Alien Movie Universe

Alien Universe - 2104

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Ati

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 12:05 PM

Ron Cobb’s creative contributions extended beyond the look of the film: he also inspired O’Bannon to give the Alien acidic blood, coined ‘Weylan-Yutani’, and crafted with costume designer John Mollo all manner of fictional corporate insignias and emblems intended to give the film additional depth, even though the majority of their work would not be seen or even referenced on screen.

“One of the things I enjoyed most about Alien was its subtle satirical content,” explained Cobb. “Science Fiction films offer golden opportunities to throw in little scraps of information that suggest enormous changes in the world. There’s a certain potency in those kinds of remarks. Weylan-Yutani for instance is almost a joke, but not quite. I wanted to imply that poor old England is back on its feet and has united with the Japanese, who have taken over the building of spaceships the same way they have now with cars and supertankers. In coming up with a strange company name I thought of British Leyland and Toyota, but we obviously couldn’t use Leyland-Toyota in the film. Changing one letter gave me Weylan, and Yutani was a Japanese neighbor of mine.” The Company would be called Weyland-Yutani in the following movies, with the ‘d’ added sometime during Aliens’ production by Cobb for an unspecified reason – perhaps it was an error, or he was no longer shy about the ‘Weyland/Leyland’ allusion.

For the Company’s logo Ron figured that “It would be fun to develop a logo using the W and Y interlocking. We tried a lot of variations and came up with some very industrial looking symbols, which were to be stenciled all over the ship. By that time though Ridley was already set on using the Egyptian wing motif. We tried some combinations, but they didn’t really work. Weylan-Yutani now only appears on the beer can, underwear and some stationary, so the joke sort of got lost.” Though it’s not obvious at a glance, Cobb’s Egyptian motif logo appears on virtually every piece of equipment on the Nostromo, including dinner bowls and coffee cups. The crew wear blue Weylan-Yutani wing emblems on their chests, except for Kane, who wears a silver patch, and Dallas, whose gold patch is possibly coloured to denote his captaincy.

Cobb and Mollo also conceived a pseudo-historical backdrop over which Alien takes place, creating space corporations like Farside Lunar Mining and Red Star Lines that went virtually unseen and absolutely unmentioned in the film, but which, for its creators, helped flesh out the unseen universe permeating the movie frame. Cobb also designed a flag for the United Americas - the union of South, Central and North America which took place in 2104, at least in the Alien universe - which is essentially the stars and stripes with one unitary star rather than fifty.

https://alienseries.wordpress.com/

 

As you know, Alien Covenant takes place in 2104.

13 Replies

Blackwinter-witch

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 2:12 PM

In the Dedication of ALIEN: Manticore I give R. Cobb an unabashed nod, as well as with the description of Manticore's bridge layout. The man does wonderful work and I have a small collection of pics having to do with his work for ALIEN :)

IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING

 

 

 

Ati

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 2:23 PM

Indeed... :)

I.Raptus

ModeratorPraetorianJun-04-2017 3:37 PM

Great article Ati!!

Have you guys read this article looking at typeset, symbols and product placement in Alien.

https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/

Ati

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 3:42 PM

IRaptus, thank you, I try to find relevant pieces of info.

Thank you for the link as well.

Blackwinter-witch

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 3:51 PM

An interesting and very entertaining read!! Also some beautiful pics I've grabbed for future refernce, so TY!! :D

IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING

 

 

 

I.Raptus

ModeratorPraetorianJun-04-2017 3:59 PM

I randomly stumbled across that article when doing some research for the Nostromo's self destruct sequence late one night. The author put some serious work into it!!

Interesting there in an entire website dedicated to analysing typefonts, pretty cool

MonsterZero

MemberXenomorphJun-04-2017 4:09 PM

Nice write up!

 

 

"Self destruct"  Wonder if this is standard on all WY vessels?

Why would you have something like that? 'Rule of Cool'?

Does the Covenant have Self Destruct?!

Blackwinter-witch

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 5:10 PM

the only plausible reason is as a Fail-Safe in the event there's a catastrophic failure in helm and nav systems and you have the ship as well as any attached cargo on a collision course with an inhabited planet, or a star which such a world orbits.

Even at sublight speeds, space vessels move at extremely high velocities, and when you factor in the mass of ship and cargo, the potential catastrophe such could inflict via collision is frightening.

NOW, factor in it's ability to travel faster than light.
If such a FtL collision occured with a planet, it's completely destroy it, and thus destablize an entire star system.
Collision with a star guarantees at minimum an absolutely monstrous coronal mass ejection, and quite likely a Nova, which again wrecks a star system pretty seriously.

IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING

 

 

 

BigDave

MemberDeaconJun-04-2017 7:40 PM

I remember coming across this a number of years ago.. thanks for sharing it again ;)

How does it fit with 2104?

This is the time the Covenant arrive at Paradise, maybe Weyland-Yutani Company are not the only Players.. and Alliances are made on Earth and the United Americas is another Rival Company/Nations.

Maybe Weyland-Yutani decide to expand their Colonization of the Galaxy at this point... so they have their own NEW Worlds where they have Full-control?

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

Blackwinter-witch

MemberPraetorianJun-04-2017 7:46 PM

If you take into account that the cost of replacing the Nostromo was quoted as $42 million (adjusted) that puts commercial starships in the same price ranges as any oceangoing vessel in the real world today, so there's likely MANY companies of assorted sizes as well as privately-owned trampers roaming the starlanes.

IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING

 

 

 

Roger55

MemberChestbursterJun-04-2017 8:31 PM

I watched days ago an interview to Scott himself of the many spots on youtube I can not remember which one, he is talking about Covenant 2, but I lost the link, The Covenant ship will fit into the Alien starship crashed in the original movie.

BigDave

MemberDeaconJun-04-2017 8:49 PM

"The Covenant ship will fit into the Alien starship crashed in the original movie."

Now i know the Egg Cargo Hold was pretty big compared to the Derelict but i find it a bit of a Stretch (no pun intended) to fit the Covenant inside the Derelict too LOL

Joke ;)

Yeah it seems that the events of AA will directly link to Alien and so at some point we shall see the Eggs get onto a Engineer Ship and find out who the Pilot is and how the Xenomorph becomes Bio-Mechanical.

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

sherris

MemberChestbursterJun-05-2017 1:35 AM

Bigdave:

Yeah it seems that the events of AA will directly link to Alien and so at some point we shall see the Eggs get onto a Engineer Ship and find out who the Pilot is and how the Xenomorph becomes Bio-Mechanical

 

Which is fine, however 3 films to tell this is crazy?

The whole mythology could of been explored too and that  is what hurts. a:c covered the Xeno changing, now we may get to see a bit more of that but i just need a little something more so i can have hope or reality on further P myth development?

 

Take This.... This is the blood of our lord

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