Greg Nicotero

leading from

Alien Echoes

(still collating)

a) Officeware
Greg had various items a facehugger at his office.

He bought the original seven foot model of the Nostromo as well with the intention of restoring it, at least keeping it in a safe place until it could be restored later by Propstore.

b) Lesson from Alien
He was aware of how in the filming of the chestburster scene, the set was cleared, they brought John Hurt in and they put him in the rig, they got the set ready and then they brought the actors back in and shot it,

What that meant to him was that all of the actors' reactions were real because they were not expecting it and would use this method in his work for Walking Dead

c) Homage to Alien
There was a shot that he stole from Alien, when a walker lifts up its head. 

Greg wanted it to be like the first time the alien lifts its head up, the the viewer sees the tongue come out and is mesmerized.

Then the second walker bolts out of the pile, and so this for Greg was a homage to Ridley Scott

d) Wanting to make the Alien
He would like to work on an Alien movie, but as far as he knew that the sensibilities of Prometheus were "we've done that already, let's do something different".

It meant that he couldn't retread the same territory again, but he loved the iconic characters.

e) The alien head market
With his studio KNB FX, Greg would get involved in the alien head reproduction business.

Styles on Video Japan wanted to cast their original Fox mold pull of an original Alien head, it had all the original markers being an original production made casting, but it was missing the upper pallet and the dome.

Lucas Francis Studios was contracted to cast their the head. Kristina Francis sculpted the upper pallet and Paul Francis sculpted the dome based on the screen used heads in the collection of Bob Burns.

Nicotero's studio was responsible for creating a neck sculpture which matched a casting of the original alien head in Bob Burns collection, and these forty heads would fetch thousands of dollars on the collectors market

Greg himself would receive one of the first finished pieces for his own collection
 
Styles on Video Japan wanted these licensed Alien heads to be produced in America by FX artists.  Lucas Francis Studios molded the heads and Tom Killeen was brought in to help clean and paint the first twelve castings.

An alien head painted by Tom Killeen (http://www.blumhouse.com/)

Due to the amount of labor needed to finish one of these heads, it was determined that it would be better to produce them overseads with the factory of someone named Fred Tang, in China. Lucas Francis Studios continued to produce the licensed heads until the China production was delivered.

Styles on Video Japan soon contracted Sideshow Collectibles to sell the limited edition heads, numbering forty in America.


Source Quotes

1. Greg: Traditionally most of the violence has been walkers and humans. We had Terminus. We pushed the envelope with the trough thing. These guys look like they’re really handsome good looking guys who have charisma, but they’re doing this horrible thing so you’ve got to at least get a hint of it, you can’t just imply it. We came up with this idea of the trough, and seeing them bleeding it out. There’s the juxtaposition of every day at work like [whistling] and yeah. I was shocked we got away with it.
   Andrew: I remember shooting it, and actually physically being bound and I looked down the line and I couldn’t see the rig. It looked unbelievably real.
   
   Greg: It was interesting because I took a little cue from Ridley Scott when we shot that scene, because Ridley Scott always talks about the scene in Alien when the chestburster comes out. He said they cleared out the set. They brought John Hurt in and they put him in the rig and they got it all ready, and then they brought the actors back in and shot it. All those reactions of the actors were all real because they were not expecting [it].
   So when these guys [gestures to Andrew] were all tied up, I wanted them to look in the trough and see the blood coming and hear it and react. We had cameras on them, as well as the camera on the guys, because I wanted that initial reaction to be captured, of like, maybe Greg lost his mind and they’re actually killing extras? (http://news.tvguide.co.uk/interview-the-walking-deads-andrew-lincoln-and-greg-nicotero-talk-season-six/)
2. MJ: Do you collect anything work-related?
   GN: If you were able to see what I'm looking at right now! My office is filled with a Predator head and an Alien face-hugger, and a 2001: [A Space Odyssey] helmet, and all these things. At my house I have a full-size time machine that I've built over a couple of years, a replica of an alien from the first movie—all this weird, crazy stuff. I love looking at people's faces when they walk into my office. They're literally astounded. (http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/02/interview-greg-nicotero-season-4-walking-dead-zombies)
   
3. You’ve done zombies, vampires, even werewolves. I don’t think you’ve done a mummy yet. Are there any other monsters you’re itching to get your hands on?

   I would love to do an alien movie, especially I’m a huge Ridley Scott fan. I better be because I’m executive producing a TV show with him right now, but I want to make a face hugger. I want to make an alien. I’m an old school guy so as far as I’m concerned, I love that stuff. It’s really fun for me and I would love to do a cool face hugger or a cool alien and a cool chest burster. I love that. I’m all about Rob Bottin and Savini and Rick Baker and all that late ‘70s/early ‘80s stuff. I have this tendency to love to rebuild full size props and stuff for movies because I’m a giant nerd. One day I want to rebuild everything that Rob Bottin made for The Thing. 

   So not just an alien, you want to do the Alien.

   I kind of do, but I know that the sensibilities of Prometheus were “we’ve done that already, let’s do something different.” You had to respect not wanting to retread that territory again, but those iconic characters were so great. How could you not want to make one? 

   (http://www.craveonline.com/site/682189-exclusive-interview-greg-nicotero-on-from-dusk-till-dawn-the-series-the-walking-dead#43907LcOe8fyg8mw.99)
4. So when survivors Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) ventured into Alexandria's subterranean sewer system on this week's episode, Nicotero crafted yet another fresh zombie look: rotten corpses emerging from underneath layers of mud and sewage inspired by Return of the Living Dead's Tarman. In order to maximize the scares with the introduction of these new flesh-eaters, Nicotero reveals he borrowed an iconic moment from a classic 1979 science fiction film. "I stole a shot out of Alien," Nicotero tells TV Insider. "When that walker lifts its head up, I wanted it to be like the first time the alien lifts its head and you see the tongue come out. You're mesmerized by it, so while you're staring at it, all of a sudden the second walker bolts out of the pile. The way we shot that was definitely a [director] Ridley Scott homage." (http://www.tvinsider.com/article/52218/the-walking-dead-executive-producer-greg-nicotero-on-this-weeks-alien-homage/)
5. Lucas Francis Studios was contracted by Styles on Video Japan owned by Mitsuaki Munegumi to cast their original Fox mold pull of an original Alien head. The head that was molded had all of the original markers being an original production made casting. This casting was missing the upper pallet and the dome. Kristina Francis sculpted the upper pallet and Paul Francis sculpted the dome based on the screen used heads in the collection of Bob Burns. Greg Nicotero of KNB FX had his studio create a one of a kind neck sculpture that was also matched to the originals in Bob’s collection. Greg received one of the first finished pieces that’s still in his collection.
   SoVJ wanted these licensed Alien heads to be produced in America by FX artists. LFS molded the heads and Tom Killeen was brought in to help clean and paint the first 12 castings. Due to the amount of labor needed to finish one of these heads, it was determined that it would be better to produce them overseas with Fred Tang’s factory in China. LFS continued to produce the licensed heads until the China production was delivered.
   SoVJ contracted Sideshow Collectibles to sell the limited edition Alien heads in America. This is a long sold out product that was very popular with collectors and original forty Alien heads built in america still demand thousands of dollars. One trade show display Alien head was produced using shoulders from an Alien Resurrection style Alien, this Alien bust is still in the collection of LFS. (http://www.lucasfrancisstudio.com/lfs/alien)
6. See: The awesome story of how the Nostromo prop from Alien was rescued