Tuesday, March 20, 2012

H.R. Giger's Alien movie concept art revisited in Prometheus

H.R. Giger is in my opinion, a mad genius. I own a couple of his "coffee table" art books, and they are scary stuff. I own Biomechanics, H.R. Giger's Alien, and his Necronomicon. In reading about him, I discovered that within his lifetime he has rubbed elbows with just about every major artist in the world including Ridley Scott and Salvatore Dali. He's had a girlfriend that committed suicide, is the atypical primadonna with huge demands and uncompromising work ethic, and is notoriously difficult to work with.

But his art captures my imagination the same as artist Michael Whelan (if you don't know who this is, you could google his name). Or, you could just visit my post that I wrote on Michael Whelan HERE. I also talk about him extensively on a post on general cover art featuring books by Patrick Dilloway, Cindy Borgne, and Andrew Leon. You can find that post located HERE.

In my ever growing excitement for this summer's Prometheus, I revisited the afore-mentioned H.R. Giger's Alien, and it looks like to me, from the trailers that are now available for viewing online, that Ridley Scott is revisiting the ground-breaking artwork that this crazy guy created for 20th Century Fox (that was scrapped from the 1978 film). Here are my comparisons.

First off the Alien Pyramid concept in which H.R. Giger originally wanted 20th Century Fox to use on the planet LV-426 (NOTE: You can click on these to make the picture bigger for your viewing pleasure).
Contrast this image above with the one that I pulled from the Prometheus trailer below:
And then there is H.R. Giger's Alien Heiroglyphics which also got scrapped from the original 1978 film:
Compare this with the heiroglyphic sequence that I captured from the theatrical trailer in which Michael Fassbender utters "Tell me that you can read this..."
And of course, they are still going with the original design for the derelict spacecraft, the space jockey pilot, and the interior of the ship--all of which was designed by H.R. Giger. Since the derelict spacecraft features so prominently in the trailer, I'm not including screen captures of it. But it is identical to the drawings below. Note the odd shape of the portals that lead into the derelict spacecraft from the original Alien movie. They are intentionally shaped like a vagina because H.R. Giger uses a lot of phallic symbols and vaginas in his artwork (and I mean tons).
Interesting, eh?

30 comments:

  1. It's good to see that they're still keeping true to his vision, and it's a nice way of properly tying in Prometheus with the rest of the Alien mythos.

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  2. Agreed! It is going to be amazing to see. I love all of the artwork. It is beautifull!

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  3. For some reason many of these wouldn't show up on my screen, but I sure can't wait for this movie. I hope they do it right!

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  4. It's fabulous stuff. Really looking forward to the film now.

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  5. Giger was one of the first artists I ever really took an interest in. I love his work - although some of it is bordering on cringe-worthy, I have to admit... :) But his concept art is phenomenal.

    Have you heard of Dorian Cleavenger? I reckon Giger was a strong influence when Cleavenger created some of his own work. I place him somewhere between Giger and Royo, and he can also be rather cringe-worthy...lol

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  6. Awesome artwork. So, I guess you're excited for Prometheus (Ha). Saw the trailer on the 'big screen' last night for the first time. Yeah, I want to see it too.

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  7. It'll be great when this movie comes out so I don't have to hear about it anymore. I mean I like the first two Alien movies but not that much.

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  8. His work is unique. I do really like Whelen's work though.

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  9. A very interesting post, as I'm sure the movie will be. The artwork is fantastic.

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  10. As always....cool post. The heiroglyphics are my fav.

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  11. I didn't know you were such a concept art buff. This was very interesting to look at. I've heard of H.R. Giger before. His stuff is the kind of art that's fascinating to look at and then pops into your mind as you try to get back to sleep at 3 a.m.. The original movie "Alien" is probably responsible for more of my insomnia than I like to think about.

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  12. There's a lot of stuff based on his work in comics.

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  13. incredible pieces! and looking forward to promethius

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  14. Ewwwww... I have to admit, I'm quite the girl when it comes to pieces like this... For some reason, Aliens get to me. They freak me out. I remember after I saw Independence Day for the first time I had nightmares for a week... and it's only Aliens... I'm pretty tough when it comes to anything else... I think... ;)

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  15. So unique. I love creativity and respect artistic creations.

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  16. I'm like Morgan. I'm not into the disturbing/horror sort of thing. But if you enjoy, then have fun.

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  17. You always know about the coolest stuff. I swear, without your blog I would be so clueless.

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  18. that's some wicked art, always love me concept art!

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  19. Spooky. Alien is one of the best Sci-fi movies ever.

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  20. They are a little disturbing . . . but very intriguing as well.

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  21. I love Giger's work, as a nominal artiste, I have seen a lot of his sketches and work, they guy is amazing all around.

    This movie is so going to be great.

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  22. I looked up necromicon (very dark) and then Giger (not as dark). I noticed some looked like the aliens in Alien. Too gross for me to enjoy.

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  23. Can't wait to see this movie. It's going to be awesome.
    My favorite artist Is Michael Parkes who's a fantasy realist. I have 2 of his prints framed in my living room and every year i buy a calendar of his work

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  24. I wasn't familiar with his art but it is pretty cool to look at.

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  25. I didn't know about this guy, but this artwork is incredible.

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  26. one of my alltime fave horror/fantasy artists, thx mike :)

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