"One of the brilliant things about Alien, and it was a fairly new idea, was the weathered space-ships and this group of truckers, essentially, in space on these aged ships.

"The production design was this rough-around-the-edges look that was kind of a wonderful aspect to it. The movie was treated as a straight drama.

"It just happened to be in space with a terrifying monster on board. The production design and certainly the visual effects execution was completely engrossing.

"It felt unmistakably real. And with the alien, the great lesson is, ‘The less you see the scarier it is.'"