ALIEN VAULT

A free edition of this book was provided to review by Quarto Knows

Forty years ago Director Ridley Scott merged the genres of sci-fi and horror in the movie ALIEN. This story of a spacecraft crew being stalked by a terrifying parasitic creature that has invaded their ship still scares audiences decades after the film's release. Especially that iconic scene where the alien bursts through the chest of a crewmember after gestating within the man's body who was infested while exploring a derelict alien ship they stumbled across during their space mission. Oh that is gory!

I'm always interested in going beyond the content of my favorite movies learning more about the details of the characters and places within them. Biographies, concept art, prop schematics, and production storyboards are all things I eat up and love to scour through. They are a great way to further immerse yourself into the fictional universes of movies and expand your imagination beyond the scripts of your favorite flicks.

If you are like me and enjoy learning extra details about the creation of movies and discovering insights into the characters and settings in them, check out ALIEN VAULT from Epic Ink. This book takes readers behind the scenes in the production of ALIEN (1979). It includes interviews of the cast and crew sharing details about creating the movie, photographs taken on set, and production sketches used to shape the look of the sets and scenes within ALIEN. Sci-Fi fans will truly be geeked about all the content contained within ALIEN VAULT.

Originally published in 2011, an expanded version of ALIEN VAULT has just been released in recognition of ALIEN'S 40th anniversary with an additional chapter delving into the prequel films PROMETHEUS (2012) and ALIEN: COVENANT (2017). The book is chock full of concept art, production materials, and photographs that provide some incredible insight into the creation of the ALIEN franchise. I was fascinated flipping through its pages!

Highlights of the book include:

+  Imagery of Director Ridley Scott's annotated ALIEN storyboards along with Polaroids and script pages;

+  Preproduction concept artwork by H.R. Giger;

+ Costume designs by Moebius;

+ Sketches and construction blueprints for the Nostromo;

+ Never before scene photographs of the cast and crew during the production of ALIEN.

Plus there is more! There are pull outs secured within envelopes contained inside the book's cover with reproduced movie artifacts. These include a detailed schematic of the Nostromo, early designs of the facehugger concept, replicas of storyboards and a promotional poster from Japan. Pull these out to get a really close up look at these meticulously duplicated items used in producing and promoting ALIEN for its initial release way back in 1979.

This has been such an intriguing and interesting read for me, I absolutely have to give ALIEN VAULT a Geek Daddy nod of approval. Published by Epic Ink, an imprint of Quarto Knows. Epic Ink produces collectible books that celebrate entertainment and pop culture. Some other fine books by Epic Ink that this dad blogger has reviewed include Star Wars: Scum & Villainy and Star Trek: Stellar Cartography. To get your hands on any of these great sci-fi books, head over to quartoknows.com