The 'box' Alien

[SiL]

Dan O'Bannon also referred to it as a "Weird looking box".

Yes, but again, there's no evidence of any construction or effects work being done.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

Dan O'Bannon also referred to it as a "Weird looking box".

Yes, but again, there's no evidence of any construction or effects work being done.

well, public relations man Charles Lippincott knew about it and knew what Walt Simonson was talking about, Walt Simonson talked about the effect with someone else at the preview and that other person thought that this specific effect was cheesy. Dan O'Bannon mentioned the scene to the Famous Monsters of Filmland reporter. There might be something more to know about exactly what they saw but I don't think they were all having a misconceived notion together just because you had a strange idea about what you saw in Alien.

[Elmazalman]

More than one person has called it 'box shaped'.I don't think its a case of one persons memory cheating them.Simonson has stated that he thought the scene looked "Fantastic" and "cool",so obviously it had left a strong impression on him.He has also stated that he wasn't too sure how the effect was achieved,but that it didn't just involve a actor in a suit.As I've stated before I think the comic book is a close representation of what he saw,apart from the Alien changing scale from one scene to the next King Kong style and minor Nostromo details,The illustrated Story is remarkably faithful visually to the film,right down.to the characters likenesses.

[Xhan]

Either way, good on ya for asking the question. 'If only I could see what he's seen, with his eyes...' 

Okay, thanks!

It is one hell of a problem., and there is the fact that he only saw the scene once and just think about how many times it has taken a good number of people to watch this movie and work out what it is that they've seen

People have only seen the complete Parker/Lambert scene once (or twice if they were part of the initial public test audience as well) and that the Alien literally picked up Parker one handed flat and literally laminated him into the wall was once considered a myth, even though that was actually the scene that made people throw up and leave the theater, not the chestbursting, but because it was never clarified as to which scene made people completely lose it, it was assumed to be the former, not the latter, based on shock value. When I stated this on GG, people were literally in "nu uh, never happened, no proof" mode, simply because there was little information on it still in the public venue.

Yet now we have behind the scenes footage of it and the stuff from Alien Makers that Dennis and other have generously recounted.

Context is king.

[Elmazalman]

I've heard about that Parker footage too,but never believed it until I saw the BTS footage for myself.I have also never seen any production stills of Parker being body slammed into the wall either ( until recently ) but now we know it exists.

[Valaquen]

I would be very excited if the box did exist. I think we should keep our expectations realistic but minds open to the possibility of there being new stuff (none of the documentaries or interviews mention Giler and Hill's 'Cylinder' script for example - the only hint was its appearance in a piece of Cobb's artwork, and I think most folk ignored that detail until the script stated circulating). Still wrangling for that Shusett interview so I'll certainly ask him once/if it happens.

[SiL]

There might be something more to know about exactly what they saw but I don't think they were all having a misconceived notion together just because you had a strange idea about what you saw in Alien.

What? I didn't say they're wrong because I misremembered something so they must have, it was an example of how easy it is.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

There might be something more to know about exactly what they saw but I don't think they were all having a misconceived notion together just because you had a strange idea about what you saw in Alien.

What? I didn't say they're wrong because I misremembered something so they must have, it was an example of how easy it is.

And maybe you were floating in that direction, rather than going the other way

Context is king.

Either way, good on ya for asking the question. 'If only I could see what he's seen, with his eyes...' 

Okay, thanks!

It is one hell of a problem., and there is the fact that he only saw the scene once and just think about how many times it has taken a good number of people to watch this movie and work out what it is that they've seen

People have only seen the complete Parker/Lambert scene once (or twice if they were part of the initial public test audience as well) and that the Alien literally picked up Parker one handed flat and literally laminated him into the wall was once considered a myth, even though that was actually the scene that made people throw up and leave the theater, not the chestbursting, but because it was never clarified as to which scene made people completely lose it, it was assumed to be the former, not the latter, based on shock value. When I stated this on GG, people were literally in "nu uh, never happened, no proof" mode, simply because there was little information on it still in the public venue.

Yet now we have behind the scenes footage of it and the stuff from Alien Makers that Dennis and other have generously recounted.

Context is king.

Yes, those are good words. We are still looking for what this is, how it was seen, was it an actual box or just seemed loosely box like enough to be referred to in that way because it connected with another idea that was prevailent at the time that we don't know about anymore and was the scene as interesting as we might want to imagine it was.  We'll wonder what it was that seemed interesting to Walt and cheesy to someone else in the audience and what might have been cheesy about it

[SiL]

And maybe you were floating in that direction, rather than going the other way

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

And I haven't ever said they didn't see the Alien curled up in a box-like shape, or that there isn't footage we haven't seen. Just that there's a real chance he's misremembered exactly how "box"-like and technically complicated the shot was. That's all.

[Elmazalman]

I would be very excited if the box did exist. I think we should keep our expectations realistic but minds open to the possibility of there being new stuff (none of the documentaries or interviews mention Giler and Hill's 'Cylinder' script for example - the only hint was its appearance in a piece of Cobb's artwork, and I think most folk ignored that detail until the script stated circulating). Still wrangling for that Shusett interview so I'll certainly ask him once/if it happens.

I'm sure there is new stuff to be discovered,the hyper sleep awakening as originally filmed with close up insert shots of mucus running out of crew-member's noses or Ash's original interrogation dialogue.With the new Anthology supplements I finally got to hear about and sample the "Toy Birds Of  Destruction" sequence,which I read about years ago in a magazine article,which I thought would never get a mention.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

And maybe you were floating in that direction, rather than going the other way

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

And I haven't ever said they didn't see the Alien curled up in a box-like shape, or that there isn't footage we haven't seen. Just that there's a real chance he's misremembered exactly how "box"-like and technically complicated the shot was. That's all.

Let's assume that more than one person was talking about but maybe the alien as in the comic book doesn't look as box to me but looks more like a backpack. I first found the "box" word  in the Famous Monsters article from 1979  that seemed to stem from Dan O'Bannon's words when I briefly read it twenty something years ago and couldn't work out where I saw it, and then the reference to a box came up in Walter's 1998 statements about his comic book and in recent years he has repeated the use of that term. It seemed to be box like enough in the discussions of more than one person. It's probable that Walter didn't read that magazine

Let's just imagine that Walt did the image right enough and he knew the subject matter enough and when he talked about drawing the shot to Charles Lippincott the Fox PR man dealing with this project, he had a clue what he was talking about now rather than thinking that the comic book artist was already clueless about what he was seeing. Walter doesn't claim to  know how technically elaborate the shot must be but he assumed it might have required a body contortionist for what he was seeing and that's not ultimately his last word. So we have two incidents of discussion from different source about the alien folded into a box rather than something revealing the alien to be too much of a man in a suit. It was definitely something for Walter to talk about with another audience member and for Walt, it was a scene that made the creature seem like something a few feet further away from being a man in a suit and that was part of his experience. There might be a way to explain how the shot was done in a way that it is in the comic book without making it too technically elaborate and we don't ultimately have the information.

I'm not too keen to have any more smoke shoved onto the experience we know about

[SiL]

Yeah, I really don't understand what point you're trying to make.

[Snark]

You know, someone should ask the guys at Creative Assembly about this. Since they have access to Fox's archives on the movie, maybe they have seen something to confirm this?

[Elmazalman]

Does that mean I have to buy a bloody video game to get my hands on unseen Alien outtakes?

[SiL]

That's not what he said at all.