Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: Memory: The Origins of Alien

Tagline: Before Alien, there was Starbeast. Before Starbeast, there was… Memory.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Alexandre O. Philippe

Cast: Ronald Shusett, Roger Christian, Ivor Powell, Terry Rawlings, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Roger Corman, Gary Sherman, Carmen Scheifele-Giger, Clarke Wolfe, Diane O'Bannon, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Ben Mankiewicz, William Linn, Henry Jenkins, Axelle Carolyn, Tim Boxell, Bijan Aalam, Linda Rich, Rhoda Pell, Mickey Faerch, Shannon Muchow

Release: 2019-01-24

Runtime: 95

Plot: The untold origin story behind Ridley Scott's Alien - rooted in Greek and Egyptian mythologies, underground comics, the art of Francis Bacon, and the dark visions of Dan O'Bannon and H.R. Giger. A contemplation on the symbiotic collaborative process of movie-making, the power of myth, and our collective unconscious.

 

[benbess]

Looks good.++

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Looks good.++

It does look interesting.

 

[Brent Reid]

The Origins of Alien? I've already seen this – when it was called It! The Terror from Beyond Space.

 

[WillG]

Only thing about this is that the DVD/BD sets were almost exhaustively comprehensive on the making of “Alien” that I wonder if this will incorporate anything new.

 

[David Deeb]

Only thing about this is that the DVD/BD sets were almost exhaustively comprehensive on the making of “Alien” that I wonder if this will incorporate anything new.

agreed. Alien may be my favorite film ever, if not at least in the top 3. But after decades of mostly disappointing sequels, I feel it's time to walk away from any more Alien stories or docs. I will enjoy the original occasionally and let it exist without any other distractions. One grand movie pumped for one last drop of tepid excitement.

 

[Johnny Angell]

The release date in the OP says 2019-01-24 which is assume is a typo. A google says October 4th. I wonder if this will make to Podunk (Little Rock) AR? I will see it if it does. Failing that, I hope it makes it to Netflix or Prime.

 

[Alex...]

 

[TonyD]

Welp that was a disappointing post as it has nothing to do with the movie Memories.

Whatever happened to that. Did it get released?

 

[Thomas Newton]

Welp that was a disappointing post as it has nothing to do with the movie Memories.

Whatever happened to that. Did it get released?

There are DVD and Blu-Ray versions on sale from Amazon Marketplace vendors, so I would say "Yes."

As for the "untold origin story," I wonder if it mentions that Nature thought of "chest-bursters" first.

Wired – Absurd Creature of the Week: The Wasp That Lays Eggs Inside Caterpillars and Turns Them Into Slaves

YouTube – Parasitoid wasps: Like the Alien movies, but real!

Scientific American – How a Wasp Turns Cockroaches into Zombies

 

[Mark McSherry]

A. E. van Vogt is credited with introducing the "chest-burster" alien in this December 1939 SF story---

From the website HorrorNews.Net:

"... things got ugly when science fiction writer A. E. Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox, claiming Alien was lifted from his 1950 science fiction novel Voyage of the Space Beagle. Fox shrugged it off as another in the parade of nuisance lawsuits that often plague successful films—until someone actually read Van Vogt’s book.

"In the novel’s first section, entitled Black Destroyer, the Starship Beagle lands on a desolate planet where a vicious life form slips aboard and starts killing the crew. Eventually they trick the creature into a stellar lifeboat and eject it into space. Sounds kind of similar to Alien, but, like It! The Terror From Beyond Space, it could be a coincidence. But in the third section, Discord in Scarlet, the crew finds another creature adrift in a derelict alien spacecraft. They take it aboard and things go to hell fast. The creature, known as the Ixtl, is not only hostile but reproduces by laying its eggs inside a living human’s stomach, and eventually the hatchlings chew their way out. The Beagle crew survives by tricking the creature into an airlock and shooting it back into space. Does any of that sound familiar? 20th Century Fox thought so and quickly settled out of court for $50,000, which was real money back in 1979."