Artists sometimes find inspiration in the most unexpected of places.
Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis of Amalgamated Dynamics, who previously worked on Aliens, are the credited artists responsible for the creature effects in David Fincher’s Alien 3, which nabbed them an Academy Award nomination in 1993. But before they came on board, original Alien designer H.R. Giger was tasked with redesigning his beast.
An article recently published on the website Monster Legacy dug deep into the creature design process of Alien 3, with the basic gist of the story being that both Giger and Woodruff/Gillis were working on the creature designs at the very same time, with the work of the latter being chosen as the final designs to appear on screen.
Giger was not happy about this, as he was ultimately given zero credit.
What’s most interesting about the piece is a little tidbit about Giger’s design for the main Xenomorph in Alien 3, which featured a mouth inspired by a Hollywood starlet!
From Monster Legacy:
[David] Fincher specifically wanted the Alien to have lips based on Michelle Pfeiffer’s — more voluptuous and feminine. The director recalled: “we did give it Michelle Pfeiffer’s lips. That’s what they’re based on. It always had these little thin lips, and I said to Giger, ‘let’s make it a woman when it comes right up to Ripley.’ So it has these big, luscious collagen lips.” Giger wanted the new creature to be “more sensuous” as opposed to repulsive. “The lips and chin on my new model are better proportioned and give the creature a more erotic appearance,” he said. “When the mouth is closed it looks very voluptuous, beautiful.”
The Woodruff/Gillis design, ultimately used in the film, featured lips that weren’t quite as “voluptuous” as the ones in Giger’s design, but a fascinating tidbit nonetheless!
