Original Alien script by Dan O'Bannon was heavely influenced by H P Lovecraft's work

This is the name given to Yog-Sothoth in August Derleth and H. P. Lovecraft's novel The Lurker at the Threshold. In the story, Alijah Billington describes Yog-Sothoth's appearance as

...great globes of light massing toward the opening, and not alone these, but the breaking apart of the nearest globes, and the protoplasmic flesh that flowed blackly outward to join together and form that eldritch, hideous horror from outer space, that spawn of the blankness of primal time, that tentacled amorphous monster which was the lurker at the threshold, whose mask was as a congeries of iridescent globes, the noxious Yog-Sothoth, who froths as primal slime in nuclear chaos beyond the nethermost outposts of space and time!

Source - Yog Sothoth Wiki

Here is a depiction of Cthulhu:

He bares a striking resemblance to the hunched over creature in the ampule chamber fresco in Prometheus.

Necronom4

Brilliant
This is the kind if stuff
I was looking for when
I started my thread on the
Connection between alien
And prometheus

Thank you sir !!

Pure gold

Your welcome Odu!

Do you think the depiction of Cthulhu above ^^ looks similar to the hunched creature in the ampule chamber fresco in Prometheus?

Necronom4Will have a look But might take 
some time though !!

Ok bro

The following video is an interview with Dan O'Bannon not long before he past away, where he talks about is love of, and influence by, Lovecraft:

Dan O'Bannon Interview

Yes Necron...

If you look at the image you posted and this sketch that O'Bannon did for Star Beast then they do look similar and Dan O'Bannons sketch looks even more like the Fresco creature than the one of Cthulhu you posted but they are all similar.

I think also this is why the Trillobite has a Squid look to it, just like Lovecraft's work.

Here is the Star Beast concept work for inside the Pyramid, as you will notice the Mural on the wall the Octipoid creature does look similar to Shaws Baby Trillobite, also i think the creature depicted on the Altar that this Octopoid  is comming from looks similar to the Fresco Creature in Prometheus as its hard to work out what that creature is but it looks like it could have a beak like a Bird, or mandbles like a Ant but also it could be tentacles like the face of Cthulhu.

If you notice this Mural from Star Beast it does have some similar things to Prometheus Mural Room.

The Altar seems to have inbetween its base and top rows of what look like Alien Eggs, also on the walls we have what look like some kind of Head or Cthulhu mask if you know what i mean.

Definite influence I see on Dan O'Bannons sketch of what really looks like Cthulhu but more with a carapace and exo-skeleton. That mask above is really weird I cant tell where the eyes and mouth are.... creepy.

@BigDave; Thanx for the contribution!

That sketch by O'Bannon defo looks like Cthulhu.

Great work Necro and BigD! Thanks guys!

You know, I was just thinking the other day how disappointing it is that Discovery never included an episode on Lovecraft in their Prophets of Science Fiction series, which was hosted by Ridley Scott.

It's a great series, perhaps they could do a second set of 'prophets' and include him!

Oh and yes guys....those Cluthu-like creatures are very reminiscent of the being depicted in the fresco!

And the Ampule Room Archway here:

Brilliant! Thanx Lone!

Fox, I want to see the birdy chtulu creature ! in p2 please not in thirty years !

@Lone..

Indeed that head over the arch ways to the doors i alway thought had a similar look to the Space Jockey Helmet to a extent if you say removed the hose/snorkel/trunk.

But you know the eyes on it do look like the creature from the fresco so there must be some kind of connection between them all and the Xeno and even the Derelict/Jugernaughts.

Hope we get some clues or even answers by the time the franchise is finished.

Necronom4I have looked at the picturesYou and bigdave posted.So the idea for the sj being aSuit was perhaps ridleys And not o bannons. So Perhaps the sj is a derivativeOf the cthulu creature you postedA picture of and perhaps. The sj In. Alien wasn't a suit but in fact A cthulu creature that could be Called an elder an that the Engineer is a cross of this creatureAnd humans. This could fit in Nicely with my slaverace theory Since the cthulu creature is gods And they do indeed exist if I readCorrectly outside our dimension.Like I predicted the elders mightBe. So perhaps the xeno as a relative of The Yog-Sothoth is perhaps a godLike type of pet as sometimes Kings would have a tiger or lionOn a chain near their throne andWould sometimes let them feed onTheir enemies they have conquered.Therefore perhaps the sj humanoidsAre carryinp eggs of xenos that theseCthulu elders or deities have Commanded them to drop On other deities planets as To compare whose "pets" areThe strongest. Maybe its just aGame for them and mankindWas perhaps not showing the Respect to the cthulu as they Were created as lesser race to Perhaps test the xeno 's strengthAnd had to be removed becauseWe no longer served this purpose.So the sj 's are interstellar lesser Versions of the cthulu and the Engineers are a cross between Mankind and the and the cthuluTo perhaps test different aspectsOf our design .This could fit nicely with my Hierarchy slave race theory andPerhaps the xeno is like the petsOf the god that is being in an Interstellar game of war betweenThe gods.This fits nice indeed.

@Odu; Yeah, O'Bannon and Giger were both aficionado's, and to a degree, experts of H P Lovecraft. Both had the vision that the Pilot of the derelict would be the skeletal remains of an alien creature. It was indeed Ridley's impression that this humanoid creature was infact a suit.

Your idea of the Giger alien being some kind of slave-pet, while i appreciate the thought you've put into that, i really don't think that is the case. Ridley showed us, with ALIEN, that the alien is much more than that, "A perfect organism."

James Cameron obviously ignored that ASH scene to suite his vision of a sequel.

Imo, the Giger monster is an ancient evil that can't be contained or controlled.

Necronom4

Where did o bannon get the idea
For the xeno being a blood relative
Of the Yog-Sothoth ?? Is this 
Something he himself thought or 
Is this wriiten/indicated by 
Lovecraft himself ??

Odu; OBannon came up with the idea for his Star Beast story. John Carpenter was also inspired by Lovecraft and it shows in his The Thing.

Everyone is inspired by something or someone. Lovecraft himself was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe amongst other people.

EDIT: O'Bannon was inspired by the whole Lovecraftian universe when writing the script for StarBeast. He is the creator of the alien but Giger gave it a face (so to speak.)

@oduodu

LOL, i know your being serious but that did make me giggle.... sounds like the Elders using the Xeno and Engineers for Galactic Pokemon ;)

While influenced by Lovecraft i dont think that the way Alien had evolved from Star Beast is intended to lead us down the path of any Cthulhu old ones etc as the Elders or God... maybe something very Giger and Lovecraft inspired as the origins of the Xeno? who knows.

But we cant rule out it, i do think the Engineers are just a clone race created to serve a purpose for the Elders just as David 8 was created by Weyland.... only they are redesigning the Elders and so they may not look as small or frail as the ones they never used in Prometheus.

But then i think they would still be humanoid, but who knows. We could see them be completely redesigned to look nothing like humans.  Maybe there is a Godlike creature or race that is at the top of the Hierarchy.  Maybe even Giger or Lovecraft inspired...

Or maybe just some kind of Bio-Mechanical God Machine... who knows.

No we can't rule it out, especially as we know so little about it.

I found this description of Yog-Sothoth very interesting:

"Yog-Sothoth knows all and sees all. To "please" this deity could bring knowledge of many things. However, like most beings in the mythos, to see it or learn too much about it is to court disaster. Some authors state that the favor of the god requires a human sacrifice or eternal servitude."

Necronom4
So I take it then that 
the blood 
Relative thing 
of the yog sototh
Was then what 
o bannon thought
Up by himself . 
The creature in
Star beast script 
was basically
Just tentacles if 
I remember
Correctly and 
that the original
Premise was for 
a being that
Was supernatural 
and that could
Sense thought but they 
Later  dropped That for a physical 
entity . Then Giger used the 
necronomicon 
idea For the 
xenomorhp 
we know now
But it seems the 
idea for it being Able to super 
naturally sense 
Other beings and 
their perhaps Their intention / 
motives means
That the xenos 
are related to a 
Super being and 
that idea was 
Never Completely 
dropped.Therefore 
they possess 
superior Dna in 
there 
adaptive abilities 
and Telepathic 
sensing 
that we lack.
So perhaps in 
prometheus they 
are Revered as 
gods 
by the engineers
Because they are 
likened to the elders Because if I read 
correctly the 
Yog sothoth are 
the parent or
Grand parents 
of the cthulu. Then
Perhaps the 
elders(cthulu) 
also Paid homage 
to the xenos as 
their Ancestors or grandparents 
and the Xenos 
are like agents 
for yog sothoth
Who live in a realm outside the 
one the Cthulu 
elders live 
in and the 
engineers As 
a lessor 
version of the 
cthulu And perhaps 
with dna of the 
humans That 
they used 
to create mankind u
nder the orders 
of the yog sothoth 
so That perhaps 
the xeno more 
easily Procreate and 
control the 
cthulu/elders 
And as such 
the engineers .
Perhaps the 
elders rebelled 
against theYog 
sothoth and tried 
subdue the 
Xenos to their 
own cause .Do 
you think studying 
the yog Sothoth 
wiki and cthulu 
wiki willHelp me 
understand the 
the Original 
script better ??
Perhaps that is 
why xenos were 
Worshipped : they 
were links to The yog sothoth 
and the cthulu/
Elders was the 
yog sothoth's 
Children.So you 
make your own 
xenosBy creating 
a liquidised virus 
Version and then 
you can tap Into 
the yog sothoth 
hive mind At will 
he/they 
decided to xemo
Earth for that 
purpose by 
dropping The 
goo on 
them .So that 
they can control 
the xenosAnd 
tap into their 
great grandparents 
Information stream 
and steal the "fire"For themselves.But yog 
sothoth sends an 
agent Too unleash 
an unspeakable horror
On them .perhaps bob ......Who knows......

Big dave
Yes perhaps that 
fell away in the 
Final draft. But 
I do feel that their
Are remnants of 
that that remains. 
The alien seems 
to know just what
To do at the right 
time. It somehow 
Knows that the 
lifeboat is the 
only Safe place 
to go . I know its 
a stretch.but it 
might indicate a 
possible Remnant 
that could show 
some Meaning to 
the murals and 
Happenings in 
prometheus
Which might male 
prometheus
A lot more plausible.

Is all my posts readable
Or are they going outside the
Borders again ?!

Please advise !!

Odu; Yeah the text is running off the page again, which is a shame 'cause i wanted to read your post!

Can you copy and paste it and post it again?

Well i can read your posts if i highlight text and paste into notepad lol

Yes i think the movie is and will show us multiple layers of Creation, Sacrifice and Rebelion.

Engineers Sacrificed to create Mankind, Mankind Sacrificed to create something else, Mankinds rebelion against the Engineers and we see seeds of David 8's rebelion against Mankind.

I dont think this cycle starts with the Engineers and so they may had rebelled also against their creators and maybe they was created with a Sacrifice also.

I do think the Cthulhu Mythos could losely fit in, but not as in exactly the same, so for instance the deities and creatures will not be the same design but serve the same purpose prehapese.

Its also good to point out that maybe just maybe Star Beast did get some ideas from some other movies... Planet of the Vampires ... for one features a Alien signal detected by a Human Ship that when they land on the planet they find giant skeletal remains of a Alien Humanoid Lifeform.

Maybe Star Beast borrowed some elements of this movie, also Promethues visually has some things similar to this movie.

It may also had taken some ideas from At the Mountains of Madness .... and again Prometheus seems to borrow some ideas from that while not being visually the same.

Funny enough the design of the original idea for the Adult Beast in Star Beast as described in the draft does bear a resemblence to some images from that movie.

In particular this one.

You can see some traits of the Star Beast in the image above.  Also "The Thing" design for its original form also has some similar traits and The Thing was based losely on some of the Lovecraft ideas.

And when i look at it some of my theories about Prometheus before could fit in with the Mountains of Madness.

The Elder Things in that movie do tie in and many parts of that movie about them do seem to reflect what we see with the Engineers.

The Mountains of Madness also says these Elder Things was at War in past with the star-spawn of Cthulhu and these beings are from Cthulhu.  Maybe this parallels Prometheus in that the Engineers was at conflict with some other beings, also the Elder Things was at War with the Mi-go which again are connected to Cthulhu.

Indeed when we explore what the Mi-Go are and the story The Whisperer in Darkness we see some parallels with Prometheus also....  here is what is said about the Mi-Go  "They are capable of going into suspended animation until softened and reheated by the sun or some other source of heat"  this seems like how the Urns in Prometheus are effected by changes in climate etc.  And also these Mi-Go can keep Human Brains Alive by placing them in Jars.  Maybe thus Star Beast and Prometheus borrow some ideas from that and that the Urns store a species DNA comes from this.

The Mountains of Madness goes on to show that latter after the Conflicts with Star Spawn and Mi-Go these Elder Things created a race known as Shoggoth to perform tasks, but these Shoggoth turned against and killed their creators.  The Shoggoth being described as mainly being iridescent black slime that takes any form.

We see the Engineers have in part created what ever is in those Urns (or maybe they did) and that in these Urns is Black Substance that eventually cost the Engineers their lives and we see Engineers bodies scattered across LV 223 due to a outbreak of the Black Goo, just as in Mountains of Madness we see the bodies of the Elder Things after being attacked by the Shoggoth (Black Slime).

So yes maybe there are borrowed ideas from the Lovecraft Mythos and Books and thus maybe in some of them stories many more things that have not yet been borrowed from in the Alien Franchise could be borrowed from for our explanations in Prometheus.

I love the Strange Shapes blog, it's amazing. 

I hope my 
posts
Are readable 
now.

Wow Odu! That's mindblowing stuff!

very cool.... Del Tora just abandoned his "Mountains of Madness" movie.... Could have been very cool. Perhaps he abandoned it because of it's similarities to the Alien/Prmotheus similarities...

@brego; yes, you are correct. See link below...

Did-prometheus-kill-guillermo-del-toros-mountains-of-madness-movie?

There's some good news regarding MOM...Guillermo still wants to do it, and with 2 cuts: an unrated cut and a PG13 cut! I really want this movie to happen!

Below is an excerpt from an interview he gave to The Huffington Post on 21st of November last year!

What's the status of Mountains of Madness?

It's unfortunately not getting financed yet. It will take a while. We'll find a way to get it made. The two movies that most people ask me about are Hellboy III and Mountains of Madness. Everybody wants those two to happen, and unfortunately they are the two where the constant news is there's no news or there's only bad news. I think the sadness is we live in a world that has artists working in an industry that is incredibly conservative. Hollywood is incredibly conservative, and more now than ever. They are afraid to try new ideas, they're afraid to try new stuff, and frankly it's sad. But I hope one day we get it made.

Even with a movie that you made like Pacific Rim, with such a huge budget, you still have problems getting the budget that you want?

You do because with Mountains of Madness I've been holding for an R-rating. Now, I know the way I'll do it. I want to do an unrated cut and a PG-13 cut and release them at the same time, you know? That way the people that want to see the sort of harder version of the movie can go and see it consecutively with the softer version. Or maybe separated by two weeks.

Another interview given in October last year to io9.com

We ask if del Toro thinks Mountains might get made in five or 10 years, and he responds,

"Hopefully before that. I was just talking to [Producer] Don Murphy yesterday... and they are absolutely working for the movie to happen, and they will never give up. And I'll never give up. But it has to happen with the right budget, and the right team." Part of the problem, says del Toro, is that studios want horror films to be low budget, "so the profit is huge. And there are great low-budget horror movies. I have produced and directed a few. But the Lovecraft universe has such a scale in Mountains of Madness, that it's impossible to do that."

But couldn't del Toro pitch it as an adventure story? We ask. It's definitely a genre mix, del Toro says: "It's basically like a Shackleton exploration movie, combined with an anthropological adventure and geological exploration, and finally horror surfaces out of all that."

Link to the full interview: io9.com

I really hope they do make it! What an epic film that would be!

Anyway, i've just come across another thread from the Strange Shapes blog, regarding the similarities between Prometheus and At The Mountains Of Madness:

The Engineer Mythos

Necronom4
This link is
Fantastic that 
You posted above
Because it indicates
"A slave race".
Perhaps a slave 
Race idea isn't 
Far fetched at all
I didn't know
About this at all
Oh well..
But the first real
Indication that the
Lovecraft and von
Daniken was the 
Basic stimulus for
O bannon starbeast
Script. 

Necronom4
This is a great find.
A must read for
Understanding both
Alien and prometheus 
And their relationship to
Each other.

And yes as svanya
Says the strange
Shapes blog is 
Amazing !!