Post by Niemz on Jul 24, 2006 16:04:18 GMT -6
# Alien became the first R-rated film to have a merchandising line aimed at children. The children's products released included various toys and models based on the creature and its egg, jigsaw puzzles, a board game, a Viewmaster-style movie reel, and even a storybook, all of which rate as collectible today. Most notably, Kenner released a 12-inch Alien figure, impressively made (for its time) with articulated parts including the retractable jaw and glow-in-the-dark cranium. However, the toy did not sell well, probably because its target demographic failed to recognize it. Parents also deemed the toy too frightening for children. Toy-lines for R-rated films would not become common until the 1990s. Some claim that the more ready accessibility to younger viewers of certain films (such as the Alien sequels) has caused this phenomenon, but others believe that a toy market has developed that has adults as the target buyers (as has likely occurred with the popular McFarlane toys). At the time, Kenner's decision to do a toy-line based on Alien came while the movie remained in production. Due to their success with the other 20th Century Fox film, Star Wars, they admittedly acted on the assumption that Fox would produce another space-adventure movie: their research failed to ascertain that the horror-oriented Alien would target adults.
# Jon Finch, originally cast in the part of Kane, had to drop out: John Hurt replaced him.
# According to the behind-the-scenes documentary The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien', the film-crew built the spaceship set in one piece. To move around the set, actors had to navigate through the hallways of the ship. Toward the end of the shoot, many members of the cast and crew recalled walking inside the set alone as a very unnerving experience. Some surmise that such emotions come across on the screen.
# The scene where the alien Chestburster emerges from Kane conveyed such violence that it caused some people watching the movie to faint, and others vomited[citation needed].
# According to the behind-the-scenes documentary The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien', the film-crew kept the scene where the Chestburster emerges from Kane secret from all actors except John Hurt (Kane). The rest of the crew entered the scene with Kane already on the table and all cameras set. One cast-member later recalled feeling suspicious at finding all the movie-equipment covered with plastic film. In a brilliant move by Ridley Scott, none of the actors knew what they would witness, and as a result produced genuine reactions of shock, horror, and disgust.
# An urban legend says that Sigourney Weaver keeps one of the alien "egg" props in her house.
# An alien chestburster appears in the 1986 Colin Baker Doctor Who story The Trial of a Time Lord as the Sixth Doctor looks at the chestburster in Dr. Crozier's laboratory. Also, an alien egg appears in a glass case in the 2005 Christopher Eccleston story "Dalek" in the underground museum of Henry Van Statten and remains visible as the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler leave the TARDIS and when the guards storm in past the TARDIS. Portions of the Nostromo set also appear in the 1983 serial Terminus.
# Ridley Scott reused the scene where the Nostromo separates from the rest of the refinery in Bladerunner on a computer-display inside a spinner.
# Ripley's pet cat "Jonesy" took its name from the bassist of Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones. Ridley Scott reportedly admires Led Zeppelin.
# To save money on the very tight budget, Ridley Scott filmed his children in spacesuits on a smaller set (when Kane, Lambert and Dallas walk over to the Bone Ship). Due to the lack of both oxygen and air-holes in the suits, both the adults and children fainted while dressed in the spacesuit costumes for that sequence.
# The novel Dreamcatcher and its associated film Dreamcatcher feature aliens called "The Ripley" and a character named "Jonesy", presumably after the cat.
# The Polish title for Alien: "Obcy: Ósmy pasażer Nostromo", roughly translated means "Stranger: The Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo". However, as the word "obcy" in Polish means "strange" or "unfamiliar", it has become accepted, thanks to the film, as the modern Polish word for an alien. Before the movie came out, the only known term for an alien, "zaziemiec", literally meant "foreign terrestrial". The translators may have avoided using this word in the title because of the word's lack of scary connatations.
# When the BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf moved its production to Shepparton Studios in London, some of the Nostromo hallways sets from Alien still existed and did duty in Series 5, most notably in the episode "DNA" (as revealed on the DVD commentary).
# The BBC One series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy re-used some of the Nostromo hallways, as well as other parts of the Nostromo set.
# During the opening credit-sequence, the camera pans across an apparent planetoid. However, if one follows the movement of the camera across the planetoid, it actually appears elliptical rather than a sphere.
# Purportedly, the original cut of the film Alien syncs up with the live Pink Floyd album "Is There Anybody Out There?". Simply begin the second disk of the album right as the 20th Century Fox logo appears. When the second disk ends, pause the film, replace the second disk with the first and resume the film as disk one starts playing. Repeat at the end of disk one with disk two.
# Jon Finch, originally cast in the part of Kane, had to drop out: John Hurt replaced him.
# According to the behind-the-scenes documentary The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien', the film-crew built the spaceship set in one piece. To move around the set, actors had to navigate through the hallways of the ship. Toward the end of the shoot, many members of the cast and crew recalled walking inside the set alone as a very unnerving experience. Some surmise that such emotions come across on the screen.
# The scene where the alien Chestburster emerges from Kane conveyed such violence that it caused some people watching the movie to faint, and others vomited[citation needed].
# According to the behind-the-scenes documentary The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien', the film-crew kept the scene where the Chestburster emerges from Kane secret from all actors except John Hurt (Kane). The rest of the crew entered the scene with Kane already on the table and all cameras set. One cast-member later recalled feeling suspicious at finding all the movie-equipment covered with plastic film. In a brilliant move by Ridley Scott, none of the actors knew what they would witness, and as a result produced genuine reactions of shock, horror, and disgust.
# An urban legend says that Sigourney Weaver keeps one of the alien "egg" props in her house.
# An alien chestburster appears in the 1986 Colin Baker Doctor Who story The Trial of a Time Lord as the Sixth Doctor looks at the chestburster in Dr. Crozier's laboratory. Also, an alien egg appears in a glass case in the 2005 Christopher Eccleston story "Dalek" in the underground museum of Henry Van Statten and remains visible as the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler leave the TARDIS and when the guards storm in past the TARDIS. Portions of the Nostromo set also appear in the 1983 serial Terminus.
# Ridley Scott reused the scene where the Nostromo separates from the rest of the refinery in Bladerunner on a computer-display inside a spinner.
# Ripley's pet cat "Jonesy" took its name from the bassist of Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones. Ridley Scott reportedly admires Led Zeppelin.
# To save money on the very tight budget, Ridley Scott filmed his children in spacesuits on a smaller set (when Kane, Lambert and Dallas walk over to the Bone Ship). Due to the lack of both oxygen and air-holes in the suits, both the adults and children fainted while dressed in the spacesuit costumes for that sequence.
# The novel Dreamcatcher and its associated film Dreamcatcher feature aliens called "The Ripley" and a character named "Jonesy", presumably after the cat.
# The Polish title for Alien: "Obcy: Ósmy pasażer Nostromo", roughly translated means "Stranger: The Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo". However, as the word "obcy" in Polish means "strange" or "unfamiliar", it has become accepted, thanks to the film, as the modern Polish word for an alien. Before the movie came out, the only known term for an alien, "zaziemiec", literally meant "foreign terrestrial". The translators may have avoided using this word in the title because of the word's lack of scary connatations.
# When the BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf moved its production to Shepparton Studios in London, some of the Nostromo hallways sets from Alien still existed and did duty in Series 5, most notably in the episode "DNA" (as revealed on the DVD commentary).
# The BBC One series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy re-used some of the Nostromo hallways, as well as other parts of the Nostromo set.
# During the opening credit-sequence, the camera pans across an apparent planetoid. However, if one follows the movement of the camera across the planetoid, it actually appears elliptical rather than a sphere.
# Purportedly, the original cut of the film Alien syncs up with the live Pink Floyd album "Is There Anybody Out There?". Simply begin the second disk of the album right as the 20th Century Fox logo appears. When the second disk ends, pause the film, replace the second disk with the first and resume the film as disk one starts playing. Repeat at the end of disk one with disk two.
