John Hurt

The first crew member of the Nostromo to encounter H.R. Giger's nightmare (in Ash's words, the alien is "Kane's son"), is now the first member of that wonderful ensemble of actors to leave us.

John Hurt was the quintessential character actor. With over 200 credits to his name, and working right up until the end (he'll appear in no less than four movies due out this year), his career spans every genre and a veritable who's who of directors. Imbuing all of his roles with intelligence, dignity and a delicate subtlety of expression, you could always be sure that whatever film he appeared in would be elevated by his presence. I'll miss him greatly.

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MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

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1984

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Strange Shapes

There's been a link on my blogroll for a few years now called Strange Shapes, and it just so happens to be the most exceptional Alien blog on the web. If you're an Alien fan and you haven't discovered it yet you need to do yourself a favour and go there now.

Strange Shapes is owned and written by one Valaquen, a Scottish Alien fanatic and Xenomorph scholar par excellence. This guy's knowledge of the Alien universe, both in front of and behind the camera, is vast and frankly, a little intimidating. I've been in love with Ridley Scott's movie for 35 years now, but reading Strange Shapes can make me feel like a lightweight.

So whilst scrolling through Bloody Disgusting today I was blown away to find a link to a behind the scenes gallery "curated" by Valaquen. And fuck me, what a gallery it is. I'm always on the lookout for rare Alien pics that I haven't seen before, and this gallery is a goldmine.

Of the 245 images he's posted there must be at least 50 that I've either never seen before or haven't seen for years. Some of the coolest are below, but you should really check out the whole gallery here.

killer promo shot of the Nostromo crew

a nice look at Giger's handywork

HRG with his designs for Jodorowsky's unrealised Dune 

 on the Space Jockey set

 working on the Jockey

with Dan O'Bannon

O'Bannon with Chris Foss

and on the Nostromo's bridge

 closeup of the unused full sized prop for Kane's burial shroud

 John Hurt

Veronica Cartwright

 together on the bridge

 Harry Dean Stanton looking cool

and Yaphet Kotto looking even cooler

Kotto contemplating Parker's fate

Parker and Lambert dead

this appears to be an effects test for Parker's gory demise

Sigourney Weaver looking badass and beautiful during a promo shoot

and posing with a Jones that looks suspiciously unlike the Jones seen in the movie

Weaver and Stanton

 the Narcissus on a workbench with raided model kits in the background

 an amazing look at the underside of the Nostromo coming in to land on LV-426 that was rejected by Ridley Scott. I wish they'd stuck with this one because the final effect seen in the movie is by far the weakest in the film

the Nostromo model on the planetoid set

another angle

and finally, a good look at the detail and texture of the derelict model