The man who created ``Alien'' is named Dan O'Bannon.

O'Bannon to Walter Hill to Ridley Scott

O'Bannon's script was bought by Walter Hill's production company, which had just made its directorial debut, and was extensively revised by Hill and screenwriter David Giler. It was Hill's idea to make the main character a woman named Ellen The Talented Mr. Ripley and to add an android to the spaceship's crew.

Star Wars, distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1977, was a huge hit. Studios scrambled to find a sci-fi project to become their second loach, and FOX happened to have ``Alien,'' which Hill had pitched to them a few years earlier, to land on. FOX suddenly decides to produce ``Alien,'' which had been neglected. Although it was not a blockbuster, it had a fairly large budget, and the now unknown O'Bannon was not even considered as a director. O'Bannon was barely given the title of "visual design consultant."

Ridley Scott finally appears here. At the time, Scott had only released ` `Duelist '' (1977) as a film director, but he was a rising star in the UK, leading a commercial production company and directing thousands of commercials. Scott himself had no interest in science fiction or horror, but after reading the French science fiction comic magazine ` `Metal Urlan, '' his eyes opened to their appeal. Furthermore, after witnessing the success of Star Wars, he was beginning to see new possibilities in the science fiction genre.

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Scott drew detailed storyboards based on the script and persuaded the studio to increase the budget even though he was still considered a rookie. Partly because I have always treated science fiction movies as B-grade, I aimed for ``Alien'' to be a high-quality A-grade thriller based on detailed visuals. It had now scaled up into something completely different from the low-budget science fiction that O'Bannon had originally intended to make.

Dan O'Bannon and "Alien" and their subsequent relationship