By J.W. Rinzler

Titan, out now

Forty years on, a wide-ranging overview on the making of the classic SF horror movie.

J.W. Rinzler has form for creating books that become the go-to standard for an account of the creation of movies. From his work on the Lucasfilm output to his more recent book on Planet of the Apes, he does his due diligence, getting hold of as many of the key personnel as possible, raiding the archives, and then putting it all together like a jigsaw puzzle so that the reader is given considerable insight into the movie-making process.

Alien is one of those films whose gestation wasn’t easy (to be fair, are there many that are?) and Rinzler recounts the various problems that the creators faced along the way. The inputs of O’Bannon, Giger and Scott all changed the film tremendously, and there’s plenty of visual evidence provided to show that – but Rinzler has gained access to people like Peter Beale, the Fox executive at Shepperton during filming, who was crucial to the movie.

With plenty of photos that will be new even to the most hardened Alien fan, this is likely to become the definitive account – and, while it’s expensive, it’s worth every penny.

Verdict: Although it’s unlikely to be the last word on the last journey of the Nostromo, it’s certainly one of the best out there. Highly recommended to fans of Alien, and SF films in general. 10/10

Paul Simpson

Photos TM & © 20th Century Fox Film Corp.