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Alien (1979)
Directed by Ridley Scott.
Directed by Ridley Scott · Shot by Derek Vanlint · Cut by Terry Rawlings · Music by Jerry Goldsmith · Ratio 2.35:1 · 117 min
How it was made
- Dan O'Bannon developed his idea for a genuinely frightening alien after making a comedic version, played by a spray-painted beach ball with rubber claws, for the 1974 student film Dark Star.
- Concept artist H. R. Giger's paintings, which O'Bannon found disturbing but beautiful, directly shaped the design of the film's creature.
- Ronald Shusett devised the chestburster sequence as a way for the alien to board the ship, adapting the idea from an unrelated pitch about gremlins infiltrating a WWII bomber.
- Scott created detailed storyboards for the spaceship and space suits in London before filming began, impressing 20th Century-Fox enough that the studio doubled the film's budget.
- Scott and casting directors Mary Selway and Mary Goldberg wrote every crew role to be gender-interchangeable, with a script note stating the crew was unisex, which let Scott recast Ripley as a woman late in development.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Ridley Scott
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