VOLUME 18 NUMBER 4 The magazine with a "Sense of Wonder." MAY, 1988 4 WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? Giger. The name itself sounds The scoop on the megabuck live-action cartoon fantasy from alien. Hans Rudi (H. R.) Giger is the Steven Spielberg and Walt Disney, featuring Bob Hoskins as a '40s Swiss surrealist whose design work private dick in cartoonland. / Preview by Patrick Hobby for ALIEN copped him an Oscar at age 40 and changed the look of 6 ROBOJOX science fiction. This issue is Guru of gore Stuart Gordon brings the transforming robot toy devoted to Giger's artistic genius craze to live-action life, scripted by science fiction award-winner and the enormous influence his Joe Haldeman. / Preview by Guiseppe Salza & Dennis Fischer work has had on the look of horror, Page 8 fantasy, and science fiction films. 8 DEAD HEAT Writers Jan Doense and Les Paul Joe Piscopo and Treat Williams star as zombie cops, funny stuff Robley visited Giger at his combina- played dead serious by TERMINATOR editor Mark Goldblatt in his film directing debut. / Preview by Steve Biodrowski tion home/studio/gallery/workshop in Zurich to talk about his work in 13 WILLOW film, his art, and how his unique George Lucas hired "Opie Wan Kenobi" to direct this retread of style has become common property STAR WARS set in a Sword & Sorcery mold, written by television in Hollywood. A sidebar article scripter Bob Dolman. / Preview by Allen Malmquist "Hollywood Rips-Off H. R. Giger" is a visual catalogue of some of the 15 CRITTERS II Page 15 most blatant Giger imitations, many New Line Cinema unleashes their toothy ETs to take another bite from some of the biggest names in out of movie boxoffice profits. It's directing debut of AMAZING movies and special effects. STORIES story editor Mick Garris. / Preview by Taylor White In "Sliming Technology" Brooks Landon looks at how Giger's work 17 POLTERGEIST III has changed our perception of what Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen and the late Heather O'Rourke star is alien. Award-winning science in the new sequel, helmed by Chicagoan Gary Sherman minus the fiction artist Vincent Di Fate writes usual optical effects trickery. / Preview by Sharon Williams about the influences on Giger's art 18 FRIGHT NIGHT2 in "Roots of Imagination," and puts Page 17 the impact of Giger's work into Roddy McDowall, back as reluctant vampire killer Peter Vincent, artistic perspective. And Sheldon in a sequel directed with a light touch by John Carpenter protege Tommy Lee Wallace. / Preview by Steven Jongeward Teitelbaum presents a preview of THE MIRROR, a forthcoming film 21 ROMERO: MONKEYING WITH HORROR based on the imagery of Giger's The auteur of the living dead, director George Romero, on his famed Necronomicon which new film, forthcoming pet projects, and life after DAY OF THE promises to be the most faithful DEAD. / Interview by Frederick C. Szebin film adaptation of the artist's nightmare vision to date. 24 H. R. GIGER—SLIMING TECHNOLOGY An enduring mystery is the A look at how Hollywood has treated the Swiss surrealist artist Page 24 reason why Giger has not been whose Oscar-winning work on ALIEN changed the look of science approached to contribute to the fiction. / Interview by Jan Doense & Les Paul Robley filming of ALIENS and forthcoming sequels ALIEN III & IV. If that's 32 H. R. GIGER'S "THE MIRROR" something you'd like to see, we Some of the finest artists and craftsmen in Hollywood have banded suggest you write 20th Century-Fox together under director Bill Malone to bring the world of Giger to and let them know. Write Barry the screen as never before. / Preview by Sheldon Teitelbaum Diller, 20th Century-Fox, Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. Tell him 12 COMING 52 FILM RATINGS you want to see the "real thing." 42 REVIEWS 62 LETTERS Page 32 Frederick S. Clarke

PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Frederick S. Clarke. MANAGING EDITOR: Avis L. Weathersbee. BUREAUS: New York/ Dan Scapperotti. Los Angeles, Steve Biodrowski, Sheldon Teitelbaum London/ Alan Jones. Rome/ Guiseppe Salza. CONTRIBUTORS: Vincent J. Bossone, Vincent Di Fate, Jan Doense, Dennis Fischer, Eric Gilmartin, Kris Gilpin, Dann Gire, Judith P. Harris, Patrick Hobby, Steven Jongeward, Bill Kelley, Gary Kimber, Daniel M. Kimmel, Brooks Landon, Randall Larson, Charles Leayman, Ron Magid, Allen Malmquist, Harry McCracken, Randy Palmer, Frederick C. Szebin, Lawrence Tetewsky, John Thonen, Sharon Williams, David Wilt. Editorial Assistant: Elaine Fiedler. Publisher's Assistant: Karen A. Hohut. Circulation Manager: Carla McCord. Business Manager: Celeste Casey Clarke.

COVER PAINTING: Gale Heimbach. PHOTO CREDITS: Myles Aronowitz (21), Marsha Blackburn (8-11), © 1987 DEG (Ron Batzdorff 48,49), Tony Friedkin (18,57 top),© 1988 H.R. Giger (25,29 top,32,33,36 top,38,39 top), © 1986 Handmade (5 top), ©Lucasfilm (5 bottom), David A. Maples (20 left), © 1987 (Dean Williams 17,55 top; 36 left), David Mitchell (22 top), MJJ Productions (13 top), © 1988 New Sky (Marsha Blackburn 19), ©1987 New World (45),© 1987 Paramount (Michaelin MeDermott 42 left; 42 right,43), Les Paul Robley (24,27 right,35 top,57 left), ©1987 Touchstone (12 left), © 1988 Tri-Star (12 top,29 left), © 1988 20th Century-Fox (13 bottom; Luke Wynne 22 left, Robert Penn 26 top,27,28 bottom,37). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Jim Cowan (Morpheus International).

CINEFANTASTIQUE MAGAZINE (ISSN 0145-6032) is published five times a year, in January, March, May, July, and September at P.O. Box 270. Oak Park, 11, 60303. (312)366-5566. Second class postage paid at Forest Park, 1L 60130. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CINEFANTASTIQUE. P.O. Box 270. Oak Park 1L 60303. Subscriptions: Four Issues $18. Eight Issues $34, Twelve Issues $48. (Foreign & Canada: Four issues $21, Eight Issues $39, Twelve Issues $55) Single issues when purchased from publisher: $6. Retail Distribution: In the U.S. by Eastern News Distributors. 111 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10011. (1-800-221-3148). In Great Britain by Titan Distributors. P.O. Box 250. London E3 4RT. Phone: (01) 980-6167. Submissions of artwork and articles are encouraged, but no correspondence can be answered unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Printed in USA. Contents copyright © 1988 by Frederick S. Clarke. CINEFANTASTIQUE® is a Registered U. S. Trademark. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST

The surrealist who shaped the look of genre film design, on his art and his imitators.

By Jan Doense & black triptyches of famous Les Paul Robley works from Giger's Necro- nomicon, a book of early draw- Even the pictures illustrate only ings whose title is derived from one or two phases of its endless Lovecraft, which later served variety, preternatural massive- as the inspiration for the crea- ness, and utterly alien exoti- ture in ALIEN. Sleek, beauti- cism . . . There was something ful women with upturned eyes vaguely but deeply unhuman in all the contours, dimensions, propor- and a deathlike pallor look out tions, decorations, and construc- from the artwork, steely ser- tional nuances of the blasphem- pents grow into phalluses. dis- ously archaic stonework ... eased ribs and vertebrae. Like H.P. Lovecraft works in his gallery, Giger's Giger's work disturbs us, spooks two Siamese cats, Muggi (mean- us, because of its enormous evolu- ing "little mosquito") and Non- tionary time-span. It shows us, all eli. pose like Egyptian statues. too clearly, where we come from He often uses them as models and where we are going. for his paintings. Muggi still Timothy Leary bears the stiches on its fore- Swiss surrealist H. R. Gig- head from three recent brain er's design work for ALIEN operations. revolutionized the look of Giger's abortive contribu- science fiction films, and is tion to MGM's POLTER- often imitated. Surprisingly, GEIST II has soured the artist the artist has not been asked to on working for Hollywood, work on either sequel. which commonly borrows Giger lives near Zurich air- from his work without asking. port in a nondescript two-story Giger is more flattered than flat. Giger is nothing like you outraged by his movie imita- expect. The meek, cherub- tors, but still yearns to exert the faced artist who comes to the kind of creative control over a door seemed at odds with the film project that he enjoys in horrors he paints for a living. the creation of his paintings. He prefaces our interview by To get that control Giger has conducting a grand tour of his gone the independent route to home as if I am the first to view work on THE MIRROR (see its strange, yet beautiful, one- separate story, page 32). a film of-a-kind furnishings. Upstairs that promises to translate the a dinette set is surrounded by nightmare imagery of his Necro- biomechanical ALIEN-styled nomicon paintings to the screen. chairs. A unique glass coffee table is held up by six crucified Which of your paintings are Christ figures, three right-side they using for THE MIRROR? up, and three upside-down They arc using some of my representing the holy and infer- best paintings for the film. You nal trinities. A deformed Swiss will see them through the mirror camera housing mutates into a in 3-dimensional form. One of nightmarish metallic cyclops. them. "The Spell," I began in Giger in the dining room of his Zurich home with his pet Siamese cat, Muggi, All around the house are surrounded by one of his large paintings which he refers to as "environments." 1972 and finished in '76. I've hung huge panoramic gray- The chair is Giger's "Harkonnen" design, inspired by Frank Herbert's "Dune." done about three or four of these

24 pdf created by www.littlegiger.com THE MIRROR, a film by director Bill Malone, will visualize Giger's world in three dimensions using paintings like this one from the artist's famed Necronomicon, a book of Giger's early work which inspired the design look of ALIEN. The work is Li II, a 1974 acrylic painting 4.5'x6', a portrait of the artist's actress lover Li Tobler, who died by her own hand in 1975. urally I felt more related to ALIEN. Perhaps the POL- TERGEIST II people wanted to keep me away from ALIENS for rear of losing me. 1 inquired everywhere but no one could or would inform me about it. You received compensation, though... No! Nothing. They put my name in the credits as designer of the original alien concept, but I never got any money. In my contract, Fox can make as many films as they want. It's always the company's rights, and they do what they want. Did you like ALIENS? Actually, I expected more after all the enthusiastic reviews. It's a bit too American for me—too much action. I prefer suspense. Half of the action in ALIENS would have been suf- ficient for one film, I think. Far too much is happening. It's a bit like RAMBO. Giger poses with his handiwork from ALIEN (1979), on the set at England's Pinewood studios. A meticulous perfectionist, Giger worked with studio craftsmen in the sculpting, casting, construction, painting and final detailing of his designs for the film. What about the film's art direction, especially the design large works, which I call envi- someone who can make my stuff my paintings look from the of the Alien Queen? ronments. They are all about look exactly like it is. I would side. I will provide advice and It's all beautifully done, 420 cm long and 240 cm high prefer to use the man who make sketches to show how everything, the designs and the [approx. 14'x8']. I make them in modeled my home furnishings, they look dimensionally. way they're executed. I'm par- three pieces so I can get them out Cornelius de Fries. He is the best What did you think of the ticularly fond of the robot, of the house. [Giger also uses a for me because he knows my changes made in the design of which is operated by Ripley— dumbwaiter system to move the work. your creature in ALIENS? Das war ganz toll, nicht?—that artwork while he paints, a Will you work on THE MIR- I thought the mechanization yellow monster with those method borrowed from Salva- ROR yourself and sculpt as you was done very well. I was a little pincers. The Alien Queen is dor Dali.] did on ALIEN? depressed because nobody also nice. She's a bit smaller in Will you actually work on the No, I don't think so. Just over- asked me to work on this film. I the face than my alien but my set for THE MIRROR? see. I want to be very much was in Los Angeles at the time basic design was very well stud- I will not have much to do on involved in the film because I working on POLTERGEIST ied. She was frighteningly well the film. For me it's best when have never been satisfied with II, and I asked around about animated. Of couse in that someone takes my images and what filmmakers have done ALIENS. For me it would respect a lot has been learned in brings them to life and I don't with my work in the past. I was have been the most logical the past eight years. The face- have to invent another thing. I horrified about POLTERGEIST thing to work on that film. I huggers were well done, too. hope to control everything. Oth- II. That was probably my mis- was very anxious to collabo- As far as the designs are con- erwise, it never ends up looking take for not being there. This rate but nobody called me. I'd cerned I've no criticism, only like my stuff. It always looks time, if they want to transform much rather have done a the film's pace bothers me. And influenced by the artist who is my images they can't change a second ALIEN than a second I believe a lot of Europeans doing it. The problem is to find lot. But it's difficult to see how POLTERGEIST because nat- react like that. They would

GALAXINA (1980). This HOLLYWOOD Crown release, written RIPS-OFF and directed by William Sachs and starring the late H. R. GIGER Dorothy Stratton as the Since ALIEN burst onto titular android, featured a the consciousness of spoof of ALIEN's chest- Hollywood in 1979, the bursting scene. The little distinctive biomechanical alien (left) was designed by style of designer H. R. Chris Walas, a later Giger has cropped up in Oscar-winner for THE numerous films from some FLY, now turned director. of the biggest names in the genre, like James Cameron, ALIENS (1986). Writer/ David Cronenberg, Rick director James Cameron's Baker, Stan Winston, et continuation of the film al. Here's a list in no that started it all. Stan particular order and by Oscar-winner Chris Walas Winston picked-up an no means complete: did GALAXINA's chestburster. Oscar for his work, based Stan Winston got an Oscar for copying Giger's designs for ALIENS. 26 Giger's surreal vision of the future profoundly touched something in us, remapping our sense of what is "the other." By Brooks London image-driven film. Of course, following ALIEN's H. R. Giger has proven to be huge box office success, a number one of those rare talents who can of films, most of them awful, turn a film genre in a new direc- attempted to copy its format, tion. It may be too soon to say either in whole or in part. A that after Giger science fiction Roger Corman production, film will never be the same again, GALAXY OF TERROR (1981). but it certainly hasn't been the probably came closest to match- same since that moment in 1979 ing Giger's biotechnological ter- when those grumbling explorers ror (to be imitated by Roger Cor- from the Nostromo made their man must be a singular kind of way through vaginal portals into validation), while the imploding the vast ribcage cathedral of the chest scene in John Carpenter's Giger-designed spaceship of ALIEN. Centered in its interior the explorers saw the body of a huge fossilized extraterrestrial. Re- clining at some unfathomable gun or instrument mount—its bones, muscles, and tendons indistinguishable from the mount's tubes, cables and con- duit—the giant dead astronaut seemed to grow out of and flow into the chair, just as the gun or instrument emplacement seemed to grow out of the ship itself, its organic nature more clear than Filming Giger's "Space Jockey" design for ALIEN, a turning point In the look of its technological purpose. From science fiction. Right: Giger's "Alien" design for the film, a six-foot replica that literally awe-inspiring mo- that glares out at visitors to the artist's Zurich gallery/apartment/workshop. ment on, ALIEN was Giger's film, and from that film on, the science fiction and fantasy films Giger's artwork, "I've never Giger "biomechanoid" look, at tend to be more subjective than really been so shook up about once terrifying and erotic, has authoritative, a process more of anything," adding that he in- been omnipresent in science fic- visual matching than of deter- stantly recognized it as the basis tion film. mining degrees of indebtedness. of the creature for his film. Sim- Sure, Giger had some help What one critic calls a rip-off, ilarly, explaining what drew her from director Ridley Scott, another may see as hommage, to the role of Ripley, Sigourney effects expert Carlo Rambaldi, while a third may talk of "conver- Weaver said the clincher was see- production designer Michael gence." Still, who can doubt that ing Giger's designs for the film. Seymour and others; ALIEN, Giger's surreal vision of the From the outset, it was Giger's like any major film production, future profoundly touched some- unique vision, a blend of night- was a supremely collaborative thing in us, remapping our sense mare-surrealism with industrial effort. For science fiction and of "the other," the alien, while design, that seemed to lift ALIEN fantasy films this collaboration resurrecting dance of death skel- out of the conventional, his grows ever more complicated etal iconography to haunt us designs shaping and challenging and reciprocal since special with our own mortality. "Every- its production values. One major effects and production design thing I designed in the film," difference between SF literature often determine the look and feel revealed Giger, "used the idea of and SF film is that the latter may of a film as much or more than bones." be image-driven, built from a vis- does its script, acting, directing Certainly, Giger's art played ual paradigm or central image and camera work. So claims an instrumental role in Ridley rather than from a narrative or about influence, inspiration and Scott's approach to ALIEN. conceptual design, and ALIEN derivation within and among Scott has said of his first look at provides a perfect example of an

27 THE THING (1982) was clearly Giger's genius lay in combin- the most original response to the ing the imagery of technology "chestbursting" stage of Giger's " To note the many inferior with that of biology, in offering alien. A list of ALIEN/Giger us a vision of a future so different inspired or influenced SF crea- attempts to mimic Giger actually as to challenge many of our long- tures in recent films (see page 26) standing filmic assumptions would include those in ALIEN misrepresents his larger impact about distinctions between hu- CONTAMINATION, XTRO, manity and alien, life and non- CAPTAIN EO, CREATURE, on SF film. Giger made us life, science fiction and fantasy. HORROR PLANET, FORBID- rethink the look of technology." More than anyone else, it was DEN WORLD, and SCARED Giger who persuaded us that the TO DEATH, but to note the future may have as much to do many inferior attempts to mimic with slime as with circuitry, that Giger actually misrepresents his advanced life forms may have larger impact on SF film. advanced beyond or developed Giger's real accomplishment outside of our mechanical- and is more abstract and has to do electronic-centered conception with reorienting our notion of of technology. the alien from the creature to its Accordingly, a better index to ecology and environment, and Giger's impact on SF film would with making us rethink the look be to note how subsequent mov- of technology. If, as film scholar ies as different as KRULL, Vivian Sobchack (Screening INVADERS FROM MARS, Space) argues, the last ten years BUCKAROO BANZAI, LIFE- have seen a fundamental para- FORCE and EXPLORERS digm shift in science fiction film, have shown advanced alien liv- one radically revising long-held ing spaces to be organic and inex- assumptions about the nature of plicable, and how films as differ- space and time and the depiction ent as THE TERMINATOR, of the alien, then Giger must be PREDATOR, and ROBOCOP acknowledged as one of the pri- have posited a new kind of exist- mary architects of that shift. ence blurring the imagery if not Although ALIEN was an old- the concepts of the biological style monster-from-deep-space and the mechanical. Indeed, it film, its rudimentary plot a kind should also be noted that many of spaceship-gothic more than of the assumptions of current anything new to think about, its cyberpunk literature posit a dis- imagery challenged us to see in a tinctly Gigerish future. completely new way the spaces in What Giger has provided SF outer space. That is, it immersed film in the '80s is iconography to us in a systematically alien envi- rival that of the classic SF films ronment, an entire implicit ecol- of the past, a pattern of images as ogy, confronting us with a space- recognizable and as emblematic ship at once so vast and so as was the figure of CREA- strange looking that it subverted TURE FROM THE BLACK our comfortable distinctions LAGOON's gillman or the majes- between biology and machinery, tic but sterile look of space travel our expectations of mechanical in Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Giger forms with implicitly clear func- may not have done this alone, tions, and with a creature that but it's hard to imagine that it Above: With director Ridley Scott (I) and creature fabricator Carlo Rambaldi, threatened us from without and Giger (rear) picks up his Oscar for special effects design for ALIEN in 1980. would have happened without from within. Below: Giger's aesthetic extended far beyond the film's effects: Left: Vaginal him. • portals lead to the derelict ship's interior. Right: Discovering the egg chamber.

28 rather see a series of slow build- ups towards climaxes instead of one immense build-up towards a single climax. Since ALIEN your style seems to have become com- mon property in Hollywood. Does that upset you, or are you just flattered? If it's done well I 'm flattered, certainly. Although I usually come a day after the fair in two ways: I'm not being compen- sated and my name is never mentioned. If at least that would happen I could be con- tent with the thought of having inspired something. And if the film turns out well, that would be fine. One should be glad with all good films that are made. What about Francis Cop- pola's CAPTAIN EO, the short film starring Michael Jackson and Angelica Huston that's playing at Disneyland Giger's alien designs for THE TOURIST (1982), an unfilmed Universal project developed by director Brian Gibson, about a seedy and... New York hospital which keeps extraterrestrials from other worlds under sedation for the sadistic experimentation of scientists. I know, it looks just like my alien. I have seen some pic- They send me a letter and say it the near future, was to center water. It was all very brutal. I tures of it. You know, some is nice to have you in my film on a gloomy New York hospi- don't think there's any chance years ago 20th Century-Fox [Giger laughs]. So, I can't say tal where different kinds of the film will ever be made. sued the firm Bally because anything. It's nice to be there. alien creatures are being kept Why were you dissatisfied they had fabricated an unau- You know, sometimes people under sedation with a drug that with Gibson's POLTERGEIST thorized ALIEN pin-ball ma- have the same idea at the same makes them feel at home while II? chine. Bally had to pay dearly time. My stuff is not com- scientists expose them to sadis- I got mixed-up in the wrong for that. I only received a cou- pletely fresh. I have been influ- tic experiments. A remorseful project. I started working on ple of dollars and one of those enced by Gaudi, Kubin, Dali... scientist decides to help trans- that film under a misrepresen- pin-ball machines because I had What other artists have port the aliens back to their tation. I thought: they're going transferred my rights in the influenced you? respective home planets. The to make a film with a big alien design to Fox. So it's up First and foremost is Hiero- film was never made because budget, which will allow to a to Fox to go after Coppola if nymus Bosch. the production company, Uni- large degree the input of my they care to. In 1982, at the request of versal, opted for a more cheer- own fantasies. The producers You don't seem angry with director Brian Gibson who ful science fiction film instead: [Mark Victor and Michael the way Hollywood filmmak- would later ask Giger to work E.T.— THE EXTRA- TERRES- Grais, who also wrote the ers have ripped off your work? on POLTERGEIST II: THE TRIAL. screenplay] confirmed this [ The term "rip off" was a new OTHER SIDE, Giger made What kind of preproduction feeling and gave me the impres- one for Giger, who asked what seventy sketches and eleven art did you do for THE TOUR- sion that I would be able to it meant before answering.] paintings for a project entitled IST? create something really new for There are a lot of American THE TOURIST. This science I designed all kinds of aliens: this film and that the script filmmakers who copy my work. fiction / horror film, situated in flying, hanging, lying in the could be adjusted if need be.

on Giger's credited designs straight out of Giger, the for the original. Though work of designer John not invited back, Giger's Graysmark and effects distinctive design sense supervisor John Dykstra. nevertheless permeated ALIEN screenwriter Dan the enterprise. A pity that O'Bannon co-wrote the producers Walter Hill and script with Don Jakoby. David Giler, who haven't approached Giger about SATURN 3 (1980). This tale contributing to ALIEN III of a robot amok on a base either, have decided to on one of Saturn's moons settle for imitations with was produced and di- the "real thing" available. rected by Stanley Donen from a story by the late LIFEFORCE (1985). Tobe STAR WARS designer John Hooper's stylish version of Barry. Hector, the Giger- Colin Wilson's "Space style robot, was designed Vampires" features a bio- by Stuart Craig and Hector, the rampaging Giger gothic alien spaceship The interior of the biomechanical spaceship in LIFEFORCE. effects man Colin Chivers. styled robot of SATURN 3. 29 " I have never been satisfied with what filmmakers have done to my work in the past. I was horrified by POLTERGEIST II. "

- Surrealist H. R. Giger -

the evil. I wanted them to been done with them. retract the instant a light There are several scenes in shined on them, like when you ALIEN that are entirely Giger- enter a hole with a pocket- styled, but you aren't really torch and the animals who live happy with the way your work there hide themselves—the was treated in that film, ei- devil retracting his horns, that ther ... was the idea. But in the film For ALIEN I constructed they turned it into scheisse, the monster and other models with a skeleton dropping some- myself. I was there and I thing from its mouth. I de- watched how they were being scribed it all perfectly well in filmed. But in that case there my drawings, but apparently also was an incompetence ... I they didn't understand or they wasn't very happy with ALIEN. didn't want to understand. The No, in fact, it was rather terri- same goes for the hill in the ble. Ridley Scott and I wanted cave, with those corpses of the well-trained people, for in- Reverend's followers lying on stance, technicians who had it: you can't even see it prop- worked at Disneyland, who erly! It was filmed much too knew how to mechanize things. dark! Besides it was very badly When I visited Disneyland I constructed. thought: my God, these are the Were you ever asked to people we should have had! Puppeteering "The Great Beast of POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE at Richard attend the shooting or the con- Whoever made the robots of Edlund's Boss Film effects company. Giger claims his design idea was botched. struction of the models? the Carribean pirates and the No, there was no money haunted house, they could Unfortunately things went dif- used? available for that. But I also have worked on ALIEN, that ferently. They led me on and I Originally the film was going didn't really want to be there. would have been wonderful. was rather displeased by that. I to start with a scene in which My partner, Connie de Fries, Ganz toll. But on ALIEN there ask myself: why don't they hire The Reverend was to be dis- was there to construct small was a lack of experience and the same people who did the covered, sitting in the under- scale models from my draw- knowledge of good techniques. original? Why me? I only cause ground Cuesta Verde cave, sur- ings. But he couldn't get a labor At Disneyland they have been trouble because I'm not easily rounded by some of his follow- permit and wasn't allowed to doing these things for twenty satisfied and I make bad pub- ers. And I thought, in this film contribute to the construction years. licity if I don't like the film. evil mostly stems from a worm. of the actual models. Appar- Wouldn't you have preferred For POLTERGEIST II you So I wanted to go along that ently none of the special effects the Alien Queen as POLTER- made drawings of The Rever- line by showing two worm's people understood my draw- GEIST II's Great Beast? end, as portrayed by the late tails protruding from the ears ings. They didn't have the faint- [Giger laughs] the Great Julian Beck. Why weren't these of The Reverend, thus marking est notion of what could have continued on page 34

THE INTRUDER WITHIN SCARED TO DEATH (1981). A made-for-TV (1980). The directorial movie about an oil-rig in debut of Bill Malone, the the Atlantic plagued by a writer and director of THE prehistoric creature that MIRROR, the forthcoming impregnates Linda Mason feature film to showcase Green, who gives birth to Giger's design sense. its hideous offspring. The Though Malone's first low- creature designs by James budget effort couldn't Cummins and Henry Golas afford to pay Giger for his reveal orthodontia that is inspiration, Malone at strikingly similar to that least freely acknowledged of Giger's ALIEN. Said the debt. Jim Suthors designer Golas (11:2:54), built the film's creature, a "I think if you actually Syngenor (Synthetic Genetic compare the two, you will Organism), which wanders find they have no resem- the Los Angeles sewer Does THE INTRUDER WITHIN blance." His creature is at system in search of prey look at all familiar to you? left, you decide. Director Bill Malone's SCARED TO DEATH sewer monster. in ALIEN-styled action. 30 Giger's designs for one of the most disturbing scenes in POLTERGEIST II, in which actor Craig T. Nelson vomits up the embryo that grows into The Great Beast (inset). Rather than the quick cut action of the filmed scene, Giger's original concept as noted on his early preliminary sketches is even more disturbing, calling for the creature to come "out slowly, like a piece of shit." H. R. GIGER'S

Giger's Necronomicon imagery comes alive on the screen. By Sheldon tended never again to get suckered in by an- Teitelbaum other slick Hollywood There exists a universe deal. In which case a dimension apart yet only Malone must have a whisper away from our shown him one hell of a own . .. an ancient, evil hot script, because this civilization, a race of hor- is an independent pro- rific living things spawned duction, and Malone from the grotesque mar- riage of man and machine. doesn't have scads of Unable to reproduce, they money to salve Giger's have waited near death for wounds from a botched eons. .. for someone from construction job. our dimension to open the Indeed, the prospect portal between their world of translating intact the and ours. . . the mirror. acclaimed grotesque- The "Necronomicon"— ries of The Necrono- was going to look like—there the Book of the Dead, tells micon into three dimen- was only one suitable painting of a netherglass with the in the book. power to bend time and sional form was appar- space... that 7000 years ently impossible for "I think the stuff in ALIEN is ago a seeker of dark secrets either the Swiss artist or the best of the film adaptations found the mirror and fell these other effects wiz- of Giger's work," Malone through a hole in time. ards to resist. Mention added. But he thinks Scott only For centuries the glass Giger, these people are scratched the surface. "Giger was lost. Now the mirror eager. Explained art has a wealth of stuff—images has been found again. director Novotny: "How even more powerful than those And soon their wait will in ALIEN. It gets you on a be over. The human female to invest the next year specimen they need will be of your life is always a primordial, gut level. His Stillbirth Machine, a 1976 Giger painting from his book paintings are disturbing, but theirs. Necronomicon, 4.5'x6.5', which serves as one of the major decision. But preproduction images for the world of THE MIRROR. when a project has the you keep wanting to look at So reads the promo potential to be a knock- them anyway. They are scary for THE MIRROR, a $6 mil- as special makeup effects man, out—Academy Award materi- but also elegant. I kept going lion feature based upon the and Giger himself, whom Ma- al—we're willing to take a stab back to them, and the story just paintings in H. R. Giger's lone persuaded to fly to Los at it." came to me." Necronomicon, set to begin an Angeles to supervise overall Malone described the proj- Malone's story documents 11-week production schedule conceptual design for the film. ect as "Alice Through the the travails of housewife July in April. William Malone, its And lest you have any doubts Looking Glass meets H. P. Daley, whom a race of Giger- director, has assembled some about Malone's record—his Lovecraft." He wrote a first esque bio-mechanical mon- of the best effects and design last effort, CREATURE, did draft of the script in 1980, after strosities has chosen to spawn a people in the business: Michael fall a bit short of being a genre finding a French edition of newly-invigorated race of hu- (FLIGHT OF THE NAVI- tour de force—consider this: Giger's Necronomicon in the man/machine hybrids. Daley GATOR) Novotny as produc- Giger was not at all pleased dealers' room at a science fic- runs aground when she hangs tion designer; Robert and Den- with the outcome of his most tion convention. "It blew me an antique mirror on her wall nis Skotak (ALIENS) in charge recent venture into filmmak- away," he said. "And later, that serves as a portal into their of special visual effects; Doug ing—the abortive POLTER- when I heard he was doing Rid- dimension. Much beasting Beswick (STAR WARS, THE GEIST II. Intimates say that ley Scott's ALIEN, it was very about ensues as they try to drag TERMINATOR, ALIENS) after that travesty, Giger in- easy to pick out what the alien her back to their home turf. 32 Two Necronomicon paintings by Giger which serve as preproduction designs for the film imagery of THE MIRROR. Above: The Spell II, a 1974 three piece "environment," measuring about 8'x14.' Right: The way of the magician, one of four paintings in Giger's The Passage Temple, with steps leading to godhood.

After Malone completed CREATURE for Moshe Dia- ment's Trans World Entertain- ment—the picture was made for $ 1.3 million and did $8 mil- lion theatrically and millions more in video—he took his script, then called DEADLY IMAGES, to Vista. "But they were going through a bunch of changes and, as it turned out, could only finance one picture. They did FRIGHT NIGHT instead, and threw us out the door." Later in 1985, Malone met Jack Murphy, a Canadian pro- ducer who had handled the Canadian distribution of Ma- lone's first film, SCARED TO DEATH, in 1979. Murphy, who had moved to Los Angeles three years earlier, enthusiasti- cally embraced the project. continued on page 56 Unused design concepts for POLTERGEIST II by H. R. Giger, showing the artist's concept of a "Smokebeast," an omen appearing to the Indian shaman at the film's beginning. Below: Views of Julian Beck as the Reverend Kane, showing Giger's use of a worm motif as a symbol of evil, also abandoned.

34 " I want to work on a film with someone who is aiming for quality and something new, not for profit only, someone like Fellini. "

- Surrealist H. R. Giger -

Beast in POLTERGEIST II one, I think, was in German. was really scheisse. Very bad. All the others were in English Yes, I would have preferred the or in French. For me it's diffi- Alien Queen. Thus you can see cult to comprehend those. I a designer has no influence always ask: please translate the whatsoever in these matters. script in German, it makes my From designs I made long ago imagination work better. something very good is derived, You made designs for DUNE while my more recent work has (9:1:35 and 14:4/5:33) for two been screwed up. aborted productions, but when Why are you still willing to David Lynch finally filmed it, do film design after all your you were not involved. Why? disappointments? I was very eager to be. I should like to work with Through friends I asked Lynch someone who is aiming for if he was interested in my co- quality and something new operation. I never heard from rather than profit only. I him. Later I came to know that receive a lot of scripts from he was upset because he thought beginners, people who are we copied the chestburster in going to do their first film and ALIEN from his monster baby admire me. I'd like to be asked in ERASERHEAD, which by someone like Fellini. That was not so. Ridley Scott and I would really enthuse me. Unfor- hadn't even seen that film at the tunately it never happens time. If one film influenced Giger's alien costume for SWISS MADE, a 1969 short by F. M. Murer about a space [Giger laughs]. Dan O'Ban- ALIEN it was THE TEXAS visitor who records everything he sees, sits as an ashtray in Giger's gallery/studio. non, with whom I'm still regu- CHAINSAW MASSACRE. I larly in touch, keeps telling me would have loved to collabo- Sometimes elements in my (15:2:19). Did you have any- he would like to do Lovecraft's rate with Lynch on DUNE but paintings resemble the technol- thing else to do with that film? The Colour Out of Space with apparently he wanted to do all ogy of the last century, similar No. When Ron Moore, the me as soon as he's able to raise the designs by himself. I think to Lynch. I use tubes, pipes, director, visited an exposition the necessary funds. That he did a great job. I admire and broken down machinery. of my work near Zurich he could be interesting because Lynch tremendously. I think Can you name your favorite asked me if I would care to do he's definitely one of the great- he's one of the greatest film- the poster art for his film, est Lovecraft experts around. films and directors? makers and I would very much Lynch's BLUE VELVET. which was being edited. Moore But I consider everything like to work for him some time. Ridley Scott. I'm not crazy showed me a couple of photo- I'm offered. Since ALIEN I Do you see any points of about fantastic films. I prefer graphs of this character with a have received approximately comparison between your work reality. skull-like head which looked fifteen scripts for which they and Lynch's oeuvre as a direc- In 1985 you designed the just like it had been stolen from want me as a designer. Only tor? poster for FUTUREKILL one of my works. I thought that

INVADERS FROM MARS FUTUREKILL (1985). (1986). Director Tobe Giger did the poster art Hooper again, this time for this Texas-filmed low- with a remake of the 1953 budgeter about violence- film by William Cameron prone college punks who Menzies. Instead it looked dress up in costumes more like ALIEN, with styled on his biomechanical creatures by Stan Winston. look. The film doesn't Rather than Giger, concept quite live up to the poster. designer William Stout cited the work of a Giger GALAXY OF TERROR influence, that of Spanish (1981). A Roger Corman architect Antonio Gaudi, ALIEN rip-off directed by as inspiration for the Bruce Clark. The designs film's biomechanical look. of an alien pyramid and The film's production biomechanical landscape designer, Les Dilley, had straight out of Giger's in fact worked with Giger original concepts were Giger's FUTUREKILL poster, on the original ALIEN. INVADERS FROM MARS, Giger-inspired or was it Antonio Gaudi? by James Cameron and a chance to cash-in himself. 35 but I have no idea what's com- ing. I use paper that measures 420x240 cm. There's no bigger paper than that. I can't move the paintings for display unless I cut them up. They're really made for this room. What about the smaller ones? Do you use the same method? Yes. I just start from one side and go to the other. I paint whatever comes to my mind. There is no pre-planning. For instance, the ones that feature penis imagery and grotesque baby heads, I just felt like doing that. People have said that I look like these babies a little bit. At the time, 1973, there was a problem with oil and gas—the energy crisis. You can see burners in some of my paintings. The other images must also have some reason behind them. Condoms, of About The Cover Giger is shown ALIEN (above), combined with the cover cocooned by his own Alien, a take-off on motif of his book "Giger's Alien" (Inset) course are very "in" now. the design he made for a scene cut from a diary of his work on the production. You've said many of these images come from your since they had copied that so who like fantastic art. In vivid colors? dreams.... well already I might as well do Zurich I think I'malone. Switz- Sometimes I try to use You know, sometimes I get the poster. Half a year later I erland is not a very fantastic colors, but it doesn't work tired answering the same ques- saw the finished film and it land. If someone talks about really. 1 find that black and tions over and over again. was... how shall I put it... it Switzerland, it's always about white or monochromatic Why do I paint the things I was very colorful, whereas my banks and money or moun- schemes work best for me. paint? That's beyond words. I poster was rather black and tains. Not about art... Color is against the force of my have so many different stories white. I liked the colors in the Your paintings are incredi- work. A painting like The to tell, which I can only draw. film, they reminded me of bly detailed, representing a tre- Spell would be terrible in And everybody always thinks BLACK ORPHEUS. But the mendous amount of work. color. I'm only interested in dark, rest... the poster was well Have you considered using a How do you paint? Do you morbid things,.whereas I take printed, though. looser style? make sketches first? a genuine pleasure in cheerful Moore promised to write a It depends. At the moment I No. It's all airbrush sprayed things. script, entirely focused on me no longer do the large three- on paper which has been glued Do you have very bad night- and my work: BIOGENESIS. piece wall paintings. I do to wood. I use mainly ink and mares? That was a year ago and I'm smaller ones. I don't do a lot of white acrylic paint. Then I put Often, yeah. Like every- still waiting. originals, about 25 paintings in lacquer over it to make sure body, I think terrible things. How do you see yourself as a year. They are not magical nothing wet can destroy it. My dreams are never this an artist? like The Spell. I work best When I do the giant murals, 1 bad. I'm an artist on the fringe. under pressure. start on one side of the paint- No? This one [Giger points Fantastic art is never "in." You paint in very muted ing and work to the other. 1 to his wall mural The Spell, see There seems to be few people tones. Do you ever plan to use make sure the angles are right, page 32-33] is not bad. Do you

Bob Skotak, who went on to FORBIDDEN WORLD direct and supervise the (1982). Another Roger effects for ALIENS. Corman ALIEN rip-off, filmed by Alan Holzman to SPACEBALLS (1987). The utilize the sets built by funniest bit in this Mel Corman for GALAXY OF Brooks parody of STAR TERROR. The film's WARS is actually a take- alien, built by Steve Neil off on ALIEN's chest- and John Carl Buechler, bursting sequence, replete and sculpted by Bob and with a Giger-style alien Dennis Skotak, bears more that does a high-stepping than a casual resemblance dance routine, adorned with to Giger's dolichocephalic a hat and cane, after creature design of the bursting forth from the monster seen in ALIEN. chest of actor John Hurt, reprising his role from the Bargain basement Giger, the original film. ILM built alien of Roger Corman's rip-off ILM's high-stepping Giger-styled chestburster for SPACEBALLS. the Giger look-a-like. entitled FORBIDDEN WORLD. 36 THE ROOTS OF IMAGINATION Giger's art speaks in the metaphoric language of dreams, not to the conscious mind, but to its hidden underlying roots.

By Vincent Di Fate has long endured in his art, the tragic death of Li One looks at the works Tobler seems to have of Hans Giger and sees in marked an increase in the them the influences of use of pervading and many artists. Some of his oppressive darks. Despite landscapes resemble those the artist's claims of an of Max Ernst in texture upbeat nature to his work and palette, particularly (which seems to evade the Ernst's Day and Night detection of most view- (1943) and The Eye of ers), there is little doubt of Silence (1944). His back- the power of Giger's im- grounds bristle with com- agery. If the charting of plex details reminiscent of the psychic terrain is the dream architecture of indeed the true mission of Antonio Gaudi's unfin- surrealist art, then it is on ished masterpiece The this level that Giger speaks Church of the Holy Fam- most clearly, for his is a ily or of Ferdinand Che- most persuasive voice to val's Dream Palace. His this inner dialogue and we merging of biological form cannot avoid being drawn with mechanical artifact is to it, no matter how obtru- worthy of the machine- sive or shocking or intimi- tooled perfection of Mar- dating. Giger speaks in the cel Duchamp. There is a metaphoric language of hint of the cryptic symbol- dreams, not to the wake- ism of Bocklin, a touch of ful mind, but to the hidden the timelessness of Tan- intelligence within. guy, a smattering of the often startling photo-real- Many of his early draw- ism of Dali. Giger fools ings were done in india ink the eye with a flamboyant applied by pen to tracing showmanship like Escher's, paper where the images evokes the demonic erot- were carefully and me- ica of Bosch and stretches thodically defined. The upon it, at strategic points, spattering of ink from a the glistening embryonic Giger in 1978, painting his preproduction design of the derelict ship's egg chamber for ALIEN. toothbrush through a fine membrane of Matta. Occasion- wire sieve was used to ally whimsical, invariably com- expression and provided the on an often turbulent love affair cover large areas in a method plex, Giger's art is rife with subtle catalyst for his daytime visions. until her death, by her own hand, approximating the effects of air- nuances and baroque redundan- At eighteen, the artist was in 1975. brush. In the late '60s Giger cies, meticulously crafted from employed as a draftsman by the These details of personal his- experimented briefly with oils on edge to edge in a completely con- Meissen architectural firm where tory seem to have produced a a series of small landscapes, but trolled environment where noth- he developed strengths in formal significant effect on Giger's art. found the medium too time con- ing is sacred or immune to his composition and nurtured an He sees little of the unsettling suming. He turned to the use of acid genius. appreciation for the symmetry nature of his work, but rather airbrush in 1971 and has largely and ornamental patterns com- views his art as cathartic. Indeed, remained with this technique. The artist applies thin layers of As a child, poor in his studies mon to the style of church inte- his Passage paintings, a series of india ink by airbrush directly to and plagued by nightmares and riors. From 1962 to 1966, he meticulously crafted pieces pro- waterproof paper which has bizarre waking dreams, it is little attended The School of Arts and duced from the late 1960s to been mounted on chipboard or wonder that Giger should come Crafts in Zurich where he stud- about 1973, represent his bright- plywood panels, no longer re- to embrace the tenets of surreal- ied interior and industrial design, est and most well-integrated use quiring the use of preliminary ism. At about age five, a photo- securing a designer's position at of color and were used therapeu- drawing. To this, transparent spread in Life for Jean Cocteau's the firm of Andreas Christen's tically by the artist to free himself layers of acrylic paint are applied BEAUTY AND THE BEAST upon his graduation. In that of some of the more troubling until the desired colorations are exposed Giger to the potentials same year, Giger met Li Tobler, aspects of his waking nightmares. of film as a medium for artistic an actress, with whom he carried Although a shadowy presence continued on page 38

37 " If the charting of the psychic terrain is indeed the true mission of surrealist art, then it is on this level that Giger's work speaks to us most clearly."

achieved. Foss and others which showed Similar in style to Yves Tan- imagination and promise some- guy, Giger's use of color pos- what beyond the film which sesses a quality much like that of director David Lynch finally a tinted photograph, with the brought to fruition in I984. finely rendered images contained Involvement with Jodorowsky, in the preliminary inkwork however, led to a brief meeting which functions as an under- with Dan O'Bannon in Paris and painting for the acrylics. Thus, O'Bannon was later responsible color assumes a very secondary for bringing H. R. Giger into the role, with the main emphasis on planning of ALIEN. the selection and juxtaposing of It is in ALIEN that Giger's Giger's 1975 designs for the unfilmed French production of DUNE on which he images and on Giger's considera- talents truly soar, from his met Dan O'Bannon, the author of ALIEN. Giger's Harkonnen castle is a symbol ble skills at drawing and compo- of aggression, set on a hill of charred bones, with a face that spits destruction. organic interiors for the derelict sition. Like the most vivid of our spaceship, to the bleak, oppres- dreams, they are works best sive landscape of the alien world, remembered for the strength of to the creation of a creature so their content to which the appli- unique and fearsome of aspect as cation of color seems vague and to have inspired a seemingly end- ephemeral and ultimately of lit- less number of imitators. tle relevance. Ridley Scott's ALIEN is still, Giger's first involvement with in its soul, just a B-movie in fancy motion pictures came in 1969 trappings with more than a with F. M. Murer's forty-five- casual kinship to such '50s film minute science fiction short fare as IT! THE TERROR SWISS MADE 2069, for which FROM BEYOND SPACE and the artist contributed a number other lower-bill potboilers. It of designs utilizing his biome- has become memorable in the chanical method of combining annals of SF cinema, not for its natural and man-made elements. compelling story of survival or In 1975 he participated in an ill- its relentless, dogged pacing, but fated attempt to bring Frank for the wolf it hides beneath its Herbert's sprawling ecological glossy, state-of-the-art sheep's SF novel Dune to the screen. clothing. Giger's creature is Under the creative control of something dangerously close to director Alexandro Jodorowsky, the beast in all of us and from a significant number of drawings whose countenance we are pow- were prepared by Giger, Chris erless to look away. •

Using many of the mystical properties of "Isle of the Dead" (left), Giger transforms this symbolist masterpiece into his own "Hommage to Bocklin," painted In 1977.

38 feel bad here? No, I don't feel bad here. I like this type of artwork. It's interesting. To me, though, it is a scary place. How painful is it for you to sell one of your paintings? I don't sell the large paint- ings. Once I sold one to a col- lector and that was quite hard. Those in this room I will never give away. I want to keep them together. When The Spell went to Japan on exhibit, I had another behind it that took its place. Guns are present in much of your work. What is your fasci- nation with them? Guns are like an air brush. You can affect something from far away and not be directly in contact with your subject. Do you shoot? Sometimes. There isn't much Death, Giger's 1977 painting (2.5'x4') from his Necronomicon, which serves as a preproduction design for THE MIRROR, a occasion to do so here in the forthcoming film by director Bill Malone which will bring Giger's surreal imagery to the screen more powerfully than ever before. city. Yesterday, I shot in my small room because there are a feel myself go outside this tive. I think my work is positive ing dead babies seen in your lot of rats, or something. They room right through the walls. because it's not a destroyed paintings? make me so angry. In the mid- You have said you consider landscape. The ladies are shown She likes my work very dle of the night I made a hole in your work upbeat. How do like in a peep show. They are much because she's my mother. the ceiling with my drill. Instead you reconcile that with your not ugly, but shown in a nice [Giger laughs] Sometimes of a bullet I put some shot in obsession with death and dark way. she's a little ashamed of what I and blasted into the hole. Then imagery. How would you describe do. If there are other people there was peace. It was about What is this word, "upbeat?" something that is not positive? around, sometimes she has to three o'clock in the morning Happy or positive. Do you Boring things. Visions of defend my work. after two hours being unnerved. feel your work is that way? Hell and Hieronymus Bosch In his book, Danse Maca- Then it began in another part No, I don't think so. Happy are all positive because some- bre, Stephen King wrote, speak- of my bedroom and I did the colors are mostly green, blue, thing is happening. The most ing about the world of horror same. and red. My colors are more terrible thing for me is if noth- films: " They do not love death, Have you ever had a super- akin to an old basement, like ing happens; no movement. as some have suggested; they natural experience? rotting potatoes, or worms You mean like still-lifes? love life. They do not celebrate Yes. Sometimes I go out of from the potatoes. My paint- Have you ever tried to paint deformity, but by dwelling on my body from my bed and fly ings are interior paintings, flowers or bowls of fruit? deformity they sing of health about 40 or 50 centimeters off what I imagine on the inside. Yes, I try. and energy. . . They are the the ground. I can see my feet in Do you feel your work is What do they look like? barber's leeches to the psyche, the foreground. This has hap- pessimistic, then? Nice. I did some in color for drawing not bad blood but pened about eight times. Some- Probably, yes. It depends on my mother. anxiety." Do you see your times I've drunk too much wine your level. If your feet are on What does she think about work in that same light? or taken some sleeping pills. I the ground, it could be nega- the phalluses and cigar chomp- Oh, definitely. •

CAPTAIN EO (1987). This several of the film's key Michael Jackson short concepts: a living TV set unspooling at Disney's made of flesh; a vaginal theme parks features an slit in James Woods' chest alien design on Angelica into which a video cassette Huston straight out of is inserted; and a scene in H. R. Giger, right down to which Woods' hand merges the monochromatic color with his gun. scheme. While admitting the similarities, makeup DEEP SPACE (1988). And designers Tom and Bari they keep coming. The Burman said their Giger latest Giger rip-off is this look was "unintentional." Trans World Entertainment production, directed by VIDEODROME (1983) Fred Olen Ray, to be Director David Cronenberg released later this year, and makeup artist Rick starring Bo Svenson. Steve Baker borrowed Giger's CAPTAIN EO: the similarity to Neill created the suit for a biomechanical look for Giger, purely "unintentional." Giger ALIEN look-alike. Steve Neill's look-alike for TWE's upcoming DEEP SPACE. 39 life, although he believes that doing so will sorely test his talents. "Giger's work is, in many respects, an aesthetic contradict ion," ex- plained Novotny. "It is at once hideous and beautiful. The sense of composition is balanced, but the females are elongated. They almost have a deco feel while being ensconced in a hideous organic form that lacks any def- inition—you just can't figure out what this stuff is. "At first glance, his paintings also appear to be monochromat- ic. In Necronomicon the paintings appear to rely solely on steel grays and rust. But you look more closely and you see the overlays of color that produce the effect. It's the same feeling you get when you look at a painting that's been dry- brushed—there are delicate over- lays of color on color on color, yet the perception is of a single color." Interpreting Giger's use of scale in three dimensions also poses a challenge to Novotny. He said that no two people looking at Gig- THE MIRROR er's paintings ever agree on the continued from page 33 scale of objects appearing in the Malone's next task was securing background. He doesn't think this the rights to Giger's paintings as is an intentional effect worked by well as his active involvement in Giger, but it is certainly worth the project. As Giger was still preserving. "My sense is that these smarting from the bastardization shapes feel right to him, have an of his vision in POLTERGEIST aesthetic curve or highlight of II, this proved to be no easy feat. edge, or lighting effect that func- "When I approached him, he tions as a caress. I'm looking for- was very unhappy about that ward to findingout if this is indeed film," said Malone. "He just didn't the case." want to become involved in any Novotny is not concerned with more features. We told him we Giger's reputation as an exacting intended to adapt his work faith- taskmaster who has proved diffi- fully, and would be delighted to cult for many in the industry to have him physically present to work with. But he is concerned supervise that process. 'Whatever with the extent to which Giger's you want, we'll do,' I said." work has become a stylistic Malone had an easier time of commonplace. persuading Novotny, Beswick, "I have a certain amount of dis- and the Skotaks to sign up with the trust for work that is merchan- project. He had worked with them dised as product," he said. "It hap- on CREATURE, and they had pened to Salvador Dali and it has not only got on famously together, been the case with Giger. A certain but made a product that, in terms immediacy seems to have been of look, transcended poor writing, lost—at least for me. So in a sense bad performances, and an effects it will be my job to redefine his budget so small it boggled the work and recapture its urgency. mind. I'd temper that, however, by say- Indeed, it was that experience ing that this is something I intend that persuaded Novotny to work to pursue together with him. I'm once again with Malone and col- quite confident that we can create leagues. Novotny recalled that the a genuinely Gigeresque world-be- art department's budget on CREA- yond-the-looking-glass." TURE had been $120,000. "On Preproduction for THE MIR- FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGA- ROR began late in January, and TOR we spent $70,000 a day," he Giger was slated to arrive in Los said. "The discrepancy between Angeles to supervise the film's the two films was vast. On CREA- design. Unfortunately, time and TURE we spent most of our time budgetary constraints conspired pulling rabbits out of our hats. to permit Giger only two weeks on And regardless of the script, plot the sets, which would be built in a and performers, I was happy with warehouse somewhere in the city. what we brought off." According to Malone, half of the Novotny said he is particularly film's entire budget has been ear- excited by the prospect of bringing marked for set design and effects, Giger's work to three-dimensional an amount which Malone believes adequate, especially since the film is an independent effort. "There's enough of the filmmaker in me that says if someone gives me a million dollars I can make them a movie. There's always a way of making an effect—one may take more money and less time or more time and less money." Asked why he has eschewed the possibility of employing com- puter animation techniques to bring Giger's visions to life more cheaply than by constructing huge, detailed sets, Novotny said it comes down to performance. "Animation and computer graph- ics might be a great process for creating some of these forms. But pre-planning and storyboarding doesn't lend itself to good acting. It's the old problem of getting an actor to relate to a blue screen." Novotny appeared indifferent to the likelihood that his work will, by necessity, reflect some- thing of the look Ridley Scott achieved in ALIEN. "If there are any parallels, it will be for good reason—the conceptual art that served as the basis for ALIEN is the same for THE MIRROR. This is clearly Giger's world. But in THE MIRROR, the acting, the script and the situation set the film apart from ALIEN. It's a different film with a different feel. We're not setting this picture in outer space. We don't even have an operational definition of this place beyond the mirror yet." Novotny said he has been par- ticularly encouraged by the reac- tions some industry executives and producers have had to the script. "A number of people who believe a film should work toward the lowest common denominator of acceptance have expressed their concerns that a number of scenes were too strong, too real, and too strange. And of course, Bill Malone has no intention of diluting his vision. But the response fills me with confi- dence." •

Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger in the bedroom of his Zurich apartment/gallery/studio, with the mirror design he plans to use as the key to another world in THE MIRROR.

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