Prometheus: Carlos Huante meets Ridley

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Carlos Huante

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Prometheus 

Ridley Scott with Carlos Huante

a) Experiencing Alien
When Carlos was 14 years old, he saw Alien for the first time, and it was a life altering experience. It affected me more directly than even Star Wars did. 

 

The seriousness of the mood, the design of the Alien and the Space Jockey left an indescribable first impression on him. 

 

He found that the actors were perfect, along with the look and mood of the film, the ship design and style of how the film was shot and the usage of effects elements. 

 

Thus he was left feeling as if he had been struck right in the centre

Carlos Huante's War of the Worlds Shwa Babyhead also known as the Beluga Head

 

b) Invitation 
Thirty years later, when word started leaking out that Ridley Scott was preparing a new Alien movie that was a prequel. 

 

Huante was waiting for an opportunity to work with Ridley on a science fiction project and wanted to get aboard

 

After hearing from Rob Bottin about what it was like to work with Ridley on Legend, he was sure that he would get along with him. 

 

Because he had been going through his own Giger phase when was young before he developed his own style, he felt very confident about being able to walk in there, keep things honest and true to what Giger had done in the original film. 

 

He wanted to be the man who would police it and keep it looking Giger-esque

 

One day he got a call rom Arthur Max, who told him that Ridley had looked through a stack of portfolions, and picked him to be the 'creature guy' for his new prequel to Alien.

The news left him with a stupid smile for days.

 

He was working for ILM at the time, and so with the need to tell someone, he walked over to the head of the art department who was a good friend of his and so Carlos told him about the phone call.

 

They had a good chat about the fact and it leveled down to geek mode for a moment or two

 

Carlos hadn't met with Ridley or read the script yet but wanted to be able to converse on good solid ground, but instinctively Arthur Max had given Carlos a slight brief before their first meeting that was perfect. 

 

Living up in Northern California at the time, and he was flown down to Los Angeles to meet with Ridley for a couple of days.

Whale creature/ Engineer by Carlos Huante

c) Meeting Ridley
Carlos walked into the meeting prepared with the Beluga Head, which pre-existed the movie. 

 

Also he brought some colour thumbnails of the moon landscape to get an idea of the vibe of the setting for the creatures and an illustration of this giant whale character which was a direction that Ridley was thinking of at the beginning for the Engineers.

He wasn't supposed to start work with Ridley until after the first meeting with the director but he wanted to find a way to get right into conversation. 

 

The giant whale idea wouldn't get beyond the first two meetings as they were still writing the script.

As he entered the meeting with Ridley, in his story he had a script in his hand which he had read
earlier , and it was not good. 

 

To him, it looked as if the movie would have been like Jim Cameron's Aliens. 

 

It was more of a shoot'em up which featured an army group that was fighting aliens with all of them getting killed, and he realised that this wasn't going to be the actual script

Then he sat in the room with Ridley, they talked and Ridley starts telling Carlos the story, that would feature in the new script and it was much better

Somwhere in the meeting, Ridley said to Carlos " Hey, you know, this whole facehugger, xenomorph thing as they’re calling it, this is kind of dead isn’t it?"

Carlos looked at him nodding his head saying ‘Yeah man, it’s dead. They’ve ruined it actually..the only film I counted was yours, the first one’.

He thought that the second one was fun, but even then, back in the day, he was rolling his eyes thinking that they turned it into an action adventure and he was a teenager

When he first saw the poster of Ripley holding a big gun back then when Aliens came out, in 1986
he saw the movie , liked it, thought it was good and that it was really fun and well done, but it wasn’t  like the first movie.

In his conversation with Ridley, he told him  ‘Look, man, they just ruined it’

Ridley near enough responded ‘So yeah, we got to do something else. I don’t want to really make another Alien movie but I’m going to use it as my canvas to do something else’.

So, while Ridley talked, Carlos understood that this wasn't going to be another Alien but would be something else that played within that world, and it was going to lead the audience to the first Alien film

Carlos adored the explerience of meeting with Ridley in a way that was I could have hoped for. 

 

He found that Ridley  loved art and so Carlo found it always a pleasure to be frank and opinionated about his own likes and dislikes with him

 

Carlo also created music for all his artwork and Ridley went ahead to actually used that music for the pitch to the studio..

 

Word came back to him that even studio actually liked it a lot 

 

As if went he would really enjoy working on that film..and the fact that honestly any chance he could get to work with Ridley despite what would be done with his artwork, he would still be on.

1. Carlos Huante: When we met, I had a script in my hand and it was not good. It would have been like Aliens, like an Aliens movie it wasn’t Alien it would have been an Aliens film. There was an army group there fighting aliens with all of them getting killed. It was a shoot ’em up bang-bang film with aliens in it. It was really bad but I knew that wasn’t going to be the script and Ridley had just gotten hired, the art department got hired on. I was living up in Northern California at the time. So they flew me down to meet with Ridley for a couple of days. And so I’m in the room with Ridley, I sit down and he starts telling me the story, the new script, and it’s way better. I mean that [previous] script I had read had nothing to do with what he was telling me. (https://hnentertainment.co/exclusive-creature-designer-carlos-huante-says-original-prometheus-script-was-similar-to-aliens-with-an-army-group-and-talks-early-concepts-for-the-engineers-ultramorph/)
2. Carlos Huante : “We’re talking in the room and he says to me ‘Hey, you know, this whole facehugger, xenomorph thing as they’re calling it, this is kind of dead isn’t it?…and I’m like looking at him nodding my head ‘Yeah man, it’s dead they’ve ruined it actually..the only film I counted was your’s, the first one’. The second one was fun, but even then, back in the day, I was rolling my eyes thinking that they turned it into an action adventure and I was a teenager. The poster was Ripley holding a big gun…I rolled my eyes even back then. Then I saw the movie and I liked it, it was good, it was really fun and well done, but it wasn’t the first movie. So I told him [Ridley Scott] ‘Look, man, they just ruined it’… So Ridley was like ‘So yeah, we got to do something else I don’t want to really make another Alien movie but I’m going to use it as my canvas to do something else’. While he was talking I was understanding this wasn’t going to be Alien, it would be something else, but it was going to play within that world and it’s going to lead us to the first Alien film, right. And so he was really trying to go away from Alien and create this science fiction story that brushed against the whole Alien storyline, so that’s the way we went at it. This opened up the world to be so fun, “I’m going to run around in circles kind of thing.”(https://hnentertainment.co/exclusive-creature-designer-carlos-huante-says-original-prometheus-script-was-similar-to-aliens-with-an-army-group-and-talks-early-concepts-for-the-engineers-ultramorph/) 
3.  Carlos Huante : Arthur Max had given me a slight brief before our first meeting.. I hadn’t met with Ridley or read the script yet but I wanted to be able to converse on good solid ground. Arthur was great about understanding that without me saying a word. His briefing was perfect. I walked into the very first meeting prepared with the Beluga head, which pre-existed the movie. Also some color thumbnails of the moon landscape to get an idea of the vibe of the setting for the creatures and an illustration of this giant whale character which was a direction that Ridley was thinking of at the beginning for the Engineers. All that work was unsolicited… I went at it blind to a certain degree. I wasn’t supposed to start work until after the first meeting with the director of course but as I said I wanted us to fall right into a conversation which we did. The giant whale idea didn’t last past the first two meetings, as they were still writing the script but it was a lot of fun to do. I wanted to do more. (https://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/carlos-huante/?all)
4. Carlos Huante: Well honestly I was already in my mid 40’s so I had done everything I wanted to do already by this point, so i thought… I had no idea there would be another Alien film with Ridley attached. One day I got a call from Arthur Max. Arthur told me with his British-y accent that Ridley had looked through a stack of portfolios and picked me to be the creature guy for his new prequel to Alien.. I had a stupid smile on my face for days.. understand I was working for ILM at the time..I had to tell someone.. so I walked over to the head of the art dept. who was/is also my good friend and i told him about the phone call. We had a good chat about it and leveled down to geek mode for a moment or two. Ridley was awesome.. it was as good an experience as I could have hoped for.. the man loves art.. he just loves it.. so it was always a pleasure to be frank and opinionated about my likes and dislikes with him.. he liked talking about art.. lots of fun.. great man.. it was a highlight for me for sure. I created music for all my artwork and he actually used my music for the pitch to the studio.. the studio actually liked it a lot from what I heard..I really enjoyed working on that film..and honestly any chance I get to work with Ridley I’m on..( https://yutani.studio/carlos-huante-alien-day-2020-interview/)
   
5. A little over three decades ago, a wide-eyed 14-year old Carlos Huante saw Alien for the first time. It was, if you’ll forgive the incredibly obvious pun, a life-altering experience. As Huante explains, “It affected me more directly than even Star Wars did. The seriousness of the mood, the design of the Alien and the Space Jockey left an indescribable first impression on me. The actors were perfect, the look and mood of the film, the ship design and style of how the film was shot and the usage of effects elements; it was all new and struck right in the centre for me.”
   Thirty-plus years later, when word started leaking out that director Ridley Scott was preparing to revisit the Alien universe with a prequel, Huante wasn’t about to let the project go ahead without him. “I had been waiting for the opportunity to work with Ridley on a science-fiction project,” he claims.
   “I knew that we would get along, especially after hearing from [effects wizard] Rob Bottin about what it was like to work with him on Legend, and because I had gone through my own Giger phase when I was very young before developing my own style, I felt very confident about being able to walk in there and keep things honest and true to what Giger had done with the original film. If Prometheus took place some time before the first movie, I wanted to be the guy to police it and keep it looking Giger-esque, so I was all over that!” (https://www.3dartistonline.com/news/2013/03/carlos-huante-prometheus-creature-designer-interview/)