Coming up on Saturday at the Described Movies: Alien and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

From this Saturday at 12am Eastern, that’s 5pm Saturday in NZ, 3pm in Sydney and 5am in the UK, and repeated every four hours throughout the day, it’s the described movies Alien from 1979 and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1941.
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon.
Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who encounter the eponymous Alien, an aggressive and deadly extraterrestrial set loose on the ship.
The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto.
It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was executive producer.
The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.
Alien premiered 25 May, 1979, as the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival, presented in 70mm at midnight.
It received a wide release on 22 June and was released 6 September in the United Kingdom.
It was met with critical acclaim and box-office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations, and it has been consistently praised in the years since its release.
In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science-fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by Empire.
The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys.
It also launched Weaver's acting career, providing her with her first lead role.
The story of her character's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997).
A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).
A prequel series includes Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), both directed by Scott.
Directed by: Ridley Scott.
Screenplay by: Dan O'Bannon.
Story by: Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
Produced by: Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill.
Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto.
Cinematography: Derek Vanlint.
Edited by: Terry Rawlings and Peter Weatherley.
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.
Production companies: Brandywine Productions.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox.
Release date: 25 May , 1979 (United States) and 6 September , 1979 (United Kingdom).
File length: 117 minutes.
Countries: United Kingdom and United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $11 million.
Box office: $106.3 million.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 American horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner.
The production also features Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, C. Aubrey Smith, and Sara Allgood.
Its storyline is based on the 1886 Gothic Novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.
There have been many filmed adaptations of the novella.
This movie was a remake of the Oscar-winning 1931 version starring Fredric March.
Directed by: Victor Fleming.
Written by: John Lee Mahin, Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein.
Based on: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Produced by: Victor Saville.
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg.
Edited by: Harold F. Kress.
Music by: Franz Waxman.
Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Distributed by: Loew's, Inc.
Release date:
12 August , 1941.
File Length: 113 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $1.1 million.
Box office: $2.3 million.
Any questions, comments, or ideas for future described movies: e-mail me: anthony at mushroomfm dot com (e-mail address written that way to cut down on
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Enjoy the movies,