By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The backstory and influence of one of horror and science fiction’s all-time classics are explored in depth in MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN, which has its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this month. The poster has been revealed tonight, and you can see it after the jump.
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, who created the acclaimed PSYCHO doc 78/52, MEMORY will be Sundance’s opening-night Midnight-section screening on January 24 at 9:45 p.m. at Park City, Utah’s Egyptian Theatre. The synopsis: “MEMORY was a script that Dan O’Bannon started in 1971, abruptly hitting a wall at page 29. But after the idea gestated for several years, it ultimately took the form of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece ALIEN. If MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN were only a comprehensive account of ALIEN’s origins—ancient myths, comic books, H.P. Lovecraft, sci-fi movies and parasitic wasps—it would still be fascinating. But how did ALIEN lodge itself so indelibly into our cultural imagination? Philippe’s real interest lies in the deep resonance of myths and our collective unconscious. The strange symbiotic collaboration between ALIEN creators O’Bannon, Scott and H.R. Giger suggests a greater synchronicity across history, art, and storytelling, a synchronicity that gives us the Furies, creatures of Renaissance painting and even chest-bursting aliens.”
Look for more on MEMORY at this site later this month!