ALIEN RESURRECTION Newborn Design Concepts 20th Anniversary BTS

Started by Corporal Hicks, Nov 27, 2017, 09:57:36 AM

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ALIEN RESURRECTION Newborn Design Concepts 20th Anniversary BTS (Read 2,548 times)

Corporal Hicks



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ALIEN RESURRECTION's newborn, which will be available for order from us, December 1st, here: http://studioadi.bigcartel.com/prod.../newborn-design-maquette is perhaps the most controversial creature ADI has ever embarked upon. Love it or hate it, we wanted to travel back 20+ years ago, to 1996 to show you the design process, from early concept illustrations to painted maquettes. It's never easy bringing a newborn into the world, especially when it has such a legacy to follow.

Alien: Resurrection hit theaters 20 years go to the posting of this video.

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PsyKore

Some of the earlier eyeless designs look good. Cool nightmarish designs. But it's later in the process when they started putting more expression and emphasis in the face and accentuated its pot belly that it became goofy-looking.

Scorpio

As Jean Pierre Jeunet explained, he wanted to give it character rather than just be another monster.

If it was too evil looking, we wouldn't understand why Sigourney would mourn for it.  It's meant to be her offspring, and she has to kill her offspring.  That's what the Newborn is all about.

Not just making it another scary creature.

OpenMaw

Well, no, that's what Jean Pierre made it into. Whedon had no intentions of that in his script. In his script, it was intended to be something even worse than the alien, even smarter, even faster, even more dangerous, and potentially capable of reproducing on it's own.


Some of those earlier designs are simply better.

Scorpio

Whedon is one of the most generic directors in hollywood, and he didn't direct the movie. 

The earlier designs are good, but just wouldn't fit for what they were going for.  Like I said, it was not just meant to be a cool looking monster.  It was a character.  People did not understand this and automatically hated it.

Corporal Hicks

Ripley could have stilled mourned for the Newborn while if it looked like a "monster". I think that could have been more interesting and played into her conflict of identity. And let's face it, the Newborn still look monsterish.

PsyKore

Quote from: Scorpio on Nov 28, 2017, 07:12:02 AM
The earlier designs are good, but just wouldn't fit for what they were going for.  Like I said, it was not just meant to be a cool looking monster.  It was a character.  People did not understand this and automatically hated it.

I don't know why you assume people don't understand it. It's an obvious abomination of Human and Alien, but its final design is almost too cartoony to take seriously. Hicks is right that it's still a monster regardless, and it would have worked the same, if not better, with the earlier designs.

Scorpio

How can you say it would have worked better? 

For all we know, it could have been worse.

There's a reason why they didn't use those earlier designs.

SM

QuoteI don't know why you assume people don't understand it.

It is because he's given to baseless hyperbole?  ;)

Ultramorph

I don't know, I think they nailed the right mix between making the Newborn sympathetic and monstrous. It's mostly the puppy eyes, I suppose, and how horrific they made its death.

PsyKore

Quote from: Scorpio on Nov 28, 2017, 10:48:49 PM
How can you say it would have worked better? 

For all we know, it could have been worse.

There's a reason why they didn't use those earlier designs.

I can say the earlier designs would be better, because like with most things in this film, if they cut down on the absurdity and ridiculous nature of the film, it would be genuinely a much greater movie. Those earlier designs offer more intrigue just from a picture of them than the final Newborn does in the film. I'm sorry, but giving the creature sad eyes and facial emotes doesn't create character.

OpenMaw

It meows like a f*cking cat for God's sake.


Imagine an H.R. Giger verison of the Regenator from Resident Evil 4 coming after the crew at the end?







Kane's other son

Alien Resurrection is a first draft. There's a very interesting subtext about those outside the norm looking for their place in the world: Call, Ripley 8, the newborn.

Unfortunately it is never coherently developed and is buried under an avalanche of slapstick, weird tone shifts and half-baked 90s action cliches.

The Newborn reflects the above confusion. They were going for a tragic character that doesn't fit anywhere. They ended up with a goofy behemoth that could barely move.

Scorpio

The Newborn didn't need to move, it wasn't part of any action scenes.  I think that's why fans were disappointed, because they were expecting another powerloader vs queen battle.  But there was no battle.  It was more of a psychological battle, Ripley betraying her own offspring.

OmegaZilla

OmegaZilla

#14
The newborn works perfectly for what it's supposed to do in the film; it's horrible, pathetic and sad. It's the whole point of it. Also helps that the animatronic may very well be one of the most realistic film creatures to date.

The real problem with the newborn lies in how it is positioned structurally, narratively in the film. It appears at the end with no previous set-up. You may interpret the Ripley clones as a sort of foreshadowing of where the finale goes, but there's never a clear visual or dialogue-based set-up that specifically points to the newborn.

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