Alien3
Pinewood Studios - 1992
Armed with the confidence to deliver more than just the documentary footage of films being made I decided to push further and see if I could get some work directing a project. This would involve researching content and conducting interviews with those involved with the film, along with filming material. I wrote a letter to the SVP (Senior Vice-president) of Promotional Programming at 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles with an idea to make more than just an EPK for Alien3, but a trilogy documentary including stories about the first 2 films.
The movie had a difficult birth, now well documented as part of the Alien 'Quadrilogy' (as it's referred to) DVD special edition, with the first Director Vincent Ward leaving the production when his vision proved too expensive for the studio to swallow. Then Renny Harlin walked away when his request for additional time to do a total rewrite was rejected, as this would put the start of the shoot too far back. So the forceps were applied to the project and rookie director David Fincher was chosen to nurse Alien3 to the screen. Fincher was then a 27 year old highly accomplished commercials and music video director, and having worked for the special effects house ILM he was very familiar with the technical aspects of production. His attention to detail in that work was likened to Ridley Scott who had stamped the die for the Alien series. I first met him at Pinewood a couple of weeks before shooting began and he kindly gave me a tour of the sets, eagerly talking about his take on the film. He was animated and enthusiastic, as you would expect of someone who had been handed the biggest train set in the world to tinker with. Looking back I now realise it was probably the first time since arriving in England he was in the company of someone working on the film who was the same age, I think he was a little lost without his LA buddies; a kindred shield against the studio machine he now found himself enmeshed.
We had a tiny bit in common, Fincher was born a couple of month before me in 1962 and about the age of eight, like myself, he began shooting his own super 8mm films. He bypassed film-school and began as a film loader as I had done on Roger Rabbit, eventually joining George Lucas's visual effect company, ILM (Industrial Light & Magic). A prolific career in commercials and particularly music videos in the mid 80's brought him to the attention of 20th Century Fox. I understand the final word on selecting Fincher was Sigourney Weaver's, who liked his bold request that she be bald throughout the film.
The British production designer was the Oscar winning Norman Reynolds (Indiana Jones), who possessed eyebrows, which appeared to have a life independent to the rest of his facial features. I did manage to fall out with him briefly when I prepared to do an interview on one of the sets, but unfortunately it had not been used for the film yet and apparently it's not the done thing to film a set that the production designer has not given his final blessing on. I took a verbal rollicking from Norman for this faux pas and stayed in the doghouse for the next few days. Norman had completed all of his design work for the film so Fincher was obliged to work with what was already built even if he did want to deviate from the available script, and he did.
Production got off to a rocky start, and remained mired in turbulence throughout the sixteen week shoot. Fincher had chosen the
American Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, whose brooding, brilliant photography of the visionary sci-fi film; “Blade Runner” set an incredibly high bar for the genre. Unfortunately Cronenweth was racked with the advanced stages of Parkinson's and his frailty was unlikely to see him survive the grueling 14 hour days required to finish the film on time. His son Jeff, was assisting Jordan with light readings and setting lamps but by week two the decision was made to find someone to takeover. Jeff Croneweth did go on to become an accomplished cinematographer in his own right and works regularly with David Fincher (The Social Network).
British Cinematographer Alex Thomson was hired to take over and with no prep time had to hit the studio floor peddling air. Alex possessed an origami fashioned face seasoned with creases crafted by a highly accomplished career in movies. I will confess Alien is on my top ten list of favorite films and so the thought of meeting Sigourney Weaver was a genuine thrill. The unit publicist Geoff Freeman introduced me to her on day one of principal photography. She was a tall trim figure and greeted me with a warm smile and gentle handshake. I briefly told her about my plan to make a trilogy review to go with Alien 3 and she liked the idea, which was a relief.
I had pitched to Fox that we should get Ridley Scott and James Cameron to talk about their respective films and the series overall, and at the time this was considered probably unlikely. However, naïve and undeterred, I called Ridley Scott's London office and put the suggestion to his personal assistant. Within a couple of hours I received a reply that Ridley agreed to my request and we arranged a day for him to come to Pinewood for the interview. He dutifully sat through an hour of questioning about the making of Alien; I'd researched the pants off the production so was well prepared and Ridley very accomodating.
Sigourney Shaved!
I'm not sure if it was always in the original script but Fincher wanted the entire cast to be shaved bald, including Sigourney. Because she had a young daughter she requested that the removal of her long hair be done in stages over a day so she could gently introduce her new look to her daughter. During production she would need a head shave every three days for continuity and I asked if she minded if I attended one of these morning sessions for the documentary. She thought it would not really be interesting but I did point out that I could not recall any Hollywood star of her status that had ever agreed to be bald in a film (well before Demi Moore did in GI Jane) and she agreed to let me film. I had to be at the studio at 6.30am to set up the lights and camera equipment before her arrival at 7.30am. The phone in the dressing room rang about 7.15am and Colin Jamison, the hairdresser in charge of the clippers answered; it was Sigourney, calling to see if I had turned up. Colin said that Sigourney just wanted to see if she should bother putting on any lipstick if I was there to film.
The replacement of Jordan Cronenweth with Alex Thompson was obviously a blow for David who had lost a creative ally and would have to accept the way Alex felt the film should be photographed. David obviously had strong views on how the sets should be perhaps murky and shadowed but Alex had no time to do tests for them to both agree a style. On one set, the canteen scene where one of the prisoners is grabbed by the Alien from the overhead air-conditioning duct, David walked on after Alex had finished preparing lights and just walked up to lighting units and began to flick off banks of bulbs as he walked past them. I think the British crew could not believe what he was doing, no word to Alex about his behaviour and even I thought it was a bit of an inappropriate way to tell him that it was just all too bright in his view. Alex did not react, left the lights as Fincher had altered them, his face resigned to another 16 weeks of grind to get through (Sigourney was not on set at that point and did not witness this event). I think this isolated Fincher from most of the crew and some fairly vicious graffiti began to appear on the executive toilet walls opposite Fincher's office. I would periodically get some methylated spirits and clean off the comments while David was on set, as I couldn't see the point in antagonising him like this.
20th Century Fox had assigned a studio producer to watch over the production, standard operating practice when so much money is at stake. He would be responsible for ensuring the film was on schedule and on budget within reason and report back daily to Los Angles about progress. I would also make an evening call to Tom Grane in marketing to let him know what material I had filmed that day. During one of these calls I could hear the Fox caretaker producer, Jon Landau, giving his report that was certainly more animated than mine, yelling down the line, “The guy is just totally obsessed with the fricking image!” Well, it's true, I did witness David adjusting polystyrene cups on a table in front of the camera until they aesthetically pleased his eye. I'm sure the studio considered getting rid of him but Sigourney remained loyal throughout, probably figuring that the whole thing was a train without brakes at that point so she may as well lend her support. They would both work together on dialogue changes, often on the day of shooting, and I think she trusted him to make the best of what he had been presented with?
I did walk in on one set and they were up to 'take' 48 and I could sense this was not the time to be waving around the documentary camera so slipped back out, unnoticed. I understand the thinking behind wearing an actor down by incessant takes to see if some magic turns up in the rushes but I think the reality is very little changes from take 5 to take 50 and in fact it would be interesting if Sigourney and David would agree to put all of the takes in order on a DVD extra and let the audience decide which one made it in the film. However Sigourney made no objections and dutifully went through the scene more than 50 times...
A second unit was started and charged with filming a sequence where the Alien bursts out of the ribcage of the carcass of a cow hanging in an abattoir set, and runs off out of the room. This filming seemed to go on for weeks and whenever things were going slow on the main unit I would walk over to second unit to see if there was anything to film – it was like watching a coffin lid warp.
The guys who were responsible for the Alien, Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis had devised a rubber alien costume for a small whippet dog and that provided some amusing shots as the dog clearly was confused about wearing the suit. I think it ended up computer generated. The entire sequence that they produced was completely junked and David shot everything again himself, in Los Angeles using a dog carcass, which made more sense about the restyled Alien that had a more lithe Jaguar like frame. After principal photography was complete huge sections of the set were flown back to LA for additional filming and coincidentally I was in town so went on set to meet David who was much more relaxed by now.
I managed to interview all the key players on the film, including the editor Terry Rawlings who had edited the original Alien, but the one person who refused to give me an interview was David Fincher. I understand even when the box set of the trilogy came out he still would not talk about the film and to my knowledge has not done so ever. Happily for all of us avid moviegoers David has gone on to be one of the most highly respected and consistently engaging filmmakers Hollywood has ever produced. A crew member in the sound department reminded me that what added to the misery of the shoot was it filmed over a bitterly cold winter with snow blanketing the studio lot. The crew would arrive in the dark and leave in the dark and do long days on dark faux concrete prison sets with rusty brown walls. I think it was just miserable for all, not just Fincher.
The guy who had commissioned me to provide this material, Tom Grane, was incredibly trusting and gave me a free reign to record whatever I considered interesting. This included my suggestion that we go to Zurich and interview H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who had designed the original alien and face-hugger, and provided new sketches for Alien3.
In Giger's studio on the outskirts of Zurich
Hans Rudi Giger was unfortunately by now a little fed up with talking about Alien and it took some persuading to get him to agree to do an interview. Tom came over from LA and my camera assistant Eric and sound-man flew out to Zurich. His studio was on the outskirts of the city and as we approached we could see all the glass in the windows had been blacked out with paint.
Inside was no different, the walls were black, the ceiling black the desk black, Giger was dressed head to toe in black with only a flock of grey hair offering any tonal relief, even his cat 'Mookie' was of course black. He kindly signed some posters of his artwork and credited me in a book of his work. It was certainly an interesting experience. The film was considered a flop in North America with a total of $55.4 million, although it grossed $104.3 million internationally for a total of $159.7 million. It is the second highest earning Alien film, excluding the effect of inflation.
Production budget $50 million
International box office $159,773,545