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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 19, 2021 12:43:23 GMT -5
I'm listening to this audiobook on Audible. It is an above average ALIEN novel so far. There are some interesting characters. The only downside I'd say is that it feels like something I've read before.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 19, 2021 14:12:21 GMT -5
I'm coming to the conclusion that all franchises must eventually be burned. Many will always remember the lowest parts and others can recover by not paying too much attention.
I think the ALIEN seminal films still outshine the continuing ALIEN franchise within their time period. Including, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, BARBARELLA and IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. Even though some of them had their own franchises, "Snatchers" and "Thing" (both with successful 2nd films {remakes}.), you can't help think where are the new fresh parallels? I think Hollywood is brain dead half the time. It used to be heavily brain dead catering to "Joe/Jane Six Pack" now its just how can we make this for all markets (China, PC, etc) for maximum yield?
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 19, 2021 14:24:50 GMT -5
The large Kenner Alien action figure that I had really lended an element with the skull under the opaque and smooth head cover that the movies never got into. That thing was spookier than the movies.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 20, 2021 7:21:51 GMT -5
All franchises eventually falter and that is usually because they are business ventures rather than coherent artistic visions. ALIEN is odd in that its gestation was the result of the former. Ridley Scott is usually given all of the credit for the first ALIEN movie, but it the process leading up to it was collaborative. Dan O'Bannon's script STAR BEAST had essentially the same plot but was more generic. O'Bannon being exposed to H. R. Giger's designs is what gave the alien its iconic form. O'Bannon's collaborator, the producer Ronald Shussett, came up with the idea of a crew member being implanted with an alien embryo that would burst out of him. They almost signed with Roger Corman's studio which would have certainly resulted in a B-movie. Instead they went with Brandywine productions. Hill and Giler at Brandywine added the android Ash in their own script rewrites. 20th Century Fox wanted to do science fiction because of the success of STAR WARS. Ron Cobb deserves a lot of credit for the visual look of the human ships and gear, and Ridley does as well because of his detailed storyboards. Ridley and his casting directors fleshed out the characters who had been pretty generic in the earlier scripts, and cast mostly older actors introducing the space truckers concept with very life-like banter. Ridley got the "used universe" idea from STAR WARS. ALIEN was like the perfect alchemy of business and artistic pressures... A very rare thing.
ALIENS was even rarer as a sequel equally as good or possibly better than the original film.
That set the bar high, and the franchise has never got to those heights since. But I've still enjoyed it overall.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 20, 2021 7:25:15 GMT -5
The skull under the head carapace comes directly from H. R. Giger's art work, doesn't it? I always assumed that was what inspired the alien-hybrid baby look in ALIEN: RESURRECTION.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 20, 2021 9:43:09 GMT -5
Yes, it was in the giger illustrations. I had the toy on my dresser with the top off so it would glow more. It was creepier than the Alien baby thing.
Here is a link that has pics (ignore the rest):
1) Giger with the mask design 2) Kenner toy with "lid" 3) Kenner toy with glowing under "lid"
The rest of the images seem like later influenced "retro" toys.
If you took the "lid" that thing was hideous.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 20, 2021 10:11:09 GMT -5
O'Bannon was a sketchy creator to say the least. I wish that he had done more. The intro to the HEAVY METAL movie (An O'Bannon concept from HEAVY METAL magazine, SEPT 1979) was ruined by the "story arc" BS. The original seemed more like trying to figure out what is going on (An anti-gravity test?) and the movie was this "Look what Daddy brought from space" crap that had no rhyme or reason except "Hollywood needs story arcs" crap.
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