Alien: Earth and Alien: Romulus sequel news

The Translucent Alien

The Translucent Alien

Ridley Scott originally wanted all three alien forms to be translucent to match Giger's paintings. Giger started work on a translucent Facehugger. Ridley wanted you to see the skeletal structure of the Facehugger so a skeleton for the creature was cast in plaster. Rodger Dicken made some Chestburster concepts using latex. The latex dried to a particular colour which Ridley liked and decided the Facehugger should be the same.

Giger's Necronom IV


"I Agree with Scott to make the Alien's translucent. One should be able to see the skeleton, the blood circulatory system, the organs etc. The skeleton has been cast in plaster and I am starting to design the Facuehugger's skin when..."

- H.R. Giger, Giger's Alien

With the translucent concepts for the Chestburster and Facehugger dropped Giger wanted to get to work on the translucent alien suit. To help solve the problem of making a transparent PVC suit a sculptor who worked and made the masks on Star wars was asked to help out and make some experimental concepts. Giger also intended to have wires and fluted pipes layered under the translucent skin.

"But I also made a face-hugger. It had a skeleton inside that you could see through a translucent skin. But there was no time for me to finish it..."

- H R Giger, Behind the Alien Forms Interview.

Multiple experimental suits were made, but none of them could be usable as they couldn't make the materials durable or resistant enough and would tear very easily. Making these experimental suits took time, and time was running out, a suit was needed for shooting. To make matters worse to make some of the transparent suits a special oven was built and used, this damaged the original alien molds so they had to be repaired and patched up in the plaster workshop. In the end, the translucent concept was scrapped.

David Giler: Cinefantastique Interview

David Giler, who wrote scripts for MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, THE PARALLAX VIEW and FUN WITH DICK AND JANE, always seemed to get his office located down the h...

Leave a comment

Guests can only post text. Please sign in to add links, images, etc...
Scified Editor Logo

Comments
User Avatar
Centauri
Group: Member
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

this has to be in covenant :D

User Avatar
Facehuggers
Group: Member
Rank: Neomorph
View Profile

@xeno_alpha_07

Woah! NECA had an interesting concept figure like this, but the real photos are beautiful! Upvoted!

User Avatar
Lone
Group: Member
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

More terrific A L I E N lore xeno-alpha!

It would be a dream fulfilled if a beautiful, translucent MORB appeared in Covenant!

User Avatar
Patient Leech
Group: Member
Rank: Facehugger
View Profile

I'm sure a good translucent effect would be quite possible with CGI. It would be cool to see it in Covenant.

User Avatar
Something Real
Group: Member
Rank: Trilobite
View Profile

XENO_ALPHA_07 - Very compelling! I would be very interested in seeing practical effects suit designed in such a fashion and then used in a full film! :)

User Avatar
brego
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

Amazing. At least we still ended up with the "Jelly Cowl". Possibly the greatest design aspect of the original Alien. In A3 there was to be a skin shedding scene, where Ripley believes she has found the Alien crouched down and quiet. She talks to it and smashes it's head with an iron bar revealing simply a shell or husk, filled with lice. We saw a remnant of this in the movie when she thinks that she can see the Alien, however its simply a pipe. She smashes it with the bar, realises her fault, then realises that the Alien is there watching her. In the book tie in the husk or shell is semi translucent.

User Avatar
Thoughts_Dreams
Group: Member
Rank: Neomorph
View Profile

I think that the idea could be interesting if it is being done right. We will see how it will be done but I hope that they will not explain very much about its biology.

Join the discussion!



How did you feel about Wendy communicating with the Xenomorph?

Great concept, executed perfectly
31% (100 Votes)
Interesting idea, but was a bit weird
19% (61 Votes)
Terrible, it took away from the show
50% (158 Votes)
Scified Polls
Discuss this Poll
Recently Active Forums
New Forum Topics
Recently Updated Pages
Latest Alien Movie, TV Series & Game Media
Join the discussion!
Please sign in to access your profile features!
(Signing in also removes ads!)



Forgot Password?
Scified Website LogoYour sci-fi community, old-school & modern
Hosted Fansites
AlienFansite
PredatorFansite
AvPFansite
GodzillaFansite
Main Menu
Community
Help & Info
+

Sign In to contribute!