 1990s 
3) Predalien in "Alien vs Predator duel"comicbook, 1995 
4) White hybrids in "Alien vs Predator: Deadliest of the Species" comicbook 
5) Alien vs Predator film's Hybrid Chestburster  
6) Marvel's Iron Spider: Inspiration for backspine concepts? 
7) Michael Broom's Predaliens
8) Farzad Varahramyan's Predaliens 
9) Justin Murray's Predaliens 
10) Chris Ayers' Predalien
11) Predalien with side teeth concepts
12) Green Predalien concept drawings
13) Predalien facehugging victim
14)The Predalien  
15) Joe Nizzi's Biomechanoid Predator style Decepticons for Transformers 3, 2011

Children of the Predalien
1)The AVP:R Alien warrior 
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Prometheus

Posted on 8:00 PM by thoms

Prometheus: Return of the Space Jockey
1.) A New Beast, 2.) Prometheus' DNA,
3.) The name of the film,  
4.) The future as it evolves 5.) The New Weyland
6. ) Story of a man/"higher being" against the gods, 
7. ) Von Daniken's ideas, 8.) Pyramid in the Prequel, 
9.) The Doorway to the Next Chapter, 
10.) Pyramid in the Prequel, 11.) Origins of the Orrery 
12.) Planet Zeta 2 Reticuli 
13.) Questions about God and Paradise Lost


Cast and Characters
Noomi Rapace plays Elizabeth Shaw.  
Michael Fassbender plays an android,  
Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers
 
Production Crew
Scriptwriter: Jon Spaihts, Scriptwriter: Damon Lindelof, Production Designer: Arthur Max, 
Designer: Daniel Simon, Creature Designer: H. R. Giger, Concept designer: Alex Kzohanov / Gutalin ,
 Cinematographer: Dariusz Wolski,


The Space Jockey / The Engineers
a) Max's Headroom 
b) Engineer's Technology
c) The Engineer revealed to the public   
d) As Revealed In The Film
e) The Sacrificial Engineer
f) Ridley's design criteria for the engineers' world
g) Changes to space jockey's telescope viewer
 h) Engineer ships exterior designs 
i) Hammer shaped Primordial engineer ships 
ii)Alternate toroidal shaped engineer ships

Creatures
a) The Hammerpede 
1) introduction in the trailers 
2) The Facehugger Centipede

 b) Babyhead
1 ) Carlos Huante's Babyhead,  
2) Origins of Carlos Huante's Babyhead,   

c) The Development of Fifield

1) The Fifield Monster, 2) Ivan Manzella's Fifield Monster,  
3) H. R. Giger's Fifield Monster, 4) Alternate Fifield mutant, 
5) The final mutant Fifield,
6) Fifield found rolled up 
7) Question about a Huantes concept

Loose Ends
1) Star Map invitations and Mysteries of Planetoid Numbers

Afterthoughts
1)  Space Jockey as a suit origins
2) "Deacon Blues" and the blue Deacon ,
3) The Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman influence?,
4) Gary Larson and the Deacon's pointed head 
5) Holographic Universe as a theme
6) Henry Moore's "Head of Prometheus"?, 
7) Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels, 
8)"Alien Apocalypse" influence on Prometheus? 
9) Moebius' influence on Prometheus?
10) Exorcist: The Beginning & Dominion's influence on Prometheus?  

11) Max Headroom As Running Theme 
12) Ganesh with breathing pipe trunk 
13) Georgiou Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens and Joe Rogan talk about Prometheus


Hero Complex Festival 2010 Q & A
1.Scott in the VIP room refering to the Space Jockey as a suit, 
2. The Beginning, 3. Films back to back, 
4. Introduction to Sci-Fi, 
5. How Alien Came To Be And Seeing Star Wars, 
6. The Fifth Man, 
7. Scott  in Hollywood, 8. Calling Moebius,  
9. Budget and Storyboarding, 
10. Reading, 11. Not asked, 
12. Prequel is much more interesting than a sequel, 
13. Resurrecting the Franchise,  
14. Floating "Carcass" Comment, 
15. Explaining the space jockey, 16. Legend and flops, 
17. The Old Dark House, Underwater research, 
18. Europa, Io and to Zeta II Reticuli, 19. Terraforming, 
20. Faster Than Light, 21. Casting Sigourney, 
22. Ridley Scott on Blade Runner: 
(i) Harrison Ford in Blade Runner,
 (ii) Scott on the Blade Runner script, 
iii) Friction between Harrison and Ridley) , 
 23. Scott and the Camera, 24. The director and team effort,  
25. Film education,  26. Ridley's knee, 
27.Tony Scott's Student Films, 28.The Forever War, 
29.Audience questions time: i. Setting up shots, 
ii. Rehearsing with actors, iii. Robin Hood,  
iv. Western In Development, v. Sequel to Alien, 
vi. Blade Runner's difference to its source material, 
vii. Blade Runner the title 


Resources
HR Giger interview with Zuritipp, 13th August 2012
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

ghosts of Giger's biomechanics in Man of Steel

Posted on 3:36 AM by thoms
See the original article my other blog
The Wmmvrrvrrmm Blog
on June 19th 2013 

General Zod'S collar and Giger's ELP II work 218

a) My suspicions and ideas
In June 0f 2013, I went to see the Superman movie "Man Of Steel" and I noticed some of the obvious similarities to the work of HR Giger, it was being noticed generally by other people but I suddenly started noticing comparisons to imagery freely available artwork by HR Giger.  The Toothy collar of General Zod's collar reminded me of Giger's ELP II painting. b) The skull like General Zod's mask when turned dark became similar to that half hidden face in Giger's Li II and c) the walls of a Kryptonian environment similar to the lower abdomen of the Alien.

Skull like faces with breathing masks. A creature from Giger's Li II and General Zod's helmet
b) Zack Snyder acknowledges Giger
Later I have head from an article in Cinemovie.tv from June 13th that Zack Snyder had discussed Giger's artwork in terms of the designs of the scout ship and the Krypton environment, but could not say specifically about the costume department but all costume designers were exposed to all the production design and so it probably seeped in.
loose comparison to groin of Giger's Alien suit and wall of a Kryptonian environment
Source quotes 
  1. CineMovie asked Zack at a recent press conference with the cast and filmmakers about the connection.  Zack admitted there may be some influence, but for the most part it wasn’t discussed directly for the costumes.(http://cinemovie.tv, Thursday, 13 June 2013, )
  2. Zack Snyder: We talked about it.  I don’t think directly, but because we had talked about it in the Scout ship and Krypton. And the costume designers were exposed to all the production design and so it probably seeped in. (http://cinemovie.tv, Thursday, 13 June 2013, )
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Friday, January 4, 2013

Alien

Posted on 8:35 PM by thoms

Conceiving the story

Early Development of the Alien Script

The Original Alien Script

Selling The Script

Giler and Hill's earlier drafts

Ash the Robot

Early Artwork 


Production Begins

Dan the Script Surgeon 

Hello Moebius! Goodbye!

Harry Dean Stanton's Audition

Casting Kane

Creating the Movie

Nostromo 

 The Creature

The Derelict

The Planetoid

The Space Jockey

Into the Minds of the Production Crew

Painting of the planetary system

The Tomita Planets

Carl Sagan and the Alien

Harboring the remains of Li Tobler  

Alien's studio environments

Afterworlds
i. Summoner of the Demon, ii. Pazuzu, 
iii. Inspired by Erich Von Daniken?
iv.Inspired by Cronenberg's Shivers?
v. J G Ballard on Alien, vi. Galactic Geography:  
vii. H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries
viii. Jean Delville's influence on Giger , 
ix. The Development of Necronom IV  
x. Necronom V: Biomechanised Pakal Votan Tomb Lid?
xi. Space Jockey's origins in "Swiss Family Robinson"
 xii. 'Dead captain and missing crew' origins in Dracula  
xiii. The alien spore, a homage to Lovecraft's The Old Ones ? 
xiv. Alien vs Eraserhead
xv. Human To Spore Stage Like Saprophytic Fungi?
xvi. The Moray's Eels Pharyngial Jaw
xvii. The Beast With Metal Teeth 
xviii. Alien In The Brain 
xix Alien's relation to Blade Runner

Alien Echoes 
i. Ron Cobb's Nostromo concept inspires Terrahawk's Battlehawk
ii. Chris Foss's derelict concept inspires Firefly's Serenity
iii. Illustrated Story from Starblazer comic book
iv: Carlos Huante's The Pilot
 
Resources
Interview and Commentary transcriptions
i Edited Ridley Scott commentary for the Alien 20th Anniversary DVD  
ii. Raw Ridley Scott Commentary for the Alien 20th Anniversary DVD 
iii. Edited Alien Laserdisc Don Shay interview with Ridley Scott
iv. Raw Alien Laserdisc Don Shay interview with Ridley Scott 
v. FollowTheNerd.com interviewed Brian Muir at Heroes...
vi. Online version of the early Alien script by Dan O'Bannon
vii. Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray
viii. 2009 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival: Dan O'Bannon's "Howie" Acceptance Speech
ix. WTF with Marc Maron; Alien segment from Harry Dean Stanton interview 
x. O'Bannon's list of elements to be designed by Giger for Alien
xi. Dan O'Bannon on Alien (from Moebius Redux dvd extras)  
xii. Transcription of Film4's Ridley Scott introduction to Alien 

Essays
My essay from about 1998 that led me to do this site "Dissecting the derelict"


 
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Aliens Vs Predator

Posted on 8:10 PM by thoms
leading from
Paul W Anderson


The development of Peter Brigg's AVP script

Patrick Tatopoulos's concept work for alien lifeforms
1. Patrick Tatopoulos concepts for  the Alien Queen
2. Patrick Tatopoulos concept for the "Hybrid" Chestburster

Constantine Sekeris sketches for alien lifeforms
1. Constantine Sekeris' sketches for Alien facehugger, 
2. Constantine Sekeris' sketches for Alien warriors,
3. Constantine Sekeris sketches for an Alien Queen

Aliens In A Puzzle Box Pyramid

Von Däniken concepts in Alien vs Predator 

Borrowed from the Alien saga
1. Title Sequence, 2. Silhouette of the Alien Queen, 3. Nodding duck  
4. Reflections in the helmets, 5. Bishop returns again, 6. The Pyramid
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Lindelof sells Prometheus

Posted on 1:35 PM by thoms
Leading from
 Scriptwriter: Damon Lindelof

Damon Lindelof
Damon Lindelof in his interviews for Prometheus made some comments that perhaps aimed at self depreciating humour but on another side served words to state that it would be an inevitable disappointment  and there would be the opportunity for people to tell him that he screwed up a Ridley Scott movie and this statement would be the thing to have on his head stone. He may have said these things in jest but one might expect him to have more respect for his work on this multimillion dollar project that he's helping to sell to the public.
  1. Damon Lindelof: Everyone wants to know what the relationship is between the movie and Alien. And one could argue that we've set ourselves up for inevitable disappointment. But look who're you're talking to. If there's anybody known for inevitable disappointment, it's me, I'm Mr. Inevitable Disappointment. (Entertainment Weekly, May 18th, 2011, p36)        
  2. Damon Lindelof: I would rather have people for the rest of my career say, "you screwed up a Ridley Scott movie" than not say that to me than like, hey, like I got to be involved in a Ridley Scott movie.

    Interviewer: I got to screw up a Ridley Scott movie.

    Damon Lindelof: Not only did I screw up a Ridley Scott movie, I screwed up the first Ridley Scott scifi movie in thirty years, like, um, that, if that's not going to go on your head stone than what should?  (The Verge, (5th May, 2012, 34min 20secs))
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Friday, November 30, 2012

Prometheus Afterthoughts

Posted on 6:46 AM by thoms
Leading from
Prometheus

The Question of the Space Jockey as a suit
(i) The Space Jockey as a suit (ii) Just like "Fire in the Sky"
(iii)The "Independence Day" 's biomechanical suit

 Deacon Blues and the blue Deacon 

The Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman influence?
1) Gerald Scarfe inspired WETA's alternate Fifield monster?  
2) Ralph Steadman inspire the Final Fifield monster?
3) Gerald Scarfe inspired Trilobyte tongue? 
 4) Gerald Scarfe's Mick Jagger's influence on the Deacon?

Gary Larson and the Deacon's pointed head
 
Holographic Universe as a theme?  

Henry Moore's "Prometheus" drawings

Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels 

"Alien Apocalypse" influence on Prometheus?

Moebius' influence on Prometheus?

Exorcist: The Beginning & Dominion's influence on Prometheus?

Clock head from Dark City inspired Prometheus head? 

Max Headroom as a running theme? 

Ganesh with breathing pipe trunk  


Georgiou Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens and Joe Rogan talk about Prometheus


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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Prometheus' loose ends

Posted on 3:47 PM by thoms
leading from
Prometheus
  1. Star Map invitations and Mysteries of Planetoid Numbers



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Star map invitations & mysteries of Planetoid Numbers?

Posted on 3:39 PM by thoms
leading from
Prometheus' loose ends



a)  Invitation or not?
On one instance, Damon Lindelof didn't want to state whether the Engineers wanted the humans to visit them, and on another instance he did want to say yes, but still there was was something fascinating about humanity deciding to perceive it as an invitation. He notes that looking at the cave wall image leads to different interpretations, such as "This is where we come from" or "We want you to come here" and there is a question about where we are drawing that from

b) LV426 - LV223 = 203 LVs
Next in line from Damon is the idea that the moon the Prometheus lands on is LV223 and we know that LV426 is in Aliens the name of the moon where the derelict in Alien is found and Hadley's Hope in Aliens is built. For some reason he asks because of that whether they are actually in the right place, and I don't actually know why. There are hundreds of LVs around the galaxy and 203 LVs labeled since LV223 was catalogued, and in Aliens just over 300 surveyed worlds.

c) Zeta II Reticuli?
It is possible that Damon expects people to assume that Alien took place in the Zeta II Reticuli star system and as far as I can understand, it simply took place in an unnamed star system where the nearest known one was Zeta II Reticuli but these days a lot of fans just want to assume it must be Zeta II Reticuli because it seems easier , as does the producer of the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set, and indeed Jonathan Spaihts in the script that was released to the public online jumped onto the idea that the planetoid must be within the Zeta II Reticuli star system as well.

d)  Open guesses
However Lindelof asks how close were they to where the pictures on the wall was directing them. He asks if the fact that they got where they did was because they were just extrapolating “This is the system that has the sun with the sustainable life.” and says that it is only guesswork. We don't really have much to go on let alone have a discussion about since nothing actually relate to anything like a fact in this universe.


e) Those that were unaware
We have found out that the planetoid known as LV426 was the intended destination of the expedition in the earlier version of the script by Spaihts and so they changed it to another planet LV223 shortly afterwards.


f) Cinefantastique reviewers thought that Prometheus took place on LV 426
Some people who went to see the movie, and here we can point out the seasoned reviewers for the Cinefantastique website, Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French and Dan Parsons, really were not aware that the planet where Prometheus lands in Prometheus was not the planet where the derelict ship in Alien was found. Steve Biodrowski could not believe that they were the same planets because the planet in Prometheus was much more Earthlike than the one in Alien that had an almost primeordial atmosphere. Lawrence French was so sure it was supposed to be the same planet because there was the crashed derelict space ship and the space jockey and felt that maybe the atmosphere had changed in the decades between Prometheus and Alien. They had gone to see the movie without reading the interviews and trying to be informed by other materials outside of the movie that would have spoiled the plot and indeed were not alone as viewers who imagined that the planets in Prometheus and the Alien movies were the same unaware of any significance in the name given to this planet LV-223 rather than LV-426 which came from James Cameron's Aliens film. Since the film has come out, these reviewers may well have found out why the planets seem to be different.

Source Quotes
  1. IGN: Let’s get specific then – in your opinion, do these aliens want us to visit them?  

    Lindelof: That’s an excellent question and one that I’m not going to answer. But I will say that there’s something fascinating about humanity where we perceive it as an invitation. You look at a cave wall, there’s somebody pointing at some distant planets, and one interpretation is “This is where we come from” another is “We want you to come here.” Where are we drawing that from? I think another thing that’s interesting about the system that they visit is that the moon they land on in Prometheus is LV 223. And we know LV 426 is where the action takes place in Alien, so are they even in the right place? And how close are they to the place that these aliens on cave walls were directing them. Were they just extrapolating “This is the system that has the sun with the sustainable life.” So there’s a lot of guesswork.  (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/06/11/the-secrets-of-prometheus-with-damon-lindelof 11th June 2012)   
  2. Hey You Guys: Was there a juggling act with regards to explaining the unanswered questions about Alien while asking new questions?

    Lindelof: Prometheus is promoting a question which is where we created by these things and did these things invite us to this place? The answer to that is yes. 
  3. Steve Biodrowski: When they landed, Alien, the planet, I remember the line because it's one of the few that survived from Dan O'Bannon's script, the atmosphere was almost primeordial and  it's certainly not the atmosphere we're dealing with here, there were not signs of.

    Lawrence French: Yeah, but the atmosphere could change after all that time

    Steve Biodrowski: Yeah,  but not that much, there's not that much time that lapses between the two for that kind of change and there's no sign of an Earth ship that crashed there, you know, and it's a totally, and there's, your know, there's no water or anything on the planet. The planet's almost Earthlike in this movie.
     
    Lawrence French: Well that's the

    Dan Parsons: Mmhmm

    Steve Biodrowski: Well, there's a lot of explaining you need to do to get from this movie to what we saw.

    Dan Parsons: Yeah

    Lawrence French: Except that you've got the alien ship sticking out exactly like it does and the space jockey, so it's just, it's too much for anybody who's seen Alien, I think, to to just ignore it, if you have to say, I mean, is there another space jockey on another planet, it could be but, I didn't. (Listen to Prometheus podcast at cinefantastiqueonline.com)
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels

Posted on 6:08 AM by thoms
Leading from:  Prometheus Afterthoughts

 

In 1999, about dozen years before Prometheus came out, a comic book series called Alien Apocalypse :The Destroying Angels was published, taking place around 20 years after the events of Alien exploring the mystery of the derelict and its pilot the space jockey and its cargo of alien spores.  The comic book series was a very thoughtful in the way that it roughly exploring some of Ridley Scott's ideas for a sequel for Alien involving archeology although it ignored the idea that Ridley had about that the alien was being carried around by the space jockey's ship as a bioweapon since in the Dark Horse Alien mythos, this wasn't a direction they were exploring but it explored the suggestion that the alien life form had been to earth before.  What also made the comic book story interesting  is that the artists showed a genuine interest in exploring Giger's biomechanic architectural designs.

In the story, another derelict ship is discovered, one inspired by one of Giger's unused sketches for the derelict space ship. 

Giger's derelict sketch 374b
derelict ship from Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels

A star chart found aboard a derelict alien spacecraft leads the explorers to the homeworld of the space jockeys where they encounter a vast underground city. The space jockeys were a race that had colonized perhaps thousands of worlds.


However the Alien life form turned out to be something that had been destroying life through the universe, and had been found to have destroyed all life on Earth 3.2 billion years ago and cut the population of the space jockeys back. It was perceived as a life form that somehow restored the balance when space explorers intent on colonisation had over stepped the limit.



In the underground city,  a carefully sealed chamber is found where giants were subjected to some form of "catatonic suspension". On the verge of being exterminated by the Aliens on the planet, the giants resorted to an attempt to hibernate and outlast the alien life forms. However only one was able to survive the three billion years.


space jockey in hibernation
The Space Jockey in this story appeared to be an elephantine headed humanoid creature with a thick scaly hide and the long pipe running down the front of its chest ran beneath the skin and a thick ribbed slug like lower body. There was no attempt to define how this space Jockey's body was exactly structured. Many images in the comic book showed the dead partial remains of many with the lower part disappearing into the architecture




space jockey temple environment
space jockey's underground cityscape
 An alien spore was placed by a human upon the sleeping Space jockey to  see what happens when an alien gestates within the Space jockey, and it results in one of gargantuan proportions.
The next question that comes is whether some key ideas about the Alien mythos from the comic book series influenced the Prometheus movie. See also  similarities between Prometheus and the Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels comic book series.
 
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"Alien Apocalypse" influence on Prometheus?

Posted on 5:44 AM by thoms
Leading from:  
 Prometheus Afterthoughts & 
 Similarities between Prometheus and the Alien Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels.

a) a star map appears to lead homeworld of the space jockeys
Aboard a derelict spacecraft found in space, an elaborate chart
showing a fantastically detailed description of the Space Jockey's
journey is found
In Prometheus, a  reoccurring star system pattern is found on various ancient
tablets and the wall of a cave
b) Piles of bodies of multitudes of space jockeys have all be found dead with their bodies bursted open, in a corridor because of the alien life form released in the biomechanic environment.


 



c) A lone space jockey found alive aboard its civilisation's homebase in a some form of long term hibernation resting in a pod while the rest of his people have long since died

Discovery of Space Jockey found alive in "catatonic suspension" sitting in a
pod while his fellow space jockeys found around the ship in similar devices
have long since perished because of the Alien life form. The creature has an
abundance of pipes leading from the surrounding machinery into its body.
Discovery of Engineer found alive in a hibernation capsule while his fellow
engineers, many in the dome and some in hibernation capsules have all long
ago perished from a biological weapon that got out of control which through
hibernation, this Engineer had outlasted until unfortunately the humans who
woke him up and unleashed the biological weapon again. The humanoid has
an abundance of pipes leading from the surrounding machinery into his body

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Moebius' influence on Prometheus

Posted on 1:47 PM by thoms
Leading from:
Prometheus Afterthoughts

Master Burg from Aedena, 
image from the illustration
for the Moebius collector cards
a)When the Engineer was revealed to be a tall ethereal bald man with a bridgless nose that flowed from the forehead, straight into the ridge of the nose. I asked myself if there was a tall bald man in Moebius' artwork that might have been a starting point for Ridley Scott. Perhaps I remembered something from the Gardens of Aedena book but I didn't have it at hand to look at. Very soon after that, on April 28th 2012,  a Frenchman by the username of NGR01 at AVPGalaxy suddenly posted a drawing by the French comic book illustrator Moebius of a character named Master Burg. He had a lot more familiarity with Moebius' artwork than a lot of people on the site. NGR01's statement was : "The Engineers looks a lot like a cross between a Moebius character (master Burg from EDENA for exemple who is a giant humanoid) mixed with a Giger biomechnical suit."

the engineer in prometheus
Master Burg was a character who had the ability to shift his form, and was a representation of the character Major Gruber who often appeared in Moebius' drawings as a gentleman wearing a Pith helmet, but Master Burg was a mentor to the characters Stel and Atan. Some depictions of him make him appear near enough man sized and when he appears in Stel, he is shown to be at least a good foot taller than Stel who is a young adult male, here Master Burg appears to be near enough the dimensions of the Engineer in Prometheus.
page 8 from Moebius' comic book Stel,  
depicting Master Burg as a giant 
(source: http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

b) In the first weekend of February 2013, I picked up my copy of The Gardens of Aedena and read the scene where Stel and Atan, bald humans, wake up after a deep sleep and find themselves aboard a space ship. They find a control desk which they don't know what it is for, and then it turns out that it plays music that activates a domed shutter that pulls up unveils two seats that are for a small flying vehicle.

In Prometheus, the engineers plays a pipe and activates computers and a green globes forms infront of him, and shortly after that an intergalactic orrery suddenly appears. Despite differences, both activated technology by playing music and we know that Ridley Scott was using Moebius's comic books as reference.

panel from Moebius's The Garden of Aedena.  
source of image:theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/

Engineer from Prometheus activating the Juggernaut's 
controls by playing a flute 
(screenshots from the movie)

c) It soon became very obvious as soon as the first trailer shots of the Engineer fighting with the creature known as the trilobite in Prometheus, had been released had been inspired by scenes from  Moebius' illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's comic book story The Long Tomorrow. As evidence, the comic book pages containing those images were up on the wall in the art studio shown in the Charles De Lauzerika's documentary "The Furious Gods, Making Prometheus" that came on the Blu-ray edition of the film. Another point to note was the muscular physique of the bald man being attacked by the amorphous creature in the comic book story that might also be a part of the background of the inspiration that drove Ridley's vision of the engineer.
Moebius panel of  illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's
comic book story The Long Tomorrow. 
(source http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

Stills from Prometheus of the Engineer trying to fight off 
"the trilobite"
(screenshots from the movie)
Still and enlargement below from shot of Max in the art studio, 
that shows the Moebius comic book page,  from Charles De 
Lauzerika's documentary "The Furious Gods, Making Prometheus"

d) Once people made the connection between Prometheus and inspiration from Moebius' illustrations for O'Bannon's The Long Tomorrow. More images were revealed from the concept work on the Blu-ray set that bore echoes from the same source. A chestburster scene know as the sexburster that never made it into the final film, the naked man has the same pose as one of the panels from the same page in The Long Tomorrow.
One of Moebius illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's The Long Tomorrow
Holloway Chestburster Love Scene by Carlos Huante
"Sex Burster" concept work for Prometheus by Steve Messing ?
e) A copy of Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow" can be found beneath
the multi-tailed chestburster drawing by Carlos Huante as it lies upon the desk as he sits having a chat with Ridley Scott in the Furious Gods documentary.


Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow and other science fiction stories" can be found beneath the multi-tailed chestburster
Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow and other science fiction stories"

f) Following on looking for other inspiration from Moebius' comic book visions I continued to look further . Moebius' characters Stel and Atan turn up in Moebius' short comic book story Les Réparateurs, exploring an alien planet where in the side of a mountain they encounter a doorway that leads into an underground tunnel complex where they encounter Moebius the artist himself inside a glass cylinder, it may well be inspired by Paul Verhoeven's movie Total Recall . See theairtightgarage.tumblr.com for the full comic book story. The drawings here appear to me to have had some influence on the entrance to the pyramid, and the cargo bay of the juggernaut

Stel and Atan enter a wide low cielinged chamber supported by columns 
in Moebius' Le Monde D’Edena, Tome 6: Les Réparateurs, (Source: theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)
Wide low cieling entrance to Pyramid supported by columns in Prometheus
'natural' underground stalagmite/stalagtite structures supported by three columns 
 in Moebius' Le Monde D’Edena, Tome 6: Les Réparateurs,
(Source: theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)
David encounters three columns of ampules in the Juggernaut's cargo room 
in the film Prometheus
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