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Alien – The Archive Preview

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Titan Books have been kind enough to provide us with a look at some of the images inside their upcoming book, Alien – The Archive, written by Mark Salisbury:

“Alien is one of the most original, thrilling, and beautiful franchises in cinema history. From Ridley Scott’s elegant horror masterpiece and James Cameron’s visceral and heart-poundingAliens, to David Fincher’s nihilistic Alien3, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s twistedAlien Resurrection, these are the films that birthed a monster and a cultural phenomenon.

Alien: The Archiveis a beautiful celebration of these landmark films, delving deep into the process of how all four films were created. From the earliest script ideas to final cut, this book showcases the making of the series in exhaustive and exclusive detail. Featuring storyboards from Ridley Scott, exclusive concept designs from Ron Cobb and Syd Mead, behind-the-scenes imagery of the xenomorphs being created, deleted scenes, unused ideas, costumes, weapons, and much more.

This must have retrospective also includes brand new interviews with Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, H.R. Giger, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Jenette Goldstein, and those whose vision and originality created a cinema legend.

This book is for all fans of Alien, art lovers, and cinema and science fiction historians. Alien:The Archiveis the final word on the series and showcases the breathtaking creation of a terrifying and beautiful filmic nightmare.”

221014_01 Alien - The Archive Preview

Some of these pictures are familiar and some I’ve never seen (like the above image of Ash’s head). Check out all 11 pictures provided to us below. Alien – The Archive is due out on the 31st of October. The next Alien novel, River of Pain, is due out on the 25th of November. And for those who have missed it, The Art of Alien Isolation was recently released as well.


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  6. Bat Chain Puller
    Posted
    Mine arrived today. A big, heavy, sexy book. That newly printed smell is intoxicating. Glancing through it's chocked full of photos and illustrations. Many new to me. Particularly interested in Vincent Wards medieval wooden planet stuff from Alien 3. Going to curl up with it tonight in bed with a cup of hot chocolate and window open.
    Reply
  9. Joda
    Posted
    Quote from: Darwinsgirl on Nov 05, 2014, 10:54:04 PM
    On the inside flaps (front usually has snyopsis of book,the back flap author info) are they equal length? If one is longer then the other its possible the jackets were not placed on the binding correct. If they are even and the book spine is at the center of the dust jacket...its a printing error. You may be able to center it even if the title is misaligned. But the inside flaps won't be even or a crease from the original placement may be visible.

    The lengths appear different, so on mine it might be an issue with the jacket alignment during production. Regardless, I'm finding an awful lot of manufacturing errors on Titan Book publications recently...  :-\
    Reply
  13. Darwinsgirl
    Posted
    Quote from: Joda on Nov 05, 2014, 09:34:28 PM
    Okay, this may seem odd...

    Did anyone else receive a copy with the dustjacket mis-aligned? Normally, the publisher's name should be in the dead center of the spine, but on my copy it's way off to the right. I'm thinking it might drive me crazy every time I see it on my shelf like that. I wonder if I can re-fold it...  ???

    On the inside flaps (front usually has snyopsis of book,the back flap author info) are they equal length? If one is longer then the other its possible the jackets were not placed on the binding correct. If they are even and the book spine is at the center of the dust jacket...its a printing error. You may be able to center it even if the title is misaligned. But the inside flaps won't be even or a crease from the original placement may be visible.

    Reply
  15. Joda
    Posted
    Okay, this may seem odd...

    Did anyone else receive a copy with the dustjacket mis-aligned? Normally, the publisher's name should be in the dead center of the spine, but on my copy it's way off to the right. I'm thinking it might drive me crazy every time I see it on my shelf like that. I wonder if I can re-fold it...  ???
    Reply
  17. StrangeShape
    Posted
    Im on the fence with it. It looks like the ultimate Alien book, with all the info and great photos and layout in one place as one book, even if we already know everything thats written in it (kind of like Terminator Vault, its everything diehards know for a long time, but its a nicely designed piece that gathers it all), but it does include resurrection and I made big effort over the years not to own anything that includes that...thing. I bought Alien movies as separate pieces, not as quadrilogy so I wouldnt own resurrection, even if I lost of another disc of extras. I didnt buy Alien Vault because at the end it included Resurrection and had relatively brief writeup on it. I do not own any Aliens comic books released after Resurection. Theres many examples like that but I hate Resurrection more than any movie ever made in history because for me the alien trilogy was  just beautiful, complete perfection (again, imo), and not only resurection ruins it, but its an idiotic mockery. Anyway, Archive looks like a great set to have but since Resurrection's in it, Im not sure
    Reply
  19. Miguel
    Posted
    Sorry for going off topic, but are there any news on The Weyland-Yutani Report? A release date, maybe?

    I don't mean the very expensive one, from sideshow collectibles.

    I have been checking Amazon UK every day and nothing shows up. Wasn't it supposed to come out before Christmas?

    Thanks
    Reply
  20. HuDaFuK
    Posted
    My copy arrived while I was away last week, but I haven't had a chance to have more than a cursory glance at it so far.

    Even so, I still noticed the errant picture of an Alien 3 W-Y commando in amongst the Resurrection pages.
    Reply
  22. Elmazalman
    Posted
    Best bet,save yourself the cash and wait for it to turn up at the public library.I would love to see a in-depth volume on each film-like the Rinzler making-of original trilogy books.That would have been a worthy celebration of the 35th anniversary instead of this.
    Reply
  23. drsmuts
    Posted
    Yeah, I can see why people are disappointed. Perhaps the Ridley interview fell through between the press release and we don't even know if the Giger interview took place.

    But I knew that with the page count, it was unlikely to be anywhere near as brilliant as the Rinzler Star Wars books (which are fantastic) and we have been rather spoiled with the Blu ray special features which are incredibly comprehensive.

    But for £22, I'm happy with it, ff you are not sure, wait for the youtube reviews or till you can flick through in store.  :)
    Reply
  24. Neil Rudd
    Posted
    So, had the book for a few days now.  Sad to say it is a bit of a let down.  There's almost nothing in here that Alien fans haven't seen before.  The publishers press release on Amazon stated that the book would have new interviews with Giger amd Scott,  this is not the case,  only Weaver is interviewed.  Once you get over the initial size of it and start flicking you quickly realise you've seen it all before. 
    I was really hoping it would be as in depth as the recent Star Wars making of books by JW Rinzler,  it's not even close.  There's literally nothing in the text that you won't have read before or watched in docs. I reckon it's going back to Amazon as a return.  For me it's as disappointing as the Alien vault release.
    Reply
  26. drsmuts
    Posted
    Got mine from Amazon today....£22 so can't grumble about that.

    More impressed than I was with the Vault, I didn't expect a load of unseen Alien 79 photos as the book of Alien, the special effects guide, etc are pretty packed to the gills with photos.

    For £22, no qualms at all about recommending it. It's nice and chunky and I'm sure that there's stuff in there you haven't seen before.

    (I also ordered Harry Potter from Page to screen as part of the order which also came today....now that is a monster! glorious making of book!)
    Reply
  29. wmmvrrvrrmm
    Posted
    Bought a copy of the book today, it's available in central London in Forbidden Planet and the Cinema Store. It's a very nice coffee table book.

    Wel, quite honestly it's not the ultimate guide, it's a book filled with nice images but not the last words on the movies and as we have seen, there are some misplaced things.
    Reply
  36. RidgeTop
    Posted
    They were not. Those patches are designs from "Aliens," not "Alien." USCM was never even concept until Aliens. This should have been obvious to whoever was writing the book. It seems that Mark Salisbury only did the interviews.
    Reply
  38. RidgeTop
    Posted
    Book seems great so far, lots of images I've never seen. Pretty glaring error about the patches though on page 39. Whoever wrote the text there seems to think the patches for Aliens were unused designs from the first film.
    Reply
  39. DemonicD13
    Posted
    Just flipping through and noticed that in my copy on page 261 has an out of place picture of an Alien 3 dog catcher. Anyone else notice this?

    Anyway this book is simple stunning, the pictures and artwork are gorgeous. I don't have the time to sit down and read it right now but from the looks of it it will be a fascinating read.
    Reply
  44. Robot Sentry
    Posted
    I'd even go as far to say that of all the retrospective looks at the franchise, that Aliens is often left out a bit more now too. Not as much as Alien 3 and Resurrection are, but everyone has gone crazy for the original Alien more lately. Probably partly to do with Sir Ridley Scott returning to the franchise a few years ago, as well as the recent build up and good word of mouth for Alien: Isolation.

    I would love both an ALIENS Vault and an ALIEN 3 Vault. Hopefully we'll see them someday.
    Reply
  45. HuDaFuK
    Posted
    I really hope this does go into some depth on the later films, as the blurb claims. Just because they aren't as good as the first two doesn't mean I'm any less interested in the behind the scenes story, but they always seem to get sidelined in favour of Alien and Aliens.
    Reply
  50. marrerom
    Posted
    damn dude.  Burst my bubble why dont you?  ;)

    I could have sworn I saw a picture of two A:R aliens crawling through jungle leaves somewhere on the internet a long time ago.  Unless that was fan made?
    Reply
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