Alien: Earth

Production Design

Transporting audiences to the vast world of Alien: Earth is no easy feat; however, Production Designer Andy Nicholson and his team were able to accomplish just that all the while capturing the spirit of the beloved Alien franchise.Nicholson explains, “We had to bring into it what fits with that world, what fills a part of that world, what works for the story, what works for the action required and what looks cool and new and different.” He adds, “We wanted the look that was imagined in Alien and the futuristic stuff that was thought of. We looked at the future as it was seen in 1979 by the artist who envisioned it then and took that as our basis and stylistically used that throughout. I think the most sensible decision we made was to do a kind of retrofuturism based on the world as seen in 1979.”One of the most crucial elements for the Production Design team was the deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot. “I had a conversation with Noah Hawley [Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Director] about the Maginot and how that interior should be made by the same company as the Nostromo,” Nicholson recalls.He expands, “The Maginot is a Weyland-Yutani spaceship. Yutani was a manufacturer of the Nostromo, so we kept the overall design aesthetic that was first seen in Alien. You’ll see the same approach to design throughout the Maginot – there are rooms that are very similar stylistically and then identical in details to the original Nostromo in terms of the mess hall, the cryochamber. There are differences because of the type of ship the Maginot is, and there are new rooms, but a lot of the details are if they were made by the same manufacturer – much as you’d find when you fly on a different Boeing type of Boeing aircraft.”

In order to bring this idea to life, Nicholson conducted extensive research. He notes, “I just dove into the same kind of historical research I do for any show if I was replicating a period in time. We looked at the movie, studied all the details and I tried to find as many online photographs as possible.” In reference to the Maginot bridge, Nicholson recalls, “We recreated it entirely from photo reference, studying the movie behind-the-scenes stills and a lot of pouring over details and individual frames – it became a historical reference point for us.”Back on Earth, Nicholson and his team were instrumental in building out Prodigy City as well as Prodigy Corporation’s Neverland Research Island. Nicholson shares, “Prodigy City is a city that is owned by Prodigy Corporation, so it says a lot about corporations, the future of the world and what it’s like to be a citizen of that particular world. We also look at climate change and how that’s affected the city. What I like about Bangkok is the canals – in Prodigy City, we’re replacing a lot of our main roads with canals.”The production design of Neverland also illustrates the technology of the hybrids created by Prodigy Corporation, which is introduced in Alien: Earth. Nicholson states, “The tech lab in Neverland is the place where all the hybrids are inspected, maintained and fixed if they go wrong to a certain extent, as long as it’s not too structural. All of the hybrids have this charging and data connection around their heads. They also have these in their bedrooms – it’s how they charge up at night, how data gets collected and how they learn. It’s kind of a USB-C socket for the hybrids.”

The Production Design team had to be creative with the furniture used in Neverland. For example, a 1960s dental chair was used in the tech lab. Nicholson explains, “There is a scanning machine which is being used to scan the hybrids for bodily damage without having to take them apart – it’s like a glorified X-ray machine. There’s a bed and a portable gurney, but there’s also a chair just to make it so the actors or the characters aren’t always lying down. Then it’s a more interesting thing to shoot. It’s a 1960s dental chair that we’ve adapted to have different monitoring things in it, and this machine is flexible – it moves around so it can be used to scan vertically as well as horizontally.”In addition to creating the physical spaces for the world of Alien: Earth, the production design amplifies the suspense that the series builds up. “One of the other things we’ve done everywhere is there should always feel like there are places some of our creatures could come from,” Nicholson notes. “They’re safe space for humans, sort of, but they’re not because every single room is full of vents and ducts, and there are places that some of our alien creatures who are small can always take refuge in, come from, disappear into. So suddenly the spaces that could be safe aren’t.”

Adding to this effect, corridors in the show always seem to go somewhere. “Corridors always had corners – there were no dead ends – there was a threat coming around every corner,” Nicholson says. “It helps with suspense, and it helps with not having dead ends, so you can never see where things can possibly come from.”There are also rooms and spaces where audiences can’t quite see what’s going on inside. “In a lot of the corridors and the atrium composite set, you’ll notice there are a lot of windows, which are always obscured. So, there could be someone behind the window, but you don’t quite see them,” Nicholson notes. “There are rooms you don’t necessarily go into, but you see. It helps make the space more suspenseful and gives it a more of an expanded feel.”Nicholson reflects, “I’d be very pleased if visually what we’ve provided here comes anything close to the novelty and horror that Alien brought to an audience.”

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One of the most crucial elements for the Production Design team was the deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot.

Production Design | FX's Alien: Earth