Inspired By Erich Von Dniken

LEADING FROM ALIEN A) THE VON DANIKEN PHENOMENAI.) Erich Von D"aniken wrote a book of fantastical speculations about extra-terrestrials having visited Earth in the distant past, created mankind in their own image and there were giants as well, and they were responsible for the pyramids of Giza. The book was called "Chariots of the Gods" and was published in 1968. He was only writing a book about his own private naive speculations about some of the world's ancient enigmatic mysteries, and because the book became a success, he became a victim of Switzerland's dislike of new ideas, he was ridiculed by the press and the public for many years to come. As time went by, Erich's point of view on the subject evolved and the arguments about the origins of these ancient structures have increased, which have been a starting point for many other people's ideas about the possibilities of technically advanced civilisations who have visited Earth in the ancient past.II.) One of Erich's most famous ideas was that the image on the Sarcophagus Lid of the Tomb of Pakal Votan depicted an astronaut in a rocket ship cockpit. Another was that the Nazca Lines were used by ancient astonauts as a landing strip.III.) Playboy in 1974 conducted an interview with Von Daniken about his books and the problems about his ideas, the interviewer was well informed and Von Daniken himself was able to be up front as he possibly could about his ideas and to some degree his own indifference to other people's criticisms about his way of thinking that didn't go down well with modern day science. Leading American astronomer Carl Sagan was able to offer a thought about Von Daniken's work that wasn't too complimentary and Von Daniken himself froma memory of Carl Sagan on an televisions interview discussing the phenomena of UFOs, Von Daniken found reason to be not so impressed with Carl Sagan's ability to think about anything mysterious. * See: Carl Sagan vs Von D"anikenIV.) Books were written continuing to rebuttle his claims such as Ron Story's book Space Gods revealed published in 1976 with a forward by Carl Sagan who seemed to find some value in Von Daniken's books welcoming the idea of their popularity in schools and colleges as object lessons in sloppy thinking. * See: Carl Sagan vs Von D"aniken V.) Von Daniken's ideas would still catch the imagination into the 21st Century, in 2010, a TV series called Ancient Aliens exploring his whole view with the idea of presenting the "hypotheses of ancient astronauts and proposes that historical texts, archaeology and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial contact. The show has been criticized for presenting disputed pseudoscience." (and endlessly groups of people have found the need to debunk the claims made in the TV series. B) INFLUENCE ON THE ALIEN TEAMI A) DAN O'BANNON INSPIRED BY ERIC VON D"aNIKEN " drawing credited to Dan O'BannoOne of the earth crew in the original script the character speculated about the pyramid in relation to the Space Jockey " Maybe the rest of the crew is in there -- in some kind of suspended animation, waiting to be rescued." which is an idea related to Von Daniken's explorations into what the Pyramids were about.i b)Walter HilL SAID WORDS IN RELATION TO TALKING ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF A PYRAMID IN THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT, SOME OF IT IN DERISION OF THE CONCEPT * WALTER HILL "DAN WAS DEEPLY INTO PYRAMIDOLOGY AT THE TIME". (STARLOG JULY 1979, P95) * Walter Hill: There was this genuflect to pyramidology, the alien eggs were in the bottom of a pyramid. (CINEFANTASTIQUE, VOL 9, NUMBER 1, P16) * WALTER HILL"THEY HAD PYRAMIDS AND HIEROGLYPHICS ON THE PLANETOID, A LOT OF VON D"aNIKEN CRAP " (FILM INTERNATIONAL) "II) CHRIS FOSS INSPIRED BY ERICH VON D"aNIKENChris Foss the artist who was one of the concept designers for Alien also took inspiration from the book Chariot of the Gods when he drew the Nazca Lines being used a landing strip by a space craft for a project not related to AlienIII) HR GIGER INFLUENCED BY ERICH VON D"aNIKENIII. A)When Ridley chose some ideas from Giger's Necronomicon for the space jockey, more was required beyond that for the design of the space jockey and his seat which forced him to turn to images of the ancient Egyptian funerary barge of the god Sokar to transform that using his imagination into his ancient alien dead pilot in its control seat, perhaps much like the Sarcophagus Lid the Tomb of Pakal Votan appears to have translated itself in Von D"aniken's mind into an ancient astronaut in a rocket ship whatever the truth of the matter." (SEE "3. EVOLUTION OF SPACE JOCKEY VIA THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD)"III. B) Giger in his essay about his hometown, wrote that "Chur became famous in the world press as the place where Erich Von Daniken was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for fraud - a term otherwise reserved for murderers. It shows that the inhabitants of Graubunden for fantastists, foreigners or people from other parts of Switzerland have a chance if they bring money into the canton, like Gunter sachs or the Shah of Persia" (Giger's Necronomicon, p12)"N.B. Chur us the capital of Graunbunden which is a cantor (district) in Switzerland"IV) RIDLEY SCOTT INSPIRED BY ERIC VON D"aNIKENIV. A) Years later, in 12.05.2010, Swiss newspaper Blick interviewed Ridley Scott about his Robin Hood film and managed to interview him a question about his forthcoming Alien production, Ridley gives a nod to Erich Von Daniken's writings and we can read through Google Translater that Ridley is saying that he guessed right. "(See: Blick interviewed Ridley Scott 12.05.2010)"IV. B) RIDLEY SCOTT ALSO ACKNOWLEDGED VON DANIKEN'S WRITINGS AT THE CINEEUROPE EVEN IN 2011. "NASA and the Vatican agree that is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way," Scott said. "That's what we're looking at (in the film), at some of Eric van Daniken's ideas of how did we humans come about." ( Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace Tease 'Prometheus' at CineEurope, 6:26 PM PDT 6/28/2011 by Scott Roxborough, Hollywood Reporter)"