New interview with Scott: Alien, Giger, David and ... flute.

Started by Ingwar, Oct 03, 2017, 02:08:21 PM

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New interview with Scott: Alien, Giger, David and ... flute. (Read 1,270 times)

Ingwar

It's quite long interview with Ridley. I cut parts regarding Blade Runner.

QuoteThat leads me to something I was going to ask you, which is that, one of the things I see in your science fiction films is how relatable and interesting the artificial human characters are. Including Alien, because Ash gets some of the best lines in the film.

Yes. Yes. You know, the monster was the monster, and I was lucky - because I figured there'd be no film without Giger. That was the unique beast. But they [the studio] didn't want to use it, and there was a bit of a fight, insisting that I not use it, on the basis that they thought it was obscene. I said, obscene's good! Scary's good!

But the trick in the script, that I thought was really the thing that took another turn, and a step up in terms of the bar, when you suddenly have Ash, who's a computer, aboard the ship. Which is not new - you've got to thank Stanley Kubrick for that [in 2001: A Space Odyssey], with HAL, except Ash was the first replication of a human, who's AI. HAL was an eye in a wall, and a brain.

I thought that step by step process was logical, and that's what's great about Stanley's film - the logic of having a computer on board an incredibly valuable piece of equipment, to mind the business of the company or whoever's paying for it. Apart from, the human beings are always fragile, both physically and psychologically. So if you've got a ship that's going off into deep space for many, many years - actually five years, ten year turn-around - the crew on Alien will come back very, very wealthy, therefore it's worth a ten year turn-around. But in so doing, you've got to have a protector of the investment. So that, I think, was a stroke of genius, Ash.

There's a very ambiguous relationship between the humans and Ash. Like, the way he behaves towards Ripley's quite interesting. There's a sexual tension going on there.

Totally. Well, that was invented on the morning.

Really?

That's what I do for a living. Yeah. None of that shit's in the script. She [Sigourney Weaver] was like, "What are you trying to do to me with the magazine?" I said, "I'll tell you afterwards." [Laughs]

But Ash was asexual, except for some reason or another, the violence provoked a sexual urge. It's a bit like, at what moment when you feed into a computer enough data and information, do you cross the line of emotion? Is it a combination of elements that would include confusion, anger - that's emotion. So when you've got so much data and the computer's on overload, the box is already getting stressed. That's emotion. Right there, that box can start to hate you for putting too much information into it. Once that's happened, you're in trouble. Human beings are in trouble.

Facebook recently had designed - I read this on the internet, so I don't know how truthful it is, because what's on the internet can be a total pile of horseshit - but I've got a funny feeling it's real. They designed two boxes that are AIs, and within a short space of time, the two AIs, on their own and unprompted, invented a language. They closed them down. Here's the rub: by the time they realised and closed them down, these f**kers had already assumed that would happen, and are already into the skirting board - into the system. So maybe they're out there somewhere. I think if it ever happens, that's how it'll happen - by accident.

Same as giving nations H-bombs: you do not do that. What we're going through now is insane - it's Stanley Kubrick again, in [Dr] Strangelove. You've got the head of the United States, and you've got the head of North Korea, and right there you have two guys you should not put together in an alleyway. [Laughs]

It's quite terrifying isn't it.

It is scary. Because right there you could have escalation by accident. Provocation. Because when you get staff - I employ a lot of people - the staff who are closest to you, they're the ones who'll tell you you're wrong. If you don't, you're in a position of autonomy, which makes you weak. You need somebody there, always to say, "I wouldn't do that if I was you." There's nobody who'll say that to Don, and there's nobody to say that to the guy in North Korea. That's what makes it volatile. I'm hoping that this general in the US will say, "You can't do that. Forget it. You can't do that. Give me the key." Because if you don't, there'll be trouble.

You mentioned Giger. I was wondering whether in Alien: Covenant, you've got David in his lair creating monsters. I was wondering if that was an homage to Giger, when he was working on Alien and he was in his corner.

No, no. Giger was very private. A great guy. I'm the only one allowed in there every day. I'd pop in there at about four o'clock in the afternoon for a cup of tea. He took the smallest stage in Shepperton, which is a 12,000 square foot stage. I gave him an entire studio to work in. He always wore black. I've never seen someone wear so much black. But then he was covered in white powder - chalk of some kind, from sculpting. He was a lovely man, and I got on very well with him. It was a 100 percent relationship - I'd go in there every day and then because I can draw, I'd say, "Can I have a bit more on the head, a bit off the back."

The point being, in a book called Necronomicon, I saw the alien. I said, "God, that's it." The studio were very nervous. They thought it was too much. I said, "How can it be too much? It's unique." I went to Giger and he said, "I can do better." I said, "I doubt it. Besides, you've got to do the chestburster, the facehugger, and I want you to get involved with the planet."

So I had Giger design the planet and a section of the ship - the beautiful what I call Croissant, the boomerang - he did that. The production designer, Michael Seymour, did the other bit, the Earth stuff. Giger did the alien stuff. And it was good, because we got two design brains working on two separate entities.

It just struck me that David was creating his monsters was kind of like Giger.

I was thinking more, honestly, of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Right. A Renaissance man.

Da Vinci was a great man - not evil in any sense of the word. But on his mantelpiece you'll find a helicopter, flying objects, a few pretty good f**king paintings, and every other thing you can possibly imagine. And he's a buddy of Michelangelo, who's pretty good with marble. And painting. So were they both AI? I look back in history, and look at milestones of AI, and you'd have to include Leonardo, Michelangelo, on his capabilities, is extraordinary. But then you've got to look at maybe Mozart. Picasso? Not really. A genius painter, but not so inventive and innovative that it would stand out.

I always had the theory that if you go back 70,000 - I think it's 70,000 years. You've got a caveman, who's only just walking upright. So his prime function on a daily basis is to find food. By now he has family. By now he's found he's better inside a cave, out of the weather than not. So one day he witnesses lightning strike a tree. The tree falls, hits a deer. Kills the deer and cooks the deer. He smells cooked meat, tears at the meat, burns his fingers. Sucks them, "My god that tastes good."

Also, his fingers are black. So he hauls the deer back into the cave. The family then feast on cooked venison for the next week. In that time there's a lot of charcoal wood in there as well. On the walls of his limestone cave - this is the moment, this is the big moment. Does somebody touch him? Like the two fingers in the Vatican? [God touching the finger of Adam]

Does somebody touch him, and one evening, the family are all huddled up now they've discovered fire to keep warm, and he enters the realm of entertainment, by standing up and starting to draw on the wall what he saw today, which is the deer. He draws what he saw. Have you seen those drawings?

Yes. There's the film Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, isn't there?

Stunning. Picasso saw the ones in France, which are now all locked up, and shortly after that, he did Guernica. So the influence of that... was that the moment of getting touched, of getting an idea? It's so grand, it's bigger than Galileo, it's bigger than anything.

You're describing that 2001 moment, almost. The monolith.

Yeah. Exactly right. Because the monolith really was a moving entity through space which would probably come to a ball of dirt, of earth, that has the right atmosphere or whatever, and think, "Time to have this injected with movement."

In this instance, we get the grand idea of using a shinbone as a weapon. And so those elements, I think, are things that we take for granted. But you've got to look back on that and think, "Why are some people, i.e., cavemen, Leonardo, Mozart - why are they so special? Was it accidental?"

On that topic, is the flute in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, is that a similar sort of thing? The first instrument? Is that why you put that in there?

Well, yeah. The flute would probably be the most basic instrument - you get a reed, you punch a hole through it, blow, and you get sound. So I felt the flute was the most basic of all instruments - the air. Or you could have percussion, drums. But I think it was air, to get an interesting, magical sound. But I always revolve around the idea of, I like the genius of Michelangelo.

In terms of his brain, his mathematical, engineering, artistic mind. It makes him one of the absolute greats, really. He was 100 years ahead of his time. So yeah, the flute is a symbol of simplicity, but also, it's a sonic lock: you play the right notes, it opens a door.

So on The Martian, dealing with NASA, was fascinating, because I was dealing with real scientists - astrophysicists, everything. They were fascinated by what I do, which is fiction. They said, "Your suits look better than ours!" There was this great swapping of notes. They said, "Of course we look at movies, because sometimes you guys come up with ideas we hadn't thought of."

Science, mathematics, art - mathematics is totally art. In the same way that music is mathematics, right? So it's all linked. And I think when we bring up the whole idea of God, I think the idea of God is much more complex than that. Was there a creator? That's a different question. Or was there a group that are our creators, who pre-visited us? I believe in that possibility way more than I believe in the Holy Bible. It's kind of logical. Now they're admitting there are millions of entities off us, now, in this immediate galaxy, that have life on them. Thirty years ago, they said it was absolutely ridiculous. I could never accept that - I thought it was nonsense.

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/ridley-scott/51999/ridley-scott-interview-blade-runner-2049-alien-and-more

skhellter

Lol. Love his goofy interviews.  :D




Dont die, Riddlez.

plz.
:'(


CainsSon

No one asked him about Covenant 2?

somethingnew84313

somethingnew84313

#3
Ripley died once already. That story line killed A:R. I like Mother being onboard since Alien, it protects the interest of Weiland and 'others'. This could be Ash, David, and Walter interest. I agree, Ridley, don't die...but don't complete his prelude trilogy. George Lucas did it and spinned off. I want to see the story before Ripley and Ash is introduced. I don't care if it's lame or not. I love some of the artifacts that Prometheus gave us, and we kind of noticed that in A:C, the engineers looked more human than Prometheus. Maybe, they was more human and looked to the REAL engineers like God's. It going be interesting, but wherever it go, it's going be interesting.

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

Ingwar

Quote from: CainsSon on Oct 03, 2017, 02:58:12 PM
No one asked him about Covenant 2?

We have to wait for BR 2049 release or All The Money In The World premiere at the AFI Fest on November 16. Someone will ask him sooner or later.

HABIT

God damn. It's really interesting this interview, but I can't help but feel Ridley actually believes the ancient astronaut theory or similar concepts. He sounds like he's losing his mind.

Scorpio

Nothing wrong with liking the ancient astronaut theory.  Paul Anderson is also a fan which is why it's in Alien Vs Predator.

It's a very popular theory, actually.

PierreVW

Quote from: HABIT on Oct 03, 2017, 11:29:27 PM
God damn. It's really interesting this interview, but I can't help but feel Ridley actually believes the ancient astronaut theory or similar concepts. He sounds like he's losing his mind.

He said that theory is more logical than the Holy Bible. He is right.

I agree 100% with Ridley Scott in this.

tleilaxu

Quote from: Scorpio on Oct 04, 2017, 12:10:06 AM
Nothing wrong with liking the ancient astronaut theory.  Paul Anderson is also a fan which is why it's in Alien Vs Predator.

It's a very popular theory, actually.
I completely disagree. The ancient aliens theory is f**king retarded if you ask me, BUT in the context of the movies Ridley and Co made it actually not suck, which to me is very impressive.

Baron Von Marlon


CainsSon

CainsSon

#10
It is a fairly logical theory to say that life did not originate on Earth but instead is "Alien" in origin. There is no real evidence, but it could potentially be a sound scientifically provable theory, whereas the book of Genesis for instance, is just complete fantasy and there is no conceivable way that we'd ever find evidence of it.

Local Trouble


D. Compton Ambrose

That's actually really cool. The idea of a sonic wavelength being utilized to cull ancient powers from beyond spacetime. YES! Do THIS Ridley, and get away from trying to unmask the Xenomorph and LV-426.

Planet 4 could be hidden within a rip in the spacetime continuum directly connected to the Zeta 2 system. THIS would be an ideal film, small-scale set within the ship. David is on Origae-6 and the Engineers harness something never seen before to stop David and his Protomorphs, which are revealed to be recreated, and one could have the biotechnology itself becoming the primary threat, and it all goes back to the Deacon, which is kind of like the Antichrist, or a rogue self-aware biological computer program perfecting itself through hosts and biotechnological puppets.

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