Harboring the remains of Li Tobler

leading from

Alien

Li II

a) Rumours about a skeleton
There were horrible stories being handed around where it was made know that HR Giger kept a skeleton of his late wife or fiancée who had committed suicide. In his past, his girlfriend Li Tobler fell into a state of depression and took her life with a gun. More than one person had heard the rumour about the skeleton during the Alien production but HR Giger himself was kept unaware of the matter entirely. David Giler was told that the skull swinging in Giger's doorway belonged to his deceased wife, Briang Johnson, Sigourney Weaver and Ron Shusett also heard the rumour about Giger keeping the skeleton of his dead fiancée and but when Dennis Lowe talked to Giger about it in 2009, Giger didn't seem to be very surprised about the rumour.

b) Blood and bullet holes
However Bill Malone who had worked with Giger on concepts for film that were never made noticed that while he was at HR Giger's cottage when his paintings were stacked about four or five feet deep against the walls,  and one of them had little holes in it

Bill said to him "Giger, someone damaged your painting here"

Giger's response was "No, that's where my girlfriend blew her brains out."

Giger had left bullet holes with the blood on the painting as part of the art.

Li Tobler

Source Quotes

1. Ron Shusett There was always these horrible stories, we heard he kept the skeleton from his fiancée which had committed suicide. (Alien: Behind the scenes documentary,  1:08:12 approx)
2. David Giler: We walk into Giger's house which is floor to ceiling with all of Giger's drawings and you know, candles everywhere and what I'm told is the skull of his deceased wife swinging at the doorway.  (as reported from the Alien Evolution documentary interview)
3. William Malone (film maker): His flat was painted all black. All of the walls and his paintings were stacked about four or five feet deep against the wall. They're huge paintings. And one of them, as I was walking around, had little holes in it. I said, "Giger, someone damaged your painting here." He said, "No, that's where my girlfriend blew her brains out." Turned out to be true and he left the bullet holes with the blood on the painting as part of the art. (from Masters of Horror Explore the Art Hidden in the Nightmare By:stacilayne, Updated: 02-20-2010 http://www.horror.com)
4. Interviewer: tell us a little bit about your perception of GigerSigourney Weaver: Well I met Geiger when we were making the movie and he…his work is, you know, extremely powerful and bizarre and…but he himself is a delight, you know, he’s very funny, very charming, very mischevious. And, he always wore black, his girlfriend always wore black. And I had dinner with him a couple of times and they were so much fun. That’s what I would remember. And then you would hear these stories about how he has his wife’s skull or some sort of, kind of, you know morbid stuff in his house. And I think he has, you know, he has one persona as an artist and his persona as an artist is obviously not something I got to have dinner with. I just had dinner with a great, very charming, mischevious guy. (report from interview for Alien Evolution documentary)
5. Dennis Lowe: Brian Johnson told me that you have your bones from your first wife
   Giger: What my...?
   Dennis Lowe: The bones from your first wife
   Giger: No
   Dennis Lowe: No?
   Giger: No no!
   Dennis Lowe: Not anymore?
   Giger: Ah, you mean Li! no.
   Dennis Lowe: Was it Li?
   Giger :No. no-, no no
   Dennis Lowe:  So it's a myth
   Giger: Yus,
   Dennis Lowe: It is not true
   Giger: No-no, no, Shit. I'm not mad you know
   Dennis Lowe: No, no I know that
   (Giger laughs)
   Dennis Lowe: No, no,  because I have to ask that because it's good to have this recorded
   Giger: No, that's no true
   Dennis Lowe: Yes, yes.
   Giger: It's Shit (giggle)
   Dennis Lowe: No no
   Giger: Yah, they are tell, they are telling that, oh my god
   Dennis Lowe:  You know, so, it's, it, the thing is, what I'm trying to do you see  with this film is is to get,  you know there's nothing but people talking
   Giger: yuh yuh
   Dennis Lowe: It's to get the truth
   Giger: At least, I can tell you that's not true (giggle)
   Dennis Lowe:  'cause that's the idea of somebody's film trying to get the truth and not the myths. (outtake from Dennis Lowe's Alien Makers 3 documentary interview with HR Giger)

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Alien: The Script out of the blue

leading from

Selling the script

a) Interim 

Ridley Scott had just done The Duellists and got it out into the public. It didn't actually do that well but people loved it. Seven prints of it were made.

Ridley loved the experience of doing The Duellists with David Puttnam, and then started talking about perpetuating this place, Dordoigne in France with another piece of history and so thought it would have been a good idea to put his head on the chopping block again and made Tristam And Iseult.

While in LA with the Duellists,  Puttnam took him to the Egyptian to see the Science fiction movie, Star Wars, and this was the first piece of science fiction since 2001: A Space Odyssey that made Ridley sit up and in view of his Tristam And Iseult project he thought "my god, what am I doing this for?"

Ridley in 1978

b) The script out of the blue

About six weeks later Ridley Scott and Ivor Powell were in the little tiny offices in Ridley's place in Lexington Street in Soho, over about three floors and the script came in out of the blue or rather it came through his English agent called Harry. Ivor could see that it was science fiction with a title like Alien, he thought that he was the one who would know more about Science Fiction since Ridley was the sort of person to pooh-pooh nearly every science fiction film there was apart from The Day The Earth Stood Still, and of course there was 2001 A Space Odyssey which had been Ridley's personal,  and now in 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars. It was as if the two of them had wrestled over it, as if they were saying "me first", "me first", "me first" but Ridley won and then went into the adjoining room of their office with two adjoining rooms.

His reading time was considered absolutely sacred and God forbid anyone who disturbed him. Once he's turned the page of whatever he's reading, he's locked into it and he will read it and Ivor had to sit for near a period of time that would stretch over the years in reports from forty minutes to an hour and a half going by Ridley's memory while he sat in the room next door reading it, screaming out "Oh my god, Oh my god", "Fucking Hell" or "Oh Fuck Me!" as he came to certain bits and Ivor would be saying out "Right. Hurry up Ridley. Give it to me!"

What Ivor thought that he recalled about the script was that it was written in a very visceral manner with moments such as somebody opens the airlock door and revealing the Alien which promptly gets hold of his head rips it off and then scuttles across the cieling and disappears into some store room and , obviously as Ridley read it, he loved it and he obviously having his own kind of potential take on it. It was certainly a script that really hit him between the eyeballs and he thought it was amazing.

c) The decision

Ridley had been involved in a deal with Paramount where he was about to make his film Tristan And Iseult but it had stalled, the writer had dropped out, and Ridley feared that another nine months later he wasn't going to see it take flight and he said "I can't see myself doing another nine months without filming, I have to film!"

In one version of the story, Ridley had read the Alien script around November 1977 and would come to shelve it due to commitments to another project Tristan and Iseult and would be in Hollywood two weeks after finally saying yes to Alien, and the other version of the story he came to read the script one morning and he was off Hollywood within about twenty four hours

Going back to the much more well known version, by lunch time he had decided that he was going to make it. At 5pm in London, it was first also first light in California. He called his agent Harry
and then he talked to Sandy Lieberson who originally sent the script. He said "I want to do this"
The reply was "you do?"
Ridley's response was "Yeah, Absolutely"

d) Ridley's thoughts on the script

What Ridley liked about it was that it was very direct and linear, a nicely structured B movie, absolutely pure, there was no fat, so it was a really lean piece of material. Having read it in what seemed like forty minutes, he sensed it would play even faster than it read. Having a background as an illustrator and art student, Ridley had been examining science fiction by reading comic strips such as Metal Hurlant featuring the works of artists such as Jean Giraud also known as Moebius with his illustrator eye. He would examine the illustrations carefully and enjoy the illustrations. He figured that he knew what to do with science fiction.

Quote source

1. Ridley Scott: Almost three years ago, I was shown the reworked Dan O'Bannon script. At the time I was at a standstill with TRISTAN AND ISEULT, an Arthurian tale about knights and sorcery. So I was looking for something. I was immediately attracted to Alien for the same reasons I was attracted to Joseph Conrad's novella, The Duellists. It was so simple, so linear, absolutely pure, an idea with no fat. The script was short and very specific - an unbelievably violent. It took me less than forty five minutes to read. That really impressed me. I sensed that it would play even faster than it read. What little science fiction I'd seen had been too similar. 2001 was my personal revelation and I began to speculate on what else could be done in space. The came Star Wars and Close Encounters of The Third Kind, and I realised the tremendous quality that was possible in making these films stand head and shoulders above the usual quickie space flick or horror movie. I saw something new in Alien. I was attracted to the theory of over-powering industrial influence, the conglomerate mass control, the Big Brother syndrome. Most of all, though, it was the thrilling aspect of the unseen, inescapable force of evil. (Cinefantastique vol 9: issue 1)
2. Ivor Powell: I seem to remember it started, Ridley had offices in erm, Lexington street, which is where his sort of commercial operated out of and then er, this was over like three floors, and then one day through the door, courtesy of, he never gets enough credit for it, Sandy Lieberson, who was head of Fox in Europe, and he had seen the Duellists and was an admirer of it and Fox had got this picture that had been in development for quite some time, called Alien, and thought chemistry wise it would be quite interesting to put that script, which i think at the time sort of pretty full on kind of horror, and to put it with the director who had done the Duellists, you know, it was a slight tussle with it because well, I'm, I can just this, I sort of said, I'm the, I know about science fiction and all that and I'd often showed Ridley these science fiction movies and he'd looked at them and said "what a pile of crap that was", you know all my favourite sort of movies, I think the Day the Earth Stood still he quite liked, erm, and anyway, he, he won the tussle and  he went into this office, we had two little sort of adjoining rooms, and erm I remember sort of sitting there thinking, right I want to read that, i want to read it, and I was listening to him reading it, and I hear every now and again,, I hear, "FUCKing Hell!" like that as he, as he was reading it, Oh Fuck Me, and everything like that and I was saying  right , hurry up Ridley, give it to me. Anyway this was every time, because the way it was originally written was very kind of visceral, like, er, you know, somebody opens the airlock door and revealing the Alien which promptly gets hold of his head rips it off and then scuttles across the cieling and disappears into some store room and thing, and erm, anyway he, he read it and he loved it and he obviously had his own kind of potential take on it and so we ended up doing, the next movie was The Alien. We knew really there wasn't going to be enough. (Alien Makers 2, documentary)
3. Ridley: Someone had seen The Duellists at Cannes which got a prize, at Cannes, and er out of the blue came this offer, I think it must have been about, within about six months actually, and I read the script, and I think within twenty six hours I was standing within Hollywood. I read the script, so I'll do it. They said , you will, I said, yuh, so I was flown out. So I suddenly started to feel the Hollywood machine kicking in. (Direction and Design : The Making of Alien)
4. FF: When did you first become aware of Alien?Fantastic Film: While I was developing Tristan and Iseult, I was receiving tons of screenplays. I always read everything myself. You can't employ a reader. You've got to go through the chore of reading the book, the screenplay, whatever. I read one thing called Alien and I thought "Jesus Christ!" It was so simple, so linear that no one could have spotted it for me. This is why you must read it yourself. I think, honestly, even with a Walter Hill screenplay, the normal director with a TV or theater background would have ditched it. But it hit me between the eyeballs. I thought it was amazing (Fantastic Film #11, p13-14)
5. Ridley Scott: Out of the blue this script arrived from some producers that had seen the film, The Duellist in Cannes. So you put that association together, I had made the Duellist and somebody said what about science fiction. So I got the script., it came through my then English agent Tim Corry or was it Harry, I don't know but anyway... I got the script that morning and I read it in 1 hour and 10 minutes flat out. And decided by lunch-time that I was going to make it. First light in California I called them, at 5 o'clock London time to... directly. I forget who I called.. Harry was probably with me and I called Harry and said that I wanted to do do this and he said "You do?" and I said absolutely. The material was very direct, there was no fat, it was a really lean piece of material. And I think its fair to say that it was likely a nicely structured B movie. It was a B movie and I think because I had been examining , you know I started to examine Science Fiction, mainly through comic strip, good comic strip artists like heavy metal, metal Hurlant? the heavy metal comics and because I was an illustrator and you know, art student, I would examine the illustrations carefully and enjoy the illustrations and I figured that I knew what to do with science fiction, so I said yes (Alien Legacy Starbeast)
6. Ivor Powell (7:34): And we were in little tiny offices in Ridley's place in Soho, and er, the script came in and as it was science fiction with a title like Alien, I remember that the two of us wrestled with it, so that you know, it was a me first, me first, me first thing, but anyway Ridley won, so I had to sit for an hour and a half while er Ridley sat in the next room reading it, screaming out, Oh my god, Oh my god as he came to certain bits in it, anyway, it was a good fast fantastic read. (Alien Legacy Starbeast)
7.  Starlog: But at the time, Scott was at work on another project, a "post-holocaust treatment of the story of Tristan and Isolde,: and had to shelve Alien. He assumed he would not do it at all. That was November 1977.
   "About Christmastime I had quite a problem with the Tristan thing. The writer dropped out. I thought: I've got to do something, got to do a film. So I called up Fox and asked what had happened with the Alien script. They said nothing was happening with it, and I said I'd like to do it. And I was standing here in Los Angeles about two weeks later." (Starlog September 1979)
8. Ridley: l read the script and l think within 26 hours l was standing in Hollywood.
   l said ''l'll do it.'' They said ''You will?''
   l said ''Yeah'', so l was flown out. (ALien Quadrilogy Documentary
9. Ivor Powell (10:23): One afternoon the script arrived and I being the scifi fanatic and Ridley, to be honest, not being the scifi fanatic, erm, we had a bit of a wrestling match, with this, er,  with this script which of course inevitably Ridley won. (Alien Evolution documentary)
10. Interviewer: Tell us how you first came across the script of Alien? What was it called and who was credited as writer?
    
    Ridley Scott:…I came across the script of Alien when I…it during…actually I was finishing off The Duellists, I think. I’m trying to…I have to remember now.
    
    Interviewer: I think the Duellists was finished.
    
    Ridley Scott: was it?
    
    Interviewer: I think so.
    
    Ridley Scott: ok. Ok. Now I remember now. I was in the first film syndrome and you know, when you are first unpracticed at the process of working in between or doing more things at once, you know, more things…several things at once…I was totally fixated on The Duellists and we got it out and, you know…that was…the history…and then I decided to address something, what was I going to do. And The Duellists didn’t actually do that great. In fact, here they ran, made 7 prints. So it actually did really terrible. But everybody loved it. That was what was interesting about town even then. The ones that counted really adored it. So even in those days a minority were going back and back to see this film. And out of the blue came a script, I was sitting in London actually and it wasn’t even through an agency, they found my address and it came to me through David Giler I think. And Giler and Hill were the producers at that moment with Gordon Carroll and on the front cover was Dan O’Bannon and Ron Sushett and I think I sat down in the morning and it took me about one hour and twenty minutes to read it. And I knew I was going to do it. I knew I’d do it in the first read. And I was then hunting down to try and find where their telephone numbers were, and I finally found them, called them, I think I called them that afternoon, that day when they got up. And I think I was then standing in LA within about 2 days. they just brought me straight out. That’s when I discovered that in fact I was about the fifth in line, you know, they’d passed it around all kinds of people, even Robert Altman, and Robert Altman’s great, but Robert Altman? You’d give Robert Altman the Alien? I don’t think so. But it had gone through Walter Hill’s hands and I forget who the other ones were. Maybe even Friedken actually. But they’d all said no, thinking it was a B movie, you know. Cardboard box with a monster charging around. And I’d just read it and saw it. And because I’d been steeping myself…I’m trying to think back…I was steeping myself into…between The Duellists and this read, that’s it, it’s coming back. I went to see, because I was planning to do Tristam and Isolde because I loved the experience of doing The Duellists with David Puttnam and in fact we’d all enjoyed it tremendously and we’d been in a fantastic part of France and we were always talking about `why don’t we perpetuate this place with some other piece of history’ and basically we’d put our head back on the chopping block and go do Tristam and Isolde. And while I was here with The Duellists David had taken me to The Egyptian to see this film. So I went and saw Star Wars and that was the first piece of science fiction that really made me sit up apart from Stanley’s, and thought `my god, what am I doing this for?" I’m thinking about Tristam while this guy’s doing this. So that really changed my whole thinking at that moment. That was the in between bit. Low and behold, six weeks later this script arrived that I’ve just described.
    
    Interviewer: Ivor Powell said he could hear you in the next room reading the script.
    
    Ridley Scott: yeah it was…it was like…and particularly when the…the rhythm…the dynamics were right on the page and I couldn’t really understand how anyone would miss it. Which is think means that a lot of people read things half, you know, you can’t read a script seven minutes, put it down, come back this afternoon, read another 20 minutes, put it down. You can’t do that. My read time is absolutely sacred. God forbid anybody who disturbs me. Once I’ve turned the page, that’s a lock and I’m in for what it takes. Normally it takes, you know, a normal script, 2 hours, 2 and a half hours. But the read is everything and so yeah, undisturbed I read it and I knew I was going to do the film. I said that’s it, I’m doing this movie. So…(as known to he said in the interview for the Alien Evolution documentary)

Read More

Landscape with alien astronaut corpse

leading from : 

The silo, the derelict, its pilot and his cargo 

 

a) Ridley and the space jockey's coming and goings
When the derelict and the silo were combined, the presence of the remains of a dead pilot in its seat is to be found within the ship was being considered as no longer necessary due to the economic reasons.  The decisions to remove him and put him back numbered a few. Ridley Scott, Gordon Carroll and Ivor Powell wanted him in, they had become fully confirmed "space freaks" by then. They were already over budget and running about three weeks behind schedule which Ridley didn't think was unreasonable for that sort of a film. While it was going to be ditched, Ridley, Gordon and Ivor  held onto it,  Ridley thought that to have the explorers walk into the derelict pilot chamber and find nothing but just a hole in the floor was completely pointless. However, the alternative was to have a the impression of an alien body imbedded in a rock formation of the landscape outside of the derelict and Giger would be the one to design it. It was on May the 14th 1978, when Giger talked with Gordon Carrol and then Ridley Scott over the phone from his home in Switzerland, to visualise a new idea that they have for the script that would be to design the skeleton of the alien pilot that would be discovered amidst the alien landscape.

b) In Ridley Scott's storyboards, the explorers would walk past the body embedded in the rocks, the audience would see it and amongst the Nostromo crew only Ash the android would see an impression of thing in the transmission from the video camera while he remains on board the Nostromo during the exploration, and he rewinds the tape to have a closer look at the thing and says nothing. Later a clearer impression of the creature's face would be seen on the monitor

c) Blow-Up
 This idea was perceived as being like the Michelangelo Antonioni 1966 film "Blow-Up" , a movie where the director claimed that until the film was edited , he would have no idea himself what it would be about and perhaps not even then. The lead character would be forever blowing up photos that he had taken to uncover a murder and there he would find suggestion of a dead body of a human hidden in the bushes is only discovered once the negatives are developed, a film that Alien's production designer Michael Seymour had worked on. And Verushka,  a famous long limbed model of the time who appeared in the film also briefly considered to perform the role of the Alien long before the found Bolaji Badejo. 

Poster for Blow Up

lead character investigating photograohs

Photo vaguely revealing the dead body of a woman

d)  Ron Shusett and the Studios bosses' double dealings

The studios bosses that comprised of people such as Peter Beale, said to Ron Shusett "you can't put that set in".

Ron and the others said said "why?"

They said " It's only used once in the movie, it's not like your gonna come back to it. It's different if you keep using the set. This is massively expensive, this big creature, this big back wall. No, we can't give you this. lt's too expensive."
 
As far as Ron knew, it would have cost $500,000

They said" This is not your main set". However what they were able to offer him was an alternative ''You're just gonna have to walk by and see a skeletal imprint in the mud of this 15-foot creature, and then you'll walk into this strange-looking building. lt'll be a bunker or something that's constructed at angles.''  and a few empty spore cases would be discovered. This idea of a bunker seem to be the last stand for the construction bleeding through from Giler and Hill earlier drafts.

Ron replied"No, no, no. Look, you need... This is your Cecil B DeMille shot. You need to have this full scale built. You need to have this full scale built, so they know they're right there, so their jaw drops, so they say "This isn't some little Roger Corman movie made to look pretty good, this is one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen. "

Still the reply coming back was "No, you can't have it, it costs way too much"

For quite some time Dan and Ron was downhearted by the whole fact that they weren't going to have the space jockey set at all and they were just going to have to fake it with this ridiculous impression of the thing in the ground. On a day Ron decided to take a walk to the back of the studio which had about a dozen sound stages, and he walked to the back and saw to his surprise that the set was almost completed, he was confused since he was told that they were not going to have the dead alien pilot in its seat in the chamber. He thought that they had made a mistake and that the construction didn't get the message from the studio bosses in London and that they weren't supposed to build it. He kept his mouth shut and in another two weeks, it was completely built and then Ron went to Peter Beale who was second from the top and said to him "You built the set, the one you said couldn't afford to give us"

Peter Beale replied "Yeah we know, because as the The dailies looked so good day after day, and and Ridley kept begging for this , and we realised we should go, kit was worth the investment. But we didn't wanna tell you 'cause then you'd never stop asking.  Every single thing, ten other things, you'd want"

Ron thought this was quite  funny. He didn't think that Ridley knew about it for a long time either.

It was on July 5th 1978 that Giger would hear of the decision to put the alien pilot back in the cockpit again.

e) One leg or two?
In Giger's painting of the planetoid landscape (work 385) we see an image of the remains of a humanoid figure that would have been of the Space Jockey when they had decided to have it as something seen unnoticed on the surface of the planetoid landscape.  Once I knew about this detail, and looked at the image that Ridley Scott selected from Necronom V the concept of the Space Jockey which appeared to be this nearly humanoid skeletal thing with one limb where the two legs would be, (SEE: Space Jockey Evolution via Giger's Necronomicon pt, 1 ) So I began to wonder whether this space jockey corpse should have one lower limb or two.

Detail from painting of the planetoid landscape (work 385)

In 2013, Giger's Alien Diaries (7 & 8) were published and on page possible p42 of the actual book and page 23 of Giger's own diary number 7 was a drawing of the space jockey. This entity again looks as if it might have one limb for a leg or maybe the other one is hidden or it's just not clear, and one might think that it's cradled in the palm of a giant hand as if the rock shape at the bottom left is a thumb.

dead alien astronaut sketch from Giger's Alien Diaries

f) A missing concept painting
Ever since having seen the painting of the Alien landscape and noticed the dead space jockey detail,  I wondered if Giger had done any other drawings or paintings to explore further this corpse and over time began to wonder if the painting that Ridley Scott is seen standing in front of in photographs together with Giger and Gordon Carroll standing together. Surrounding shape in the painting also recall the surrounding rock formations that Giger sketched out in his pencil sketch. It was an image certainly of an alien space jockey type thing but in what context was not known, but the upper torso was obvious in the painting seen. It might well be the mentioned work 386 of the alien corpse detail before 386 became the designated number for the egg silo interior artwork.

photo from Giger's Alien, p12

detail from above colour photo

detail from above black and white photo

Source Quotes

1. Ron Shusett: Giger's sets were so erotic, and... There's big vaginas, and penises. The whole thing is like you're going inside some sort of... womb, or whatever. lt's visceral and all of those things, and l think all those elements came into it, and that's what makes it really work. On the so-called ''Space Jockey'', which... Giger, by the way, designed that whole set, and he hand-brushed the alien, airbrushed it himself, and got on a scaffold and airbrushed the whole set so it would have that eerie texture. But the thing was this: it was too expensive a set, they didn't wanna give it to us.
   They said ''You're only in here one time. lt's different if you keep using the set.''
   ''This is massively expensive, this big creature, this big back wall.''
   ''No, we can't give you this. lt's too expensive.''
   l think it was, like, $500,000.
   They said ''This is not your main set.''
   ''You're just gonna have to walk by and see a skeletal imprint in the mud of this 15-foot creature, and then you'll walk into this strange-looking building.''
   ''lt'll be a bunker or something that's constructed at angles.'' (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary)
2. This set cost a staggering amount of money. We built it full scale, and for its day it was just way hugely expensive. And for half the movie, they told us they wouldn't let us build it, the 15 foot tall so called space jockey and the walls and everything, and Giger hand airbrushed them, 'cause that was his artwork, on a scaffold. The creature and the whole thing. Besides his personal labour and effort just duplicating this and building this, they said "you can't put that set in".
   We said "why?"
   He said "it's only used once in the movie, it's not like your gonna come back to it. It's way too expensive. We'll just have him shoot a fifteen foot imprint in the clay of the creature as he's walking"
   And we said "No, no, no. Look, you need... This is your Cecil B DeMille shot. You need to have this full scale built."
   So they know they're right there, so their jaw drops, so they say "This isn't some little Roger Corman movie made to look pretty good, this is one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen.""
   They said, "No, You can't have it, it costs way too much"
   So they went on, we, you know, we were shooting the movie, we we thought they... we weren't gonna have to have the set at all, we were going to have to fake it and  have a stupid thing in the ground. And one day, the studio's so big, there are 10 or 12 sound stages and I walked to the back, and I saw the set was almost completed and it was up already.  And they told us we were not going to friggin have it in the movie. This was two thirds of the way through the movie. I thought they had made a mistake, that the contruction department didn't get the message from the high-ups in London, that they weren't supposed to build it. So I shut my mouth up. And in another two weeks later it was completely built, and it was completely built and I went to Peter Beale, who was second from the top and I said "You built the set, the one you said we couldn't afford to give us"
   
   He said "Yeah we know, because as the The dailies looked so good day after day, and and Ridley kept begging for this , and we realised we should go, kit was worth the investment. But we didn't wanna tell you 'cause then you'd never stop asking. (00:29:00) Every single thing, ten other things, you'd want"
   
So I thought that was kind of funny. I don't think Ridley knew about it for a long time either. I didn't know about it until it was completed.
3. Giger: Saturday evening, May 14, 1978, 7.45pm, Finally received a phonecall from London. First talked with Gordon Carroll, then with Ridley Scott. They have a new idea for the script that I should visualize. The skeleton of the astronaut, which used to be in the spacecraft, should now be placed in the landscape, blending in so that it can't be distinguished, and the crew wouldn't it until they see it on the recorder, back in the spaceship. Like the film "Blow-up" where the figure hidden in the bushes is only discovered once the negatives are developed.(Giger's Alien Diaries, p173,)
4. Giger: I finished the requested picture, Alien No. 385 of astronaut on landscape , + Detail No.386 (unfinished) (Giger's Alien Diaries,May 15th to 17th , 1978 p173,)
5. Giger: Scott doesn't like the details of the skeleton. I have to rework the image. (Giger's Alien Diaries, May 18th , 1978 p173)
6. Giger: They want the skeleton of the Alien space jockey to lie  in the cockpit again. This was communicated by Michael Seymour (Giger's Alien Diaries,  July 4th 1978, p241) 
7. Ridley Scott : He was in and out. in and out, in and out. I wanted him in and so did Gordon Carroll and Ivor Powell. By then we'd become fully confirmed space freaks. But there were others who wanted it out, mainly for economic reasons. We were already over budget and running about three weeks behind schedule - which I don't think was unreasonable for that sort of film personally. So at one point, it was going to be ditched; but we rigidly held onto it. We felt we had to have it in there as a sort of a central element in the craft. I mean, to have them walk in there and find nothing - just a hole in the floor - was bloody pointless. (Alien the special effects, p36)

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Alien: Hunt for the director

leading from

Selling the Script

a) Enter Sandy Lieberson

Sandy Lieberson had left film producing which he had done for nine years, he had been David Puttnam's partner in producing "Melody" (19710 and "That'll be the day" (1973) and through David Puttnam he would know Ridley Scott who was directing the Puttnam produced "The Duellists", and so he took on a job at 20th Century Fox as Vice President in charge of production and marketing for mostly outside United States and primarily in Europe and the first thing he did when he went to work for Fox was of course go to Los Angeles to meet the other executives. He knew them but not very well, and what he would do was to trawl the hallways of the Twentieth Century Fox asking for projects that could be done in Europe. The second floor was where all of the producers, directors, and the writers had offices. He knew the likes of Mel Brooks and Paul Mazursky and down the hall from there was a company called Brandywine. Sandy knew David Giler and Gordon Carroll. He asked them his questions finding out what they were doing and what they were developing.

They said "Listen we got this script called Alien."

"Well" replied Sandy" let me read it, I'll take it away"

He saw the name Dan O'Bannon who he knew about already from his work from John Carpenter's Dark Star

"That sounds interesting already" he added.

The script that he read, Sandy thought was brilliant and perfect for something that could be done in the UK. He saw how he could market it, at that point the script was part of a package with a director and producer and indeed a Fox project. He took it to Alan Ladd Junior, they discussed it and Sandy flew out to LA when they agreed "Yes  let's do it"

Sandy Lieberson

 
b) Walter Hill drops out as director

They started to go into preproduction, budgeting, scheduling and looking for studios. Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll came to london, everything looked as if it was really on the cusp of happening, they even had a provisional start date, they were beginning to think about casting and then suddenly Sandy got a call from Los Angeles from Gordon Carroll 

Gordon said to him " Gee I'm really sorry, but Walter Hill is not going to be able to do the film, he's not going to be able to direct it"

Sandy replied "well that is bad news, because we've already invested a lot of money into developing it," and then left off with "well, let me think about it"

Walter Hill had lost interest in the script, he decided that he did not have the temperament for special effects, and had gone off to direct another movie and wasn't available, other directors also turned Alan Ladd down.

c) Other directors approached
There was a point when Gordon Carroll had talked to Robert Aldrich, but didn't like his take on the facehugger when he said "Oh no problem, I'll just go to the market and get a liver and throw it in the guy's face".  

Peter Yates was a name that the studio offered, Yates had directed Bullitt starring Steve McQueen, Brandywine were not too happy about the idea but Yates turned it down anyway. Giler talked to Jack Clayton the director of the Great Gatsby about it and he didn't want to do it either. All the A-Level directors they approached mostly said "no" because they thought the project had no credibility but the idea was that the directors would make it have credibility, however they didn't have the vision. The choice of director was crucial because it is the director's vision that makes a movie a success or failure. Without a director who had the ability to use special effects for the futuristic space scenes and to scare a movie audience, "Alien" would have to be scrapped.   

Robert Aldrich, director of Kiss Me Deadly, The Big
Knife, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The
Flight of the Phoenix, Hush… Hush,  Sweet
Charlotte, and The Dirty Dozen.

d) Ridley of The Duellists

David Giler had seen The Duellists at Cannes that year and talked to Sandy Lieberson who also remembered how he had been impressed by this low budget movie based on a little known Joseph Conrad short story. The movie's 39-year-old British director, Ridley Scott, had previously directed television commercials. Gordon Carroll and Walter Hill had also screened the picture and we stunned by his control of the picture, mounting of the film and how extraordinary it was with lots of depths and richness. The idea was to present Ridley as a candidate


Sandy then called Alan Ladd, he said to him "Listen, there is a director here, I know him very well, Ridley Scott, he's done one film The Duellist, it looked fantastic, it didn't have any commercial success, got sort of mediocre to bad reviews to a couple of good reviews but  I've got an instinct about this guy, I know him and he comes from production design art direction, BBC, commercials"

Within a day, Alan Ladd and the others obtained a print from Paramount Pictures so that they could view "The Duellists."  Sandy had it sent along with Ridley's reel. 
Alan liked Ridley's camera work and his ability to design and construct sets. 
After the screening Alan Ladd said "Fine, we'll take a chance with Ridley Scott, we'll make it with him",

Once they got Ridley to agree to direct the film. Alan and his group decided that "Alien" didn't need major stars. The money could be better spent on perfecting special effects and sets than on big salaries. An $8 million budget was planned, a date to begin filming was set, and Ridley began constructing sets. Filming would be in London because creation of special effects and sets figured to be cheaper then.

Source quotes

1. The next step in producing "Alien" was picking a director. The choice was crucial because it is the director's vision that makes a movie a success or failure. Without a director who had the ability to use special effects for the futuristic space scenes and to scare a movie audience, "Alien" would have to be scrapped. (The Wall Street Journal)
2. Mr Hill had gone off to direct another movie and wasn't available, other directors also turned Mr Ladd down. The a London based Fox representative remembered how he had been impressed by a low budget film called "The Duellists," based on a little known Joseph Conrad short story. The movie's 39-year-old British director, Ridley Scott, had previously directed television commercials. (The Wall Street Journal)
3. Alan Ladd: We had asked Walter at first place if he wanted to direct it, since he was part of the package.  (Direction and Design: The Making of Alien, documentary)
4. David Giler: Walter was originally gonna do it. Then he er, erm, decided that he did not have the temperament for special effects.  (Direction and Design: The Making of Alien, documentary)
5. Dan O'Bannon: Apparantly Gordon talked to Robert Aldrich, didn't like what Aldrich had to say. He asked Aldridge how he would handle the facehugging creature, Aldrich said "Oh no problem, I'll just go to the market and get a liver and throw it in the guy's face" Gordon didn't want to hear that. (Direction and Design: The Making of Alien, documentary)
6. David Giler: Peter Gates the studio wanted, we weren't crazy with that idea , but I think he didn't want to do it finally. I talked to Jack Clayton about it and he didn't want to do it(Direction and Design: The Making of Alien, documentary)
   
7. Sandy Lieberson: I said "that sounds interesting already" and I read the script, it was brilliant, perfect for what we could do in the UK, er, scifi horror movie, I could see how we would sell it, market it, erm, it fit into a genre and with it came an entire package, it was a screenplay, there was a producer, there was a director and it was a fox project. So, erm, I presented it all to Alan Ladd Junior who was the head of Twentieth Century Fox and we discussed it and flew out to LA, they agreed yes, let's make it, they set a cap on a budget, I think they said it was ten million dollars and took the project forward. Started to go into preproduction, budgeting, scheduling, looking at studios, Walter Hill and David Giler and Gordon Carroll came to London, and everything looked as if it was really on the cusp of happening and we even had a provisional start date, we were beginning to think about casting and I got a call from Los Angeles from Gordon Carroll saying Gee I'm really sorry, but Walter Hill is not going to be able to do the film, he's not going to be able to direct it, and so I said "well that is bad news, because we've already invested a lot of money into developing it, and I said well, let me think about it and I called Ladd, I said Listen, there is a director here, I know him very well, Ridley Scott, he's done one film The Duellist, it looked fantastic, it wasn't... it didn't have any commercial success, got sort of mediocre to bad reviews to a couple of good reviews but I said I've got an instinct about this guy, I know him and he comes from production design art direction, BBC, commercials, etcetera, sent his Duellists out to LA, sent his reel out to LA, got into discussions with his agent and Ladd said Fine, we'll take a chance with Ridley Scott, we'll make it with him, And the rest is the movie, that's the origins of it, that's how it happened actually. (Alien Makers 2, documentary)
8. David Giler: I saw the Duellists at Cannes and talked to Sandy Lieberson who knew Ridley pretty well and was, Sandy was head of Fox in Europe and we kind of presented him as a candidate (Direction and Design : The Making of Alien, documentary)
9. Gordon Carroll: Walter Hill and I went to screen the picture that he had done, and er The Duellist, we were absolutely stunned by his control of the picture, his mounting of the film, it really is an extraordinary film, lots of depths, richness. (Direction and Design : The Making of Alien, documentary)
10. Ron Shusett: And everybody said "no" because they said we had no credibility and of course Directors would make it have credibility, but almost none of them wanted to do it. They thought it was a stupid monster movie, a dumb thing with something coming out of your chest like a Japanese horror movie, and none of them had the vision, none of the A-level directors we went to had the vision to see it. (Direction and Design : The Making of Alien, documentary)
11. David Giler:You needed to have a director, a director that was gonna give it some kind of real, other-than-traditional science fiction look. Erm,  you had to have real actors in it, you had to have all of that and never let on that it was a B monster movie, but make it deliver on that... at that level. (Direction and Design : The Making of Alien , documentary) 
12. 36) Former music agent Sanford (Sandy) Lieberson was David Puttnam's partner in producing Melody (1971) and That'll Be The Day (1973) before going on to head 20th Century Fox's UK operation at the time they back Alien (1979) (Gilliam on Gilliam, p34)
    

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Carlos Huante's The Pilot

Leading from

Further Alien echoes

a) Carlos Huante drew an illustration slightly reminiscent of the space jockey and this creature interestingly lacks lower limbs. On his Facebook page, he mentions that it was obviously what inspired this, and that it turned into something else and is now a part of a short of drawings that he is working on. 

image from: galleryanatom.squarespace.com

b) In Giger's Passage Temple (Life) environment, a humanoid with a truncated body can be found with similar strange anatomy and also has shoulder pads and a pipe running down the centre of the body.

detail from H R Giger's "Passage Temple (Life)" (1974)

H R Giger's "Passage Temple (Life)" (1974)

c) The lower part of the pilot's torso is reminiscent of the strange hanging fleshy shapes from Jean-Marie Poumeyrol's La Centrale that is a part of HR Giger's collection as shown in his book www.hrgiger.com, and this perhaps is obviously inspired by the same detail from Passage Temple (life). It's as if Huante has placed the lower organ of Giger's humanoid on the wide bulging shape in Poumeyrol's that continues with its own elongated lower organ down into the controls of the machinery.

Jean-Marie Poumeyrol's La Centrale

source quotes

1. Carlos Huante: This is "the Pilot"..obvious what inspired this.. however it actually turned into something else.. it is part of a short story of drawings that I will be working on in the near future..(https://www.facebook.com/) 
2. Carlos Huante: The intention is not to be photo real..I am looking at trying to retain the quality of drawing rather than the photographic route.. Drawings by Stanislav Szukalski and some of the early early illustrators that were around during the pre-rafaelite period…Beksinski's drawings as well...less about real in the photographic or mimicking sense … trying to find the art is the intent with all my later stuff…editing it down to what I personally find the most interesting…Since it's not for film I can play around with all the levels…(https://www.facebook.com/) 

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Starblazer, Space Fiction Adventures

leading from

Alien Echoes  

a) Glimpses from comic book from what has been discovered to be DC Thomson's "Starblazer, Space Fiction Adventures"  with a story about a space graveyard stuck beyond a black hole drawn around the late 1970s. Dead bodies of aliens can be seen through openings of ancient wrecks. Illustrated by Argentine artist Enrique "Quique" Alcatena when he was 21, he was completely taken by Giger's Alien designs. So the other question is, which story was it? (thanks to Germanico Laposse for tracking down the source)


b) This originally came to my attention when images were posted at Prometheus2-movie.com from the Italian version of the comic book. (http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/replies.php?id=12919)

 

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