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Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 Would Have Used Practical Alien Effects

The good folk over at HN Entertainment recently had the opportunity to talk to Amalgamated Dynamics Inc‘s Alec Gillis and the topic of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 inevitably came up. Though unable to talk in much detail about ADI’s work on the film, Alec did reveal that Neill had been intending to go practical with the Alien effects and re-affirmed that the asthetic would have referred closer to H.R Giger’s original design.

“That’s why I was looking forward to Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 because that would have given us the opportunity to do more in the spirit of Giger’s alien. We were looking at the 1979 alien all the way but Neill did want changes to make on it. As great as Neill’s CGI looks, I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest thing he did Anthem? His CGI just looks so there and present, Chris Harvey his VFX supervisor they just have a great team.

And I said to Neill like ‘Why aren’t you doing this all digitally?’ cause if it’s biomechanical and harder-edged it lends itself to digital and I’m just surprised that a digital. He said ‘I want real a real man in a suit on set because it forces you into a certain way of shooting that would be more like what Ridley Scott did in the first film. If it’s all digital I won’t have those parameters work within and it’s gonna end up looking like something different and I don’t want that, I want it to look like Ridley Scott did it’. That’s how he thinks and I can guarantee you there’s no studio executive in the world that would say that because they don’t see things in that specific and nuanced of a way.”

 Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 Would Have Used Practical Alien Effects

Last October Blomkamp released an image of a marquette that ADI had done for the film, showing an Alien that looked very much like Giger’s original Alien – except this one had an extra set of arms.

Though Neill Blomkamp has previously said that his Alien 5 is dead in the water, James Cameron recently commented that he was working on making Blomkamp’s vision of an Alien film a relatively. How serious that comment was still remains to be seen.

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Comments: 92
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  1. judge death
    Quote from: Kelgaard on Mar 11, 2019, 03:10:41 AM
    Stalking around is one thing, but I can't imagine them sprinting on two legs and looking right. I'm okay with what was shown.
    In aliens movie we saw them jump and run on two legs/upright and not running on four legs, besides in the airducts but that was due to the cramped space.
    I prefer the xenomorphs running and moving on two legs and dislike how they after AVP movies and games been made like always running on four legs and is smaller and more dinosaur like.
  2. Corporal Hicks
    The posture has never really been something that has bothered but me considering the Alien's terraforming bay entrance and it's human-like stance was one of the creepiest Alien moments in ages for me, I can completely agree with wanting a more upright posture.
  3. TC
    CA said that since the player was going to do a lot of hiding under beds, tables, desks etc, we were going to spend a lot of time staring at the alien's feet, and they felt the human plantigrade feet looked too ordinary and therefore not so scary.

    As far as the hunched over posture goes, nowadays this is what you get from dinosaur movies. IOW the hunched over alien looks very similar in silhouette to all those velociraptors and t-rexes we see all the time, and the alien deserves better than that.

    Also, (and I know this is counter-intuitive when you're greatest fear is that it will look like a man in a rubber suit), but when it's standing upright the fact that it is more human-like adds to the grotesque, perverted-nature effect.

    Just my opinion.

    TC
  4. Xenomorphine
    Saliva is actually easy to render in CGI. All you need is a transparent PNG image and place an animated 'waterfall' effect of fluid constantly moving down it. There are other methods for closer range renders.

    Watching the recent digital series thing definitely reminded me about that weird jaw, I have to agree. A lot of the time, it doesn't matter, because the game uses shadowing to good effect, but it stands out when we see it.

    From what I recall, weren't the digitigrade legs used because they couldn't get it look convincing when animating it on ordinary legs? Personally, I've always preferred the tri-jointed look in some of the comics, but it goes against canon for the human-hosted creatures and there are times it looks oddly bendy in the game.
  5. SiL
    Quote from: The Old One on Mar 06, 2019, 10:51:16 AM
    Love the hunch, markedly improves how the design comes off to me. Looks like you can actively tell it's hunting, or aggressive and if it was just walking about casually with the human silhouette and plantigrade legs it would look silly af.
    The problem for me is it looks like every other hunched over man in a suit, which is my issue with every time Woodruff Jnr is in the suit. Upright and looking around calmly gives it a more intelligent aspect; it's scanning, searching, assessing, thinking. You see it even in Bolaji's suit tests, where he's not exactly stick straight, but he's not slouching at his shoulders.

    The Terminator, of all things, is a good example of this. When he's tracking something down he scans the area upright, to get a complete view.

    Hunched is beastly, which is lazy and unimaginative.

    QuoteWhen you see it roaming around in full view, the digitigrade legs and leaning forward posture works best.
    I really disagree here. Long, slender, human legs with an elegant walking motion could've worked wonders. The problem in Alien is that the full body shots were exclusively stunt people, not Bolaji. If they'd blown him out the airlock that ending wouldn't have looked quite as dodgy.
  6. The Old One
    I believe the AI creature's posture's superior throughout exploration.

    The reason the human posture's excellent throughout the cargo bay- ( and the original 1979 Alien and others) is the depiction's the Xenomorph's midsection, and above not below.

    The Alien design full view; the elongated limbs, arms and digitigrade legs is superior IMO.
  7. SiL
    Hunched over posture also doesn't help it. The original was often curled, but this is hunched at the shoulders all the time and it feels off. Scott actually got the posture right for the first time in like 40ish years in the shot of the protomorph entering the hangar bay. Chilling.
  8. Perfect-Organism
    There is something to what Sil is saying.  Stompy is not a bad design, but there is something oddly over-square about the chin.  Too wide maybe.  Definitely missing the lips.  There is something that breaks the illusion of the creature.  Maybe it needs more crazy drool..
  9. Samhain13
    Same. Despite some complains, it still looks great, at least on the games the aliens usually maintain their biomechanical details. Even on AVP2010 where they copied the predator design from the avp movies, they decided to follow the Cameron aliens instead of the ADI version.

    Regardless Stompy is on the top of the aliens's portayal on videogames. But the AVP2 alien with a Giger skin mod looks pretty good as well:

    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/92/b9/de/92b9dedb6f869a9c916a8b1c35ab65ca.jpg

    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f6/62/54/f66254cbf54598187d152df09cffdc54.jpg

    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5b/43/c3/5b43c3f9472035e83c8f05a32969b334.jpg
  10. The Old One
    No,

    Spoiler

    The AR version's chin's pointed, the AI version's chin's squared.

    The AR version's legs are thin, the AI version's legs are thick.
    [close]
  11. The Old One
    The face is a cliche monster face, yes- agreed. The H.R Giger's original "face" is superior.

    I believe the "gangly" aspect's good though and the proportions, it's the perfect uncanny-valley
    between the obvious man-in-a-suit and the unbelievable digital Alien.

    https://www.gamercast.net/media/blogs/gamercast/a/alien_isolation/alienisolation_1.jpg?mtime=1408452481
    https://www.alphr.com/sites/alphr/files/2015/10/fear_games_alien_isolation.jpg
    https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q08HkZfXgErDoUpPFbK6sV-xJTQ=/0x0:2000x1125/1600x900/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/40398354/alienisolation1.0.0.jpg

    Evocative of
    Spoiler
    IMO
  12. Xenomorphine
    Personally, I like this design. The arms look like a completely natural addition, unlike the additional mouthparts on the Predalien design. If this had the Winston ridged head, it might have even been my favourite ever design, but regardless, this sculpt has to be the most authentic Giger-like sculpt potentially for big screen treatment, that we've had in decades.

    I suspect it's meant to be the 'ultimate Alien' arisen by genetic modification: Agile and fast enough to be a predatory menace without being a big target, but with the additional arms implying it can potentially lay eggs. The best of both worlds. That's just my guess, though. Can imagine it can could a lot more horrifying scenes death scenes with those additional arms, too: Imagine it holding a victim in the air, before it, crucifixion-style, while doing something slow and terrible with the secondary arms, below the victim's neck. Wouldn't even need to see anything aside from the agonised facial expressions and ominous noises. That's total Lambert territory...

    The tail's useful, but those hands give it something more than a massive prehensile spear to do things to victims.

    Doesn't come across as top-heavy to me. Those arms look relatively light.
  13. Perfect-Organism
    In truth, it is probably ill-advised to ever really show the entire creature.  Otherwise it's just a man in a suit.  If you just see a small section and you see those extra hands, it is not really problematic.

    The new design is no great revelation, but neither is it the disaster some people make it out to be.
  14. The Kurgan
    Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Feb 26, 2019, 02:05:15 PM
    Quote from: SiL on Feb 26, 2019, 01:13:29 PM
    How is sticking titty arms in the front not disturbing it much?

    You always have to analyze the overall effect.  In this case it works well.  It is balanced by the dorsal tubes.  It looks mare insectile.

    It makes it more insectile, but i find it way to topheavy. There is already so much going on in the upper half of the creature, more arms makes it too much imo.
  15. JokersWarPig
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Feb 26, 2019, 08:48:09 AM
    Quote from: JokersWarPig on Feb 25, 2019, 09:51:20 PM
    Eh, I'm pretty sure it was to imply that that specific alien was going to molt into a queen, not that Big Chap was a queen all along.
    No way to be sure though unless we see the script one day.

    That's the first thought that springs to mind but Carlos Huante shared some art from the project and it was all mutated Aliens, many of which had multiple limbs. I think it might have been experimentation.

    If the arms are do to experimentation I still don't hate it. It's not as cool as if we were to see the evolution process on screen, but it's not bad either. Way better than the super fleshy AR experiments/aliens.
  16. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: JokersWarPig on Feb 25, 2019, 09:51:20 PM
    Eh, I'm pretty sure it was to imply that that specific alien was going to molt into a queen, not that Big Chap was a queen all along.
    No way to be sure though unless we see the script one day.

    That's the first thought that springs to mind but Carlos Huante shared some art from the project and it was all mutated Aliens, many of which had multiple limbs. I think it might have been experimentation.
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