Alien Queen has new home in Lyon

VISITORS to a Lyon museum can now come face to face with one of cinema’s most memorable monsters – the Alien Queen from Ridley Scott’s Alien series.

Over six metres in length from head to tail, weighing half a tonne, the original animatronic creature used in the film Alien vs. Predator (2004) is now on show at the Musée Cinéma et Miniature – and just to be on the safe side the moving creature is kept chained at the ankles and wrists...

The Alien Queen is now the museum’s centrepiece after its founder Dan Ohlman negotiated to buy the piece - which was falling apart and about to be thrown away – from a Hollywood animatronics company which had it in storage.

He told Le Monde he spotted it on one of his regular visits to the firm, which he has used as a source of other pieces for the museum. “It was set for the skip, but the price started rocketing once they realised we were interested...” he said.

Having bought it for $40,000, teams at the museum spent a year restoring its latex skin and its mechanics, with specialised techniques including injecting liquid silicone into the skin to plump it out.

Photo: Gaudin-Ramet – restoration work on the Alien Queen