Alien: Joe Petagno's facehugger concept art

leading from

Alien: The Facehugger

Joe Petagno, artist well known for his Motorhead album covers remembers being involved in the concept design process for the Facehugger when perhaps HR Giger was away in Switzerland because he was sure that it was before Giger was involved in the production but the facehugger design looks near enough like the creature that we see in the movie and this would have been since Giger was hired, so perhaps Petagno helped refine the design that Dan had put together from various people's input

Dan was in London looking for someone to do special animation for for the film Alien. . 

Artwork revealed itself to be utilise the design that would be near enough be used in the final film but his version of the Facehugger on Kane's face had a long penis like rod going down his throat to impregnate Kane with its offspring as would be seen in the x ray scan display.  

Ridley's original storyboard of the scane of the Face Hugger and Kane's in orange,  yellow, grey and green while Petagno's illustrations uses similar a similar group of colours

Ridley Scott's storyboard

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno (source: https://folioart.co.uk/)

It was said that it was just the way writer Dan O'Bannon wanted it but Ridley Scott decided against it due to it being too explicit. 

Dan was known to be not happy about the situation. He had seen some books with Petagno's works on the cover and so looked for him through his agent. When they met, Petagno was quite surprised to find that O'Bannon was familiar with his posters from the 1960s. They actually got along and soon got down to work.

They spent three months working in the scene where the parasite sticks itself onto the astronaut's face. Dan was very clear about what the scene should look like, and it would appear as a huge penis going down the character Kane's throat filling it with what looked like semen, all with an x-ray aspect. Unfortunately Ridley Scott rejected the scene and changed it to something gentler



(The artwork has been on the internet for a while but thankyou to Daniel Cooper for posting the final pieces at ORIGAE-6 facebook group. Obviously I've been looking for it for quite a while)

1. Ace: I have seen the preliminaries for the new album's cover. It strikes me as very Gigeresque. Was he a major inspiration for this piece? What were the inspirations?
   Joe: Sorry, but I was working on the Alien the movie at Shepperton studios with Dan O Bannon before Hans Rudi was invited along and Motorhead was, as mentioned earlier, concieved 3 years before Alien was even thought about! Geiger's a very accomplished artist, but lets not get carried away!! (source:www.imotorhead.com/)
2. Richard J. Taylor: An artist named Petagno drew up the original design of the face hugger on Kanes face with a long penis like rod going down his throat impregnating Kane with its offspring.  The design was just the way writer Dan 'O Bannon wanted it but Ridley Scott cut it out due to it being too explicit.  Dan was generally pissed and the design was replaced by some shitty stock footage of blood pumping through veins.  Its interesting what you can learn from Sounds Of Death magazine (source http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/lot/9587/revA.htm) 
3. Joe Petagno: Me encontré con Dan ( O’Bannon ) que estaba en Londres buscando a alguien que hiciese un trabajo de animación especial para su película ‘ALIEN’. Había visto algunos libros con mis trabajos en la portada y me buscó a través de mi agente. Me sorprendió que estuviese familiarizado con muchos de mis poster de los sesenta, y enseguida congeniamos y nos pusimos a manos a la obra. Estuvimos tres meses trabajando en la escena donde el parásito se pega en la cara del astronauta. Dan fue muy claro sobre cómo debía ser la escena, como un enorme pene que bajase por la garganta del tipo llenándola de semen, todo con aspecto de radiografía. Desafortunadamente, Ridley Scott desestimó la escena y la cambió por algo más suave…”
   (Google translation: Joe Petagno: "I met Dan (O'Bannon) who was in London looking for someone to do a special animation work for his film 'ALIEN'. I had seen some books with my works on the cover and he looked for me through my agent. I was surprised that he was familiar with many of my poster of the sixties, and then we got along and got down to work. We spent three months working on the scene where the parasite sticks in the astronaut's face. Dan was very clear about what the scene should look like, like a huge penis going down the guy's throat filling it with semen, all with an X-ray aspect. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott dismissed the scene and changed it to something softer ... ) (source: https://metal80.wordpress.com/tag/joe-petagno/ (article published in 2011)  N..B. This seems to read as if it ought to be the original snippet of an interview from Sounds of Death magazine, but translated into Spanish)

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno (source: https://folioart.co.uk/)

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno (source: https://folioart.co.uk/)

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno (source: https://folioart.co.uk/)

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno

Facehugger art by Joe Petagno