One of cinema’s most iconic horror creatures will invade one of the Czech Republic’s most beautiful castles next week as the exhibition H. R. Giger – Metamorphoses comes to the Castle Riding School at the breathtaking castle in Hluboká nad Vltavou.
Covering a total of 900 square meters and billed as the largest exhibition of H.R. Giger‘s works in Central Europe to date, Metamorphoses will be on display in Hluboká nad Vltavou across the next six months, from June 11 through November 19.
Among the Giger artifacts that will be on display in Hluboká nad Vltavou, one holds a very interesting cinematic legacy. The artist famously designed the original Xenomorphs for director Ridley Scott‘s Alien in 1979, but was wasn’t involved in the creature designs that appeared on screen in future installments.
But Giger did do pre-production work on Alien 3, and designed a sleek new Xenomorph in collaboration with director David Fincher. Giger designed this particular Xenomorph to be more “erotic”, and gave it full lips and a more svelte figure.
“The lips and chin on my new model are better proportioned and give the creature a more erotic appearance,” Giger says in a behind-the-scenes featurette for Alien 3. “When the mouth is closed it looks very voluptuous, beautiful.”
Those lips were directly inspired by a famed Hollywood actress.
“We did give it Michelle Pfeiffer’s lips,” Fincher noted. “That’s what they’re based on. It always had these little thin lips, and I said to Giger, ‘let’s make it a woman when it comes right up to Ripley.’ So it has these big, luscious collagen lips.”
Ultimately, Giger’s new Xenomorph design may have been too sexy, and was not used in the final film. Instead, Alien 3 utilized a creature design from Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. based on Giger’s original Xenomorph. Giger received no credit for his work on the film, and 20th Century Fox reportedly severed all contact with the artist.
Giger’s original Alien III Xenomorph model will be part of the artist’s work on display at Hluboká nad Vltavou over the next six months. It will also be “sold” as an NFT in 500 digital parts by NFT fine art studio Particle on June 16.
The Giger exhibition in Hluboká nad Vltavou will also explore the artist’s Czech connections, and feature his original illustrations that were directly inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
More information about the H.R. Giger exhibit in Hluboká nad Vltavou can be found from the Alšova jihočeská galerie, which is curating the exhibition in collaboration with the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland.
