Earlier this month, legendary artist and crafter of horrifying night terrors H.R. Giger passed away, leaving behind a massive legacy of brilliant works and a massive influence on pop culture and film.
In honor of the man’s iconic career, the New Beverly Cinema in West Hollywood is celebrating his life with an amazing double feature on June 8, 9, and 10.
First up, at 7:30pm, is the 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien, which cemented Giger’s place in the cinematic landscape. The eponymous alien was designed and based off of Giger’s painting Necronom IV, but director Ridley Scott ended up seeing Giger’s true measure of brilliance and had him design basically everything on the Alien planet.
Giger was introduced to Scott through Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, who met Giger a number of years earlier when the two of them were working on creating the most epic sci-fi film of all time!… which never got made.
That story is chronicled in the astounding 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, which is also the second film in the upcoming double feature, screening at 9:50pm. It tells the story of Chilean surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and his attempt to assemble a group of “spiritual warriors” who would help him craft the greatest film of all time, a pseudo-adaptation of the novel Dune.
The project fell through and became another in a long list of un-made classics, but the documentary that sprung from it four decades later is one of the most inspiring films I’ve ever seen.
This double feature is worth the money, and is sure to be packed, so you can buy your tickets online. Check out the New Beverly Cinema site for more info on tickets, times and location.
Zach Seemayer 
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