Designs by H. R. Giger: The Tourist - the little HR Giger Page

"Initially Mr. Sloan'shead would explode.Then crabs and otherkinds of vermin wouldscuttle out from theruptured skull." Thescene from the scriptthat initially inspiredGiger's design work.Below: Clinic cases.

The complete scenario of Noto's scriptthat is still way ahead of its time.During one of Frogner'sweak moments,Grace discovers that he isa Dual; able to be a woman.Sexual arousal is amorphing technique tohim. Grace finds him in apainful transition state;with male and femalecharacteristics. Utilizingone of her earlier abilities—adeep, unearthlysound that she whispersinto his ear—grace helpsFrogner complete histransformation from womanto man. This causesGrace to have a briefflashback—rememberingherself on her home worldas the wormlike slug shereally is, being raped byhumanoid aliens.Now in his male form,Frogner tells her of Sloane'streachery; using her to findTaiga so he can be killed whilethe search and its frustrationswould also kill her.Later, Grace discovers thatFrogner had gone through heroffice, finding Taiga's formeraddress. She rushes there to findthe mutilated bodies of themother and daughter Taiga hadlived wi th. She also, finally,finds Taiga. He tells her thatSloane probably killed themand that, during his last seclusionfrom humans, which he hasto take or the anxiety they createin him would surely killhim, Taiga had built a transportthat could get the two of themoff Earth once and for all. Hegives Grace a hotel key, tellingher to meet him there later.Frogner later meets withSloane, refusing to help him52Hanna Schygulla, the actress originally cast asGrace Ripley, the stranded alien In a human skin.find Taiga or trap Grace anymore.He guns Sloane down onlyto find him still alive and incontrol of the Corridor. Realizingthat his time is short, Frognergets suicide pills from analien in the Corridor and receivesa message from SpiderO'Toole with Grace's name onit. She wants to find out what ishappening to Grace, but in doingso, accidentally leads Frognerto a confrontation witSloane. Frogner takes the suicidepills, which cause him toexplode, and when Spider refusesto give him Grace'swhereabouts, Sloane shoots her,leaving her for dead.Grace returns to her office tofind a message from Spider explainingher trick to meet withFrogner. She rushes to Frogner'soffice to find Spider dying. Thegirl, realizing the alien forcesaround her, begs Grace toreveal her true form.Grace takes Spider to theCorridor, where the girldies content amidst theswarm of alien faces shealways wanted to believeexisted.Grace goes to Sloane'sGrief Clinic and they battlewith their hidden powers.As he begins to faulterunder Grace's whisperedtones inducingpain, he tries to buy timetelling her of a largetransport in Marrakesh,but she continues hertonal assault as Sloanemetamorphoses into histrue form—an entire raceof thousands of wormlikefragments with probing,snapping mouths. Theylatch onto Grace as she sets fire tothe office. The fragments thataren't consumed in the conflagrationescape outside to be trampledunder the unsympatheticNew York traffic.Grace returns to New Jerseyfor her meeting with Taiga, whohad revealed his true from toher—that of the alien humanoidrace that raped and enslaved herkind. Altering to variations oftheir alien forms, they wage aprivate war that Grace wins bydraining Taiga of his life fluids,leaving a dead, dried-out husk.Leaving his body behind,Grace searches for the transportTaiga had shown her earlier, butit is gone. Exhausted once shereverts to her human form,Grace finds the nearest payphone and makes a reservationon the next plane to Marrakesh.Fred Szebinwanted to use."Unfortunately for Gibsonand Missell, Clair Noto had thatrare clause in her contract-forhirecalled turnaround, in whichthe author receives a year-longoption on the work, should theoriginal production deal fallthrough, which this one did,once Universal pulled the plug.The first to go was Renee Missell,as well as Gibson, whowent on to direct POLTER-GEIST II: THE OTHER SIDEand the cable TV bio THEJOSEPHINE BAKER STORY.Noto took the script to UnitedArtists, who would have refusedto allow her to work on it.From there she went to FrancisFord Coppola's Zoetrope Studio,one of the grandest failedexperiments in excessive powerin Hollywood history.By the early 1980s, Coppolahad transmuted his incrediblesuccess from his GODFATHERfilms and APOCALYPSENOW into Zoetrope, which wasto be the one place filmmakerscould come to create their cinematicvisions with total freedom,under contract in the mannerof the old studios of Hollywood'sGolden Age. Unfortunately,Coppola's grand dreamcrumbled under the financialexcesses of his failed epic ONEFROM THE HEART, a $23million bomb that left nothingfor the talent signed to Zoetropeand created a bankrupt messwithin a few years.One of the directors signedwith Coppola's dream wasFranc Roddam, a personableBrit who was hot off his 1979hit QUADROPHENIA. WithNoto back on the project, Roddamwas brought onto the filmby a mention from its former director,Brian Gibson. AfterQUADROPHENIA, Roddamspent two years trying to get hisenvironmentally conscious projectRAINFOREST off theground. But even with the pull ofheavyweight Robert Redford involved,RAINFOREST seemeda doomed project. Gibson mentionedTHE TOURIST to Roddamwhile playing tennis withhim and fellow director Adrian(FATAL ATTRACTION) Lyne.Producer Michael (A FISHCALLED WANDA) Shambergalso brought the script up a fewweeks later and said that he nowcontrolled it with Noto. At

Frank Roddam directs Jennifer Beals in THE BRIDE. Roddam tried to launch THE TOURIST at American Zoetrope.she did, but it's quite commonthat a producer will take a pieceand just say, 'I own it and I'm goingto do what I like with it.' Andthat wasn't the original deal."Although he didn't have theopportunity to create the film,Roddam's involvement withTHE TOURIST mess did putthe director in the middle of abonafide Hollywood legend.The story, as it goes, involves afistfight between Roddam andformer TOURIST director BrianGibson on a plane over therights to Noto's script. Neverhappened, said Roddam. "Thefight was between Brian andAdrian Lyne at Morton's overwho would pick up the checkfor their meal. I just happenedto be there."Despite bad memories of adeal never completed, Roddamhas fond memories of the scriptand his chance to work with itswriter. "Clair is an extraordinaryperson,"he said. "I oftenthink of Clair as being one ofthe greatest cinematic talentswho one doesn't hear of."I think a lot of directors readTHE TOURIST and have raidedit You'll see elements of it in otherpeople's movies. The tragedywas that THE TOURIST couldhave been a film way ahead of itstime, fantastically hip, totallycool. It's been out there in theopen air in Hollywood and had itsbones picked. If THE TOURISThad broken through, if Francishadn't been such an asshole, itwould have been a great movie, Ithink. It was a project I felt veryclose to and, when it fell through,it was a project that I very reluctantlyput out of my life."By the time Zoetrope went under,Coppola had Noto's turnaroundoption. THE TOURISTeventually found its way back toUniversal and to the desk of ReneeMissell. From that point on,Noto was not allowed near itagain. Brian Gibson, againnamed director, wanted her totake another stab at the script, butMissell would not hear of it. Asindividual studios continued tomake money off the optioningand reoptioning of the script, Notowouldn't see a dime.ne reason, Notobelieves, that thevarious rewritesof THE TOUR-IST have failed to find favor istheir lack of the original author'svoice. "It's a very idiosyncraticscript," she said. "Ithink that other writers can hearthose voices. Those voices arefrom my past. Every time somebodytries to rewrite it, thescript just doesn't come together.That's been part of the problem."Every time somebody got ahold of the script," Noto continued,"they just held onto it.Warner Bros had it for seven oreight years, optioning it afterthey knew they weren't going tomake it. They didn't want tohave it back to Universal andhave them make it into a successfulpicture, which wouldhave made Warner Bros lookbad. It's like a stupid chessgame. Universal spent a shitloadof money because of theGiger designs and paid for severalrewrites with different writers,and I think they had morethan one director on it. THETOURIST has always had incrediblesupporters and incredibledetractors. Right from thevery beginning it aroused verystrong feelings one way or another.People were either verytaken by it or felt it was the Antichrist. I still don't, to this day,really comprehend what all thefuss was about. I think THETOURIST is an interesting story,but I don't see the degree towhich people have responded toit."To date, ownership of THETOURIST remains with Universal,which is currently beingwooed by heavyweight producerJoel (DIE HARD) Silver,who wants to produce the filmand has been offering largeamounts of money for therights. Noto believes Universalis reluctant to release the propertyfor the same reason Warnerskept such a tight hold on itfor so long, fear of looking foolishif it should become a hit foranother studio.THE TOURIST is a unique,original work that has yet, 14years after being written, to fallby the wayside. "There is somethingabout that script," Notosaid with incredulity. "It has alife of its own. I don't get it.Something that Giger couldhave been involved with, thatother people were involved withon such an emotional level.Millions of dollars spent; optionmoney paid year after year andit all comes to nothing. It's likeCITIZEN KANE, for crying outloud!"•Below: Noto's suggestions for the part of Grace Ripley, the script's strong female lead. Turner was suggested by others and Madonna was sent the script.54Kim Basinger Theresa Russell Sharon Stone Michelle Pfeiffer Kathleen Turner Madonna

Giger's "TentacledCreature" design forTHE TOURIST. Gigerworked with directorBrian Gibson andUniversal producerRenee Missell, notwith Noto, but plansto get in touch withthe writer to revivethe dormant project.