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[Exclusive] Effects Studio Weta Bringing the Xenomorphs to Life for the FX Alien Series!

Following the recent news surrounding the themes of the upcoming FX Alien series such as competing corporations or consciousness transference, one of the more frequent questions we’ve been seeing from fans is regarding the Aliens themselves, looking for some news on our favourite extra-terrestrial’s involvement in the series. We’re pleased to bring you some intel on that front! 

According to Alien vs. Predator Galaxy’s sources none other than effects studio Weta will be responsible for designing and bringing the Xenomorphs to life in Noah Hawley’s upcoming FX series!

Though we can safely reveal that Weta is currently involved in the series’ production, we can’t say what the blend of practical and digital effects will be for the Aliens when the series moves into production in March. Weta is actually comprised of sister companies Weta Digital, which handles primarily computer generated effects, and Weta Workshop handling primarily practical effects & concept art.

 [Exclusive] Effects Studio Weta Bringing the Xenomorphs to Life for the FX Alien Series!

One of the ‘White Spike’ Aliens from the film The Tomorrow War.

We would hope there is some degree of return to form with a balance of including practical effects for the Xenomorphs, but if they are to be an entirely digital creation, Weta’s previous work with digital creatures certainly gives us confidence in this route as well. Weta Workshop famously designed the concepts for the ‘Prawn’ creatures in the film District 9, with Image Engine creating the digital effects for the alien characters. More recently, Weta Digital (now WetaFX) developed the lifelike CGI for the creature effects in the films The Tomorrow War, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and Avatar

While Weta has previous experience in the franchise in creating a number of the digital effects in Prometheus, including a cut digital incarnation of the Fifield mutant, this is their first foray into the concepts and effects of the Xenomorphs for the screen. Weta Workshop also produces collectibles and has made a number of Alien and Predator display pieces for their Micro Epics line.

Keep your browsers locked on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien TV Series news! You can follow us on FacebookTwitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!



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Comments: 101
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  1. HuDaFuK
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jan 26, 2022, 10:08:10 AMMe when my obsessive interest in all things Aliens extends from desperately wanting to know more about the Space Jockey in the first place.

    :laugh:

    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jan 26, 2022, 10:08:10 AMHonestly, I believe that's a different argument. It's not liking the answer you were given. I don't like that particular take, but I'd never say I don't want to see that explored.

    It is and it isn't. I feel like being given an answer - any answer - is invariably less interesting than leaving it up to your imagination.

    The fact that answer was so bone just makes it a great example :P
  2. SiL
    I find not knowing part of the fun. Nobody really discusses things that are certain for very long. Mysteries endure. I like seeing the EU explore different takes and possibilities, but without ever having THE answer.
  3. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jan 24, 2022, 09:54:36 AM
    Exactly. So why do we need a whole series of films trying to solve that mystery? The mystery had no bearing on the story and wasn't anything that ever needed solving.

    Same goes for the history of the guy in the chair in Alien.

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/030/710/dd0.jpg

    Me when my obsessive interest in all things Aliens extends from desperately wanting to know more about the Space Jockey in the first place.


    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jan 24, 2022, 11:03:46 AM
    Quote from: Kradan on Jan 24, 2022, 10:06:10 AMSorry, but I fail to see that. Crazy android creating Xeno/Proto/Whatevermorph in a cave is infinitely more crazy and intriguing than anything that I could've come up with in my head

    For me, it makes the Alien fundamentally un-alien. It's just man-made by proxy. And I find that eye-rollingly trite.

    I'm not suggesting everyone needs to agree with that.

    Honestly, I believe that's a different argument. It's not liking the answer you were given. I don't like that particular take, but I'd never say I don't want to see that explored.
  4. Immortan Jonesy
    Here I am hoping that the company keeps in mind the visits of the creators of mankind in ancient times.


    In this way, I can see Weyland finding an ancient spaceship, and then studying the artifact in some base in the style of the mythical area 51.


    Then creating human-engineer hybrids in order to create super humans, as a prototype before making human-Alien hybrids.  8)


    And of course I would like to see some Cyberpunk setting.  :-X

  5. SiL
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 25, 2022, 02:27:03 AM
    Since your entire rebuttal is "no u", if I'm being childish, then both of us are. And yes, I'm aware of the irony there.
    Your comment tried to paint your behaviour as less obnoxious than everyone else's. All I did was remove the sarcasm and confirm that your posts are absolutely just as obnoxious to everyone else, as you complain these conversations are to you. It wasn't "no u", it was "get off your high horse".
  6. [cancerblack]
    Quote from: SiL on Jan 24, 2022, 09:36:23 PM
    What are you, twelve?

    Since your entire rebuttal is "no u", if I'm being childish, then both of us are. And yes, I'm aware of the irony there.


    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jan 24, 2022, 10:19:43 PM
    whenever you feel that heated, take a few moments to step back, until you feel ready to re-engage in these conversations and debates

    I'm going to accept this though, and remind myself why I unfollowed this specific sub-forum.
  7. Voodoo Magic
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 24, 2022, 09:21:11 PM
    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jan 24, 2022, 09:09:05 PM
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 24, 2022, 08:52:43 PM
    I like the prequels a lot and at this point even I'd welcome them being retconned just so all the sooks will quit their f**kin' bitching.

    You first!  :D

    Yes, getting exhausted of hearing the same circular shit for ten years and once in a blue moon commenting as much, is exactly the same as actively and regularly saying the same circular shit for ten years.

    Exactly the same.

    To be fair, perhaps it's your approach. Hicks has had to ask you to cool it down, snip your posts, or both, several times in the past several months, so to one outside looking in, you might seem exhausted with a lot of things lately to be honest. But you're a swell guy, so my advice is whenever you feel that heated, take a few moments to step back, until you feel ready to re-engage in these conversations and debates about our favorite franchises!  :)
  8. Kradan
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 24, 2022, 09:21:11 PM
    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jan 24, 2022, 09:09:05 PM
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 24, 2022, 08:52:43 PM
    I like the prequels a lot and at this point even I'd welcome them being retconned just so all the sooks will quit their f**kin' bitching.

    You first!  :D

    Yes, getting exhausted of hearing the same circular shit for ten years and once in a blue moon commenting as much, is exactly the same as actively and regularly saying the same circular shit for ten years.

    Exactly the same.

    Oh, now you know what it's like being an ADI fan
  9. SiL
    What are you, twelve?

    If you don't like the conversations, don't read them. You don't need to waste your time and energy telling other people what's worth discussing or not, just move on.
  10. [cancerblack]
    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jan 24, 2022, 09:09:05 PM
    Quote from: [cancerblack] on Jan 24, 2022, 08:52:43 PM
    I like the prequels a lot and at this point even I'd welcome them being retconned just so all the sooks will quit their f**kin' bitching.

    You first!  :D

    Yes, getting exhausted of hearing the same circular shit for ten years and once in a blue moon commenting as much, is exactly the same as actively and regularly saying the same circular shit for ten years.

    Exactly the same.
  11. oduodu
    Quote from: Kradan on Jan 24, 2022, 08:07:59 PM
    https://i.gifer.com/origin/ab/abaced865351dca3df1cf339ba3c0c9e.gif

    Stories are about humans one way or another, no matter what your heroes/villains are or what setting you put them in - fantasy or sci-fi, past, present, future etc. It's all about reflecting on humans' nature. So you might as well literally put humans at the top of the piedestal of universe


    Quote from: oduodu on Jan 24, 2022, 07:06:53 PM
    and oh yes all about teenagers.....

    Sorrywhat ?

    alien never depicted us at the top and yet it became cult classic. why?

    i am refering to teenagers as the primary reason as to why people go watch movies nowadays: kids drive what parents spend their money  on.  so by and large most movies today will have subject matter that will be attractive to kids to the detriment of any other subject matter. imho anyway...
  12. SiL
    Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Jan 24, 2022, 08:34:36 PM
    The Engineers making humans on Earth, and seeding (and, perhaps, later destroying?) a multitude of other worlds and populations in the very same way (remember, Ridley never directly confirmed if the planet in Prometheus' prologue was Earth because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether that one is explicitly Earth or not. That's what happened on Earth... and on other worlds as well.) ultimately serves to make humanity even less significant in the grand scheme of things.
    We were made intentionally in their image, and then they wanted to whipe us out specifically. The dramatic events of the universe are actively driven by the intentional creation and destruction of humanity by human forces, rather than our creation and destruction being the result of indifferent natural processes. This isn't a trivial distinction.

    QuoteI should also add, none of this really even seeps into my mind when watching Alien anyways.
    Absolutely. Alien is Alien. It just means future stories will never have that element to them again unless they retcon the prequels.
  13. Nightmare Asylum
    The only thing that Prometheus really puts humanity at the center of galactic events is the idea that the Engineers were explicitly en route back to Earth to come directly after us because of something we did in the past - which is a plot point that I could really take or leave and would have been more than ok if the film had dropped that angle to push us a little bit more out of the Engineers' direct focus. I also would have been happy to toss aside Prometheus' "100% DNA Match" angle.

    The Engineers making humans on Earth, and seeding (and, perhaps, later destroying?) a multitude of other worlds and populations in the very same way (remember, Ridley never directly confirmed if the planet in Prometheus' prologue was Earth because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether that one is explicitly Earth or not. That's what happened on Earth... and on other worlds as well.) ultimately serves to make humanity even less significant in the grand scheme of things. Earth is nothing more than Petri dish for one of the Engineers' many scattered experiments, and a failed one at that. They made us, as David said, because they could - and they made others for the very same (lack of) reason. We don't have some grand purpose. Earth is a discarded world that held on longer than it should have, full of beings that don't matter. And even our greatest creation supersedes us and, using the raw materials taken from the Engineers, creates something 'perfect' that functions as a sort of plague in the known universe moving forward.

    I should also add, none of this really even seeps into my mind when watching Alien anyways. It's pretty easy for me to watch each installment and take it as it as it is with what's presented directly on screen, under the conditions it was made in, without constantly needing to cross reference each "canon" material in my mind. When I'm watching Alien, the crew finds a mysterious ancient craft full of eggs. David, the Engineers, etc. don't really factor into my mind, until I'm off watching the prequels and taking in their particular spin on the material. When I'm watching Aliens, the third act isn't made any less exciting knowing that Alien 3 kills off Hicks and Newt as the opening credits roll.
  14. SiL
    Quote from: Kradan on Jan 24, 2022, 08:07:59 PM
    Stories are about humans one way or another, no matter what your heroes/villains are or what setting you put them in - fantasy or sci-fi, past, present, future etc. It's all about reflecting on humans' nature. So you might as well literally put humans at the top of the piedestal of universe
    Or you use scifi to put humans in a situation where they aren't the most important thing and see how human nature reacts. Most stories are about people doing things to people. Scifi is one of the few places to explore humanity detached from anything they might find familiar or controllable at a large scale.

    That's what the Alien franchise had done for so long. Now with the prequels it's just humans doing things to other humans.

    Throughout the franchise we saw how humans treated each other contrasted against the struggle with the Alien. The Alien is cold and ruthless and uncaring, only trying to survive, whereas we see humans regularly sabotaging each other and choosing to be malicious to others.

    When everything is human drama, that contrast completely evaporates. The Alien isn't just trying to survive, it literally only exists to kill us - because of our own hubris. There is no longer a contrast between the cold indifference of space and the intentional evil of mankind, because the Alien is just another byproduct of our evil.
  15. SiL
    Quote from: skhellter on Jan 24, 2022, 02:25:16 PM
    deranged-psychopath-sex-obsessed-android finds an ancient bioweapon and fine tunes it to become a monster that will kill and rape all of mankind in a cosmic act of revenge.

    vs

    random scary space bug that someone finds on a rock.

    Finding it really hard to tell what's the most interesting take here.
    Easy, it's the latter.

    The former reduces everything of any importance in the story's universe to being intimately related to humanity. In all of space, humans are Super Special and everything is all about Us.

    The latter presents a cosmos that is vast and ancient and indifferent to our survival. We aren't special. We aren't handmade by other humans and we aren't the specific target of anyone or anything's malice. We drift through the void and find other lifeforms also struggling to survive in the emptiness - and find they've done a much better job adapting.
  16. oduodu
    Quote from: SiL on Jan 24, 2022, 11:29:51 AM
    A human in a suit made humans who made fake humans who made an Alien to kill real humans

    It's just people all the f**king way down and that's not what I'm here for in my scifi. I like humanity small and insignificant stepping out into uncharted darkness, not the center of all drama in the cosmos.

    this^^^^👌

    that's why i love alien.  everything now is no more "alien"

    and oh yes all about teenagers.....
  17. skhellter
    deranged-psychopath-sex-obsessed-android finds an ancient bioweapon and fine tunes it to become a monster that will kill and rape all of mankind in a cosmic act of revenge.

    vs

    random scary space bug that someone finds on a rock.




    Finding it really hard to tell what's the most interesting take here.
  18. Kradan
    That mystery isn't that vast though. There's two possibilities really: Space Jockey used Alien eggs as a weapon or it belonged to a peaceful race and found them somewhere and was transporting them somewhere else. Wow, how exciting
  19. Kradan
    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jan 24, 2022, 11:03:46 AM
    For me, it makes the Alien fundamentally un-alien. It's just man-made by proxy. And I find that eye-rollingly trite.

    I'm not suggesting everyone needs to agree with that.

    David didn't create Black Goo though. I'm personally find it kinda ironic (in a good way) that there's much more in common between humanity and ultimate cosmic horror that is Alien. It turns Alien into a representation of all what is usually kept hidden inside a human being, of the darkest desires of human's mind and soul. It may be frustrating on a narrative level but as far as themes movies play with I dig it
  20. SiL
    A human in a suit made humans who made fake humans who made an Alien to kill real humans

    It's just people all the f**king way down and that's not what I'm here for in my scifi. I like humanity small and insignificant stepping out into uncharted darkness, not the center of all drama in the cosmos.
  21. Stitch
    Quote from: Kradan on Jan 24, 2022, 10:06:10 AM
    Crazy android creating Xeno/Proto/Whatevermorph in a cave is infinitely more crazy and intriguing than anything that I could've come up with in my head

    The problem is that what the story boils down to is that the company made them. Yes, it's by way of a malfunctioning Android in a cave. But the Android is company property, and the direct creation of Peter Weyland.
    Having the alien be a creation of Weyland-Yutani is just trite, and boring.
  22. Kradan
    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jan 24, 2022, 09:37:32 AM
    The mystery surrounding it was infinitely more compelling than what Covenant told us.

    Sorry, but I fail to see that. Crazy android creating Xeno/Proto/Whatevermorph in a cave is infinitely more crazy and intriguing than anything that I could've come up with in my head

    And I don't understand that sacred status mystery has, "we must protect it at all costs !" kind of attitude.. Like, whatever, if an interesting story comes out of it

    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jan 24, 2022, 09:54:36 AM
    Exactly. So why do we need a whole series of films trying to solve that mystery? The mystery had no bearing on the story and wasn't anything that ever needed solving.

    Same goes for the history of the guy in the chair in Alien.

    Resolving mystery is just an excuse for exploring weird-ass themes of what is God, creation, life and so on and so forth blah blah blah. Prometheus and Covenant might've been marketed to you like that but they're not really about just resolving any mysteries for the hell of resolving mysteries

    You can complain about "Then why didn't he just made a stand-alone sci-fi movie without dragging Alien into it" all you want but unfortunately there's that thing called brand recognition in Hollywood. If anything, Prometheus proves that Ridley did triy to create a standalone sci-fi movie. And what studio did to him ? "Nah, we need Aliens back"
  23. HuDaFuK
    Exactly. So why do we need a whole series of films trying to solve that mystery? The mystery had no bearing on the story and wasn't anything that ever needed solving.

    Same goes for the history of the guy in the chair in Alien.
  24. HuDaFuK
    Yeah, I've really never understood Ridley's hard-on for explaining the Alien's origins.

    The mystery surrounding it was infinitely more compelling than what Covenant told us.
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