One of my favourite ever images is Weaver standing beneath the Queen 'puppet'.

The scale of what they did across the first two films...

If you remember the old, mad Kenner toys (animal host traits), NECA are gonna show their updates later tonight - which I'm childishly excited about.

There was some very clever trickery in Aliens. I think we forget that a lot of it was puppetry because it’s done so intelligently. Even though I’ve watch those “making of” documentaries many times, I am still fooled when I watch the film.

A couple of favourites:

1 - There’s a sequence where the marines are in the alien modified atmosphere processing plant. It’s a wide angle shot, and you can see them moving through the scene, torches playing over the alien sculpted areas. This was some very clever model making and framing. There was a model made of the alien sculpture scape. This was placed in front of the camera. Behind that, the live action sequence took place, filmed in the power plant with the actors walking through it, small torches played over the model to sell the idea that the marines’ torches were interacting with it. So basically you are looking through a model at live action with some clever camera work and lenses. This was a painfully expensive shot to set up, and studio execs wanted to see what they were getting for their money. When showed the sequence, they wanted to know where the special effect was. The fact that they were looking at it and they were sold on the whole idea that it was all real just tells you how they were thinking - you had to be able to tell that it was an effect to get value for money. If you can spot the fakery, you lose control of the audience. You break the fantasy.

2 - The sequence where Ripley and Newt are in the med bay. They’ve been locked in and there’s face huggers loose. You see it jump off the floor and into Ripley. Remember: there are sprinklers on - so there’s water falling from the ceiling. This was a very complex sequence to shoot, and involved more than one facehugger puppet*. Part of the sequence can only be pulled off if it was shot backwards, so that is what they did. Cameron was asked by someone on his crew if people would be able to tell it was being played backwards because of the falling water. His answer was that they wouldn’t. The audience would see the texture, but not the motion of the drops. There’s genius right there - he know his medium - film, cameras, motion, and that told him that yes, you’d see the water, but not the direction in which it was moving. So a facehugger jumps through mid air, and you believe it.

There are pretty small parts of the film - we get the big pieces, the massive hardware, the creatures, but you need to sell the fantasy, and you do this with the bits where the audience will totally believe what they are seeing. We know that the alien queen and the power loader are models/effects. That has to be countered with sequences that are effects, but are wholly believable.

*As I said, it’s a puppet show. A pretty grisly one, but puppets none the less. Some live action, some rod controlled, some stop motion. It‘s all there, and you only see a few places where the back projection falls apart.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NECA_TOYS/media/grid?idx=3

https://mobile.twitter.com/NECA_TOYS/media/grid?idx=0

Mantis and gorilla updated toys if you remember the originals.

http://news.toyark.com/2016/07/22/sdcc- ... yle-214686

Sweet Christ, I'm loving those. I know many are just repaints, but that doesn't stop them looking awesome to my mind. I'm not fussed on the Queen 'hugger but the animal host ones are great, and I love the eggs used there!

Alien 5: "I know it's going to happen" says Michael Biehn | Den of Geek
http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/alie ... hael-biehn

They must also be reliant on Prometheus 2 doing well, which frankly isn't guaranteed with Fox involved. Or Ridley for that matter.

http://news.toyark.com/2016/08/25/neca- ... ase-219335

The absolute bastards.

Alien Foam Replica Fossilized Space Jockey - Alien Replicas
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

Er, even I'm not paying that. None of it makes sense. Mostly foam but weighs 91 pounds, and you don't even get a proper box for the mad cost!

If all of that's right, this must be the only way to bring it to retail for various reasons like the cost of tooling and licencing. I wonder how they'll promote it in stores, assuming they do.

One of the things my wife does in rebuild/restore latex model horses, and trust me, after a decade or two, your foam/latex thing will start to deteriorate and will eventually look like runny French cheese.

At those prices, I'd expect a more durable martial to have been used.

That's what I figure - apparently it's a polyeurthene mix? If I have that spelling right... There's already one store pre-selling it for $270, but that's still way too dear for all it is, physically big or not. I mean you saw the Alien Queen I got for under £100.

http://sciencefiction.com/2017/01/03/tr ... ro-movies/

Some of your recent films have been a bit messy, sir... And it wasn't the story so much as the lack of it.

Neill Blomkamp Admits His ‘Alien’ Sequel Is Probably Dead
http://sciencefiction.com/2017/01/23/ne ... ably-dead/

I don't think Fox has a clue what they want, just those Alien dollars. Blomkamp getting quite as far as he did after Prometheus says it all really.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/next-alien- ... next-year/


Ridley: saying you can “crank them out” doesn’t fill me with hope for the franchise, to be honest. The reason people want more of these films is because they are rare gems in a sea of prequels and sequels. There’s that showbiz adage: “leave them wanting more”.

They honestly have no idea about any of it, do they? They all just know they want more. I can only hope for the best...

I do remember thinking it was odd that they'd show it at the time, but I'm struggling to remember how much they did show.