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In anticipation of the new movie, Prometheus, ADDtv breaks down the Alien movies, Ridley Scott, and much more!! http://www.youtube.com/addtvchannel http://www.facebook.com/addtv http://www.twitter.com/addtvchannel Alien (1979) Main article: Alien (film) The spaceship Nostromo visits a desolate planetoid after receiving an unknown signal from a derelict alien spacecraft. While exploring the ship, one of the Nostromo's crewmen discovers an egg-like object, which releases a creature that attaches itself to his face and renders him unconscious. Some time later, the parasite dies and the crewman wakes up, seemingly fine. However, an alien creature later bursts out of his chest and, after rapidly growing into an eight-foot creature, starts killing other members of the crew. After completion of the film Dark Star (1974), executive Dan O'Bannon thought to develop some of the ideas (especially the theme of "alien hunts crew through a spaceship") and create a science-fiction horror film. It was provisionally called Memory. Screenwriter Ronald Shusett collaborated with O'Bannon on the project, adding elements from a previous O'Bannon script, Gremlins, which featured gremlins causing mayhem aboard a World War II bomber and wreaking havoc with the crew. The duo finished the script, initially entitled Star Beast, and O'Bannon noticed the number of times the word "alien" occurred in the script, and so he adopted Alien for the film's title.[1][2] The writers imagined a low-budget film, but Star Wars' success inclined Fox to invest millions on the production.[3] In the original script the ship has an all-male crew (though the script's 'Cast of Characters' section explicitly states that "The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women"), including the Ripley character, who would be played by actor Tom Skerritt. Later, when producer Alan Ladd, Jr., and script-doctors Walter Hill and David Giler heard rumors of Fox working on other titles with strong female leads,[1] Sigourney Weaver was cast as Ripley[4] and Skerritt became Captain Dallas. Swiss painter and sculptor H. R. Giger designed the alien creature's adult form and the derelict ship,[5] while Moebius created visuals for the spacesuits[1] and Ron Cobb provided most of the on-set design.[6] Aliens (1986) Main article: Aliens (film) Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the Nostromo, awakens from hypersleep 57 years later, aboard a new space station. She discovers that the planetoid from the first movie (now known as LV-426) is now home to a terraforming colony. When contact with the colony is lost, Ripley accompanies a squad of marines there aboard the Sulaco.