Unlocking the Alien Vault.
If there's one thing I like as much as I like movies, it's reading about how the movies I like are made. I'm a sucker for "Making of _____" books, or books featuring annotated scripts, or anything else which might offer me juicy behind-the-scenes info about favorite films. I have at least two shelves of such books in my library. The latest addition to that stash? Alien Vault: The Definitive Story of the Making of the Film, from Voyageur Press. Chock full of anecdotes, photographs, illustrations, and other "bonus content," the book is a guided tour down Memory Lane as author Ian Nathan revisits the development of Ridley Scott's 1979 SF classic, Alien.
So, to answer the first and most obvious question, does Alien Vault really bring to the reader the "definitive history" on the making of the movie? I don't think I'd go that far. A lot of the information contained in the book is drawn from sources I've either read or seen over the years, such as The Book of Alien or the documentary The Alien Saga, and even the commentary tracks and featurettes included in the different home video releases of the film.
After 30-odd years, there probably isn't all that much new information to be mined from the movie's production, but what differentiates this book from others which have covered the same ground is Nathan's "personalized" approach to the task. A self-professed aficionado of the film since childhood, Nathan also leverages his experience as a writer, reviewer, and editor of film-related content for such publications as Empire Magazine. The storehouse of Alien-related information, interviews, and other material which he accumulated over several years (including recent interviews with director Ridley Scott and actress Sigourney Weaver) is brought to bear here, helping him to infuse the text with a flavor that almost makes you believe he wrote the book while lurking about the studio, stalking the production from the genesis of the story on through the movie's premiere. A slew of photographs, storyboards, and concept sketches (many of which I'd not seen to this point) along with script excerpts and other material accompany and enhance Nathan's "narrative," giving Alien Vault a sort of "production diary" or even "scrapbook" feel.
The latter analogy is strengthened by the book's presentation. First off, this isn't a cheap affair: the high-gloss paper allow the photographs and art to leap off the page. The book itself is hardbound and protected by a slip case, which in and of itself is pretty sweet. As its title indicates, this tome is a new entry in a relatively recent sub-genre of pop culture books which include within their pages reproductions of various "artifacts" relating to the topic du jour, most if not all of which are removable from the book for examination or even display apart from the book. What will you find enclosed here? For example:
As Brett might say: "Right."
(Originally posted at The Fog of Ward and cross-posted to LiveJournal.)
So, to answer the first and most obvious question, does Alien Vault really bring to the reader the "definitive history" on the making of the movie? I don't think I'd go that far. A lot of the information contained in the book is drawn from sources I've either read or seen over the years, such as The Book of Alien or the documentary The Alien Saga, and even the commentary tracks and featurettes included in the different home video releases of the film.
After 30-odd years, there probably isn't all that much new information to be mined from the movie's production, but what differentiates this book from others which have covered the same ground is Nathan's "personalized" approach to the task. A self-professed aficionado of the film since childhood, Nathan also leverages his experience as a writer, reviewer, and editor of film-related content for such publications as Empire Magazine. The storehouse of Alien-related information, interviews, and other material which he accumulated over several years (including recent interviews with director Ridley Scott and actress Sigourney Weaver) is brought to bear here, helping him to infuse the text with a flavor that almost makes you believe he wrote the book while lurking about the studio, stalking the production from the genesis of the story on through the movie's premiere. A slew of photographs, storyboards, and concept sketches (many of which I'd not seen to this point) along with script excerpts and other material accompany and enhance Nathan's "narrative," giving Alien Vault a sort of "production diary" or even "scrapbook" feel.
The latter analogy is strengthened by the book's presentation. First off, this isn't a cheap affair: the high-gloss paper allow the photographs and art to leap off the page. The book itself is hardbound and protected by a slip case, which in and of itself is pretty sweet. As its title indicates, this tome is a new entry in a relatively recent sub-genre of pop culture books which include within their pages reproductions of various "artifacts" relating to the topic du jour, most if not all of which are removable from the book for examination or even display apart from the book. What will you find enclosed here? For example:
- A series of film storyboards.
- Blueprints of the Nostromo spacecraft (Groovy!).
- Samples of H. R. Giger's early artwork for the alien and the crashed spaceship.
- The "teaser" poster, as well as a one-sheet from Japan.
- Sample script excerpt, including "hand-written" notes from director Ridley Scott detailing revisions he made on set.
- A Nostromo "mission patch," reproduced here as a decal.
As Brett might say: "Right."
(Originally posted at The Fog of Ward and cross-posted to LiveJournal.)