Production History (Alien) Alien (1979)
O'Bannon wrote the script on a friend's couch after Dune collapsed
Dan O'Bannon had worked on visual effects for Alejandro Jodorowsky's aborted adaptation of Dune. When the project collapsed, he returned to Los Angeles broke and homeless, crashing on Ronald Shusett's couch. The two revived an earlier O'Bannon script called Memory and began developing it into a spec screenplay they could sell. The working title was Star Beast.
"StarBeast is one of those titles that you think of and then you... you throw them away... One morning at three o'clock, [in] Ronny's apartment, I'm typing away and the characters are saying the Alien this and the Alien that — and suddenly that word 'Alien' just came up out of the typewriter at me." — Dan O'Bannon, Monster Legacy (2015)
Shusett contributed the central horror conceit: an alien embryo implanted inside a crew member that would burst out of his chest. O'Bannon knew it was the key to the whole movie.
"This is a movie of Alien interspecies rape — that's it, that's scary, because it hits all of our buttons, all of our unresolved feelings about sexuality." — Dan O'Bannon, Monster Legacy (2015)
Giger's paintings haunted O'Bannon before he even had a script
O'Bannon had encountered H.R. Giger's work during the Dune pre-production in Paris. The Swiss artist's biomechanical paintings — fusions of flesh, bone, and machinery — lodged in his mind and shaped the alien from the writing stage forward.
"[Giger's] visionary paintings and sculptures stunned me with their originality, and aroused in me deep, disturbing thoughts, deep feelings of terror. They started an idea turning over in my head — this guy should design a monster movie." — Dan O'Bannon, Something Perfectly Disgusting (book)
"When I got back to America I was still haunted by his work. It was on my mind, and when we sat down to do Alien I ended up visualizing the thing as I was writing it — I found myself visualizing it as a Giger painting." — Dan O'Bannon, Monster Legacy (2015)
O'Bannon openly cited H.P. Lovecraft as the other foundational influence:
"One especially insightful critic... wrote that Alien evoked the writings of H.P. Lovecraft... that was my very thought while writing. That baneful little storm-lashed planetoid halfway across the galaxy was a fragment of the Old Ones' homeworld, and the Alien a blood relative of Yog-Sothoth." — Dan O'Bannon, Something Perfectly Disgusting (book)
Hill and Giler rewrote the script and fought O'Bannon for credit
Producers Walter Hill and David Giler acquired the script through their company Brandywine Productions and rewrote it substantially, adding the Ash android subplot — one of the film's strongest elements — and sharpening the dialogue. O'Bannon resented the rewrite and fought for his credit through Writers Guild arbitration. The Guild awarded O'Bannon sole screenplay credit, with story credit shared between O'Bannon and Shusett. The final card reads: "Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon, Story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett." (wikipedia)
Scott was the fifth director offered the project and said yes immediately
Four directors had already passed on or been passed over for the script before it reached Ridley Scott, who had just completed The Duellists (1977). Scott read the chestburster scene and knew exactly what the film needed.
"I was knocked out by the simplicity, the energy and drive of the story." — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
"One must never underestimate the quality of that script... Characterization was in the attitudes, in the very spartan choice of language." — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
Scott's first move was to commission concept art. Ron Cobb produced designs for the human environments — the Nostromo's corridors, the mess hall, the bridge — and Chris Foss designed the exterior of the ship. But for the alien itself, Cobb's rational approach hit a wall.
"Ron Cobb gave continual input to the film right from the very start. He gave us one of the major plot elements: the monster has an incredibly corrosive bloodstream... That was Ron's idea and I want everyone to know it." — Dan O'Bannon, Monster Legacy (2015)
"Cobb's monsters all looked like they could come out of a zoo — Giger's looked like something out of a bad dream." — Dan O'Bannon, Monster Legacy (2015)
Scott saw Giger's Necronomicon and hired him on the spot
When O'Bannon showed Scott a copy of Giger's art book Necronomicon, the decision was instant.
"I took one look at it, and I've never been so sure of anything in my life." — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
Scott found Ron Cobb's concepts "a bit too NASA-oriented, not far enough into the future, too 2001-ish." Giger's biomechanical forms offered something no other designer could: creatures and environments that felt simultaneously organic and industrial, familiar and deeply alien.
Giger built the alien as a biomechanoid — half organic, half machine, no eyes
Giger designed the adult alien, the facehugger, the chestburster, the eggs, and the interior of the derelict spacecraft. His key design decisions shaped the film's visual identity.
"It would be even more frightening if there are no eyes! We made him blind!" — H.R. Giger, Scraps from the Loft (interview)
"He is half organic and half technical. The alien's biomechanical." — H.R. Giger, Scraps from the Loft (interview)
"I can make a long tongue come out. The end of the tongue even looks like the head of the chest-burster." — H.R. Giger, Scraps from the Loft (interview)
The facehugger was designed with a spring-loaded tail for jumping and oversized "hands" to grip the host's face. The chestburster went through multiple iterations before Giger stripped it down to the essentials:
"This beast has to come out, to chew and claw its way out of a man's chest. The only important thing is teeth." — H.R. Giger, Scraps from the Loft (interview)
Fourteen weeks at Shepperton Studios built three worlds
Principal photography ran from July 5 to October 21, 1978, at Shepperton Studios near London, with model work at Bray Studios in Berkshire. A crew of over 200 built three principal environments: the Nostromo's interior (C Stage — bridge, mess hall, computer annex, engine room), the planetoid surface and derelict spacecraft exterior (H Stage), and the derelict interior. Production designer Michael Seymour coordinated the look across all three, aiming for a "used future" where everything felt worn, grimy, and functional. (imdb, wikipedia)
Scott operated the camera himself for most of the shoot, a choice that gave him total control over composition but frustrated some actors who felt he prioritized the frame over their performances.
"I do all the camera work... it's swifter to get the exact detail I want." — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
"Every step of the work had to be justified in my own mind — or to other people. Absolutely everything." — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
The chestburster scene used real blood and the cast's genuine shock
Scott withheld the details of the chestburster sequence from most of the cast. They knew Kane would die but not exactly how. On the day, the set was lined with plastic sheeting and the crew wore raincoats. Pumps filled with stage blood were hidden beneath John Hurt's prosthetic chest.
"We tilted it back because it seemed more obscene that way, more reptilian, more phallic." — Ridley Scott, on the baby alien's posture, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
"What you see on film is their genuine surprise and horror!" — Ridley Scott, Scraps from the Loft (2019)
Goldsmith scored it, Scott re-edited it, and neither was happy
Jerry Goldsmith composed sixty-four minutes of music across twenty-three cues. His original main title was a romantic, mysterious piece — Scott wanted something "weird and strange." Goldsmith rewrote it. Then editor Terry Rawlings and Scott further re-edited the score, replacing several of Goldsmith's cues with pieces from his earlier score for Freud (1962) and with ambient sound effects. Goldsmith was furious.
"One of the most miserable experiences I've ever had in this profession. I was on the picture for four months and I talked to [Scott] three times." — Jerry Goldsmith, Los Angeles Reader (1979)
Years later, Goldsmith's view softened slightly:
"Ridley is a brilliant filmmaker and I think that was just his second film and he wasn't as articulate then about what the music should do. He wanted me to be visual with the music, that's not what I'm supposed to do. I think the biggest problem was just in communication." — Jerry Goldsmith, Cue by Cue (interview)
Rawlings defended the editorial choices:
"I do think that what we did on our temp in those areas was better than what he did." — Terry Rawlings, editor, Cue by Cue (interview)
The dispute remains one of the best-documented composer-director conflicts in film history. Goldsmith's complete original score was not commercially released until decades after the film's premiere. (wikipedia)