ALIEN 3 celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, and to celebrate we present this gem from deep within the VHS vault–footage from the prep and rehearsals of the Bishop puppet shoot complete with direction from David Fincher. Despite the aged quality of the video, it’s still an interesting watch demonstrating the collaboration between director and effects crew on set.
As the 25th Anniversary of ALIEN 3 approaches, we could not ignore our contribution to the film’s title character: the Alien itself. Through the miracle of VHS and exclusive photographs, ADI takes you back to that year of hard work at Pinewood Studios. Enjoy the retrospective!
Slightly more than 22 years ago, David Fincher, a talented filmmaker who made music videos and commercials and was left by his directorial stint on his first feature Alien 3 so disillusioned and bitter he felt “he’d rather die of colon cancer than do another movie,” stumbled upon a script that would renew his faith in the filmmaking business. This particular piece was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, and was deemed too dark and bleak to succeed. The story was largely shaped by Walker’s experience of living in New York City for a couple of years, where he felt alienated, lonely and unhappy. Desperately trying to get his story made, Walker agreed to rewrite the screenplay on the demand of director Jeremiah Chechik (Christmas Vacation), and it was this altered version that should have ended up in Fincher’s hands. But the studio made a mistake, delivering Walker’s original piece to Fincher, who was immediately intrigued and, even when the mistake was explained, chose to insist on the utter darkness Walker envisioned. By mere happenstance, therefore, Se7en found its director and made the first, crucial step on its way to cinematic immortality. […]
For Gone Girl’s memorable sex scene — its climax ending in a pool of blood — Neil Patrick Harris and Rosamund Pike spent a whole afternoon working through the scene with the “exacting” director David Fincher and, at one point, with Ben Affleck looking on. “[Fincher] was asking us to have unbridled sex — and my character is really into her so is very overwhelmed with — with great precision,” Harris said. He broke down the scene in a conversation at Vulture Festival, moment to moment: “We were just rehearsing porn for hours.”
Neil Patrick Harris Bares All About His Sex Scenes
CONAN Highlight: “Gone Girl” isn’t the first time that Neil’s had to act in the buff, but this time he didn’t have to do “the helicopter” to get ready.
Gone Girl: The Hardest Scene Neil Patrick Harris Ever Had To Film
We caught up with British actress Rosamund Pike ahead of the release of one of the most the eagerly awaited films of the year, Gone Girl. Interview by Andrea Lily. Edited by Sophie Foster.
My next one is the boxcutter kill in Gone Girl. It was just an honour to work with David Fincher. I was a huge fan of David Fincher anyway, and although there’s only really one kill in the movie, because the movie is so slow burn, no one expects that kill to happen. David is incredibly precise about everything. I think we did 20 or 30 tests of flow, colour, amount and everything else. That whole sequence had to be planned to military precision because we had so much blood going everywhere that we had to clean up the actors and the bed in between takes. The actors were very patient and very cool. I will never forget Rosamund Pike on set going ‘Gary, my butt cheeks are sticking together from the blood’, or having to stick my hand up Neil Patrick Harris’ underpants to wire up the bloodline through his neck. Every time I shoved my hand up through his underwear, he said, ‘I think you and my husband are the only people who have had their hands in my underwear this much’. It was a great couple of days shooting that sequence and very bloody! And then to see the scene in the film and it be so iconic, it was fantastic. It was a badge of merit and to have David Fincher come to you at the end and shake your hand and say, ‘great job’. To me, that’s as good as any Oscar.
The Fincher Analyst 