Alien Vault

The most interesting element of "Alien Vault" is that the film would have been a fraction of what it eventually became if the two friends stayed selfish, held onto their vision and thought of themselves as “auteurs”. Thankfully they didn't. One of the friends, Dan O’ Bannon had just come off an insane collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky and several European artists on the cancelled film adaptation of Dune. He took that teamwork concept with him to Alien.

O’Bannon and his co writer Ron Shusett wrote a B movie with a simple but effective concept. It was nothing exceptional and they had a deal for Roger Corman to produce it (with O'Bannon directing). But almost immediately O’ Bannon enlisted H.R Giger for concept art, which got them into a lot of doors in Hollywood and well beyond the offices of Mr. Corman. 

Once Fox bought the film the producers, namely Walter Hill, rewrote the script inserting the now famed “truckers in space” tone that has made Alien stand apart from every sci fi/horror film ever made. Later in the book O’ Bannon and Shusett try to down play Hill and Company’s contribution, but it is pretty clear; Ridley Scott would have never agreed to direct the film if he read the original draft. I am not down playing O’ Bannon and Shusett’s involvement. The two were so collaborative Fox decided to keep them on as associate producers, acting as creative consultants to Scott and the crew. Those that know big budget film making know that this move was unprecedented. Scott even admitted that O’ Bannon was the one who introduced him to artists like Giger and Moebius and started him on a lifelong obsession with their visual concepts in his films. Scott also wound up fighting for Giger’s designs for the Alien when the Fox executives started to get cold feet during pre-production. They wanted the alien to be more "monster-like".

The final film is darker, classier and stranger than any alien-on-the-loose movie before or since. “Alien Vault” gets into the relationships between the creative crew members as well as the uncertainty of the ensemble cast. All the while showing a brooding Scott trying to keep the ship afloat and refusing to let the movie descend into any recognizable B movie cliches. It is not only a great exploration of a great film, but an excellent example of how simple ideas were turned into a singular masterpiece. It is a amazing book.

Below are scanned images from "Alien Vault": They are early concepts of the alien, costumes and sets. They are also behind the scenes photos of the production and obscure or unused promotional material created during the marketing of the film.

Moebius costume designs:

H. R. Giger developing the Alien (and its many stages):