Does anyone know more about the career of this amazing cinematographer? He shot Alien, then this- then fell off the map until directing some movie with Dennis Hopper a couple of years ago. He's an amazing DP; why doesn't he work more?
sharei know what you mean-his lighting work and photography on ALIEN is exceptional-so too, with DRAGONSLAYER.
I thought I read that after DRAGONSLAYER and ALIEN, he went back to shooting commercials, which is where I think Ridley Scott recruited him from. I'd imagine such wonderful dark lighting takes a lot of time to set up, and I know Fox was all over Ridley Scott for falling behind schedule on ALIEN, which probably put pressure on the DP, especially if his time-consuming lighting is causing the delay. It does happen because David Fincher had to fight to
keep Jordan Cronenworth on ALIEN 3, and still ended up having to replace him. Both ALIEN and DRAGONSLAYER look good enough that I'm sure he got offers but probably decided he didn't like shooting movies enough to endure the hassle and probably enjoyed a long career shooting commercials where he was able to take as much time as necessary.
I heard that he had a breakdown on Excalibur and was replaced by Alex Thompson.
Theres a bit here:
http://www.shadowlocked.com/20100309134/interviews/exclusive-interview-the-worlds-of-roger-christian.html
Do it Doug!!!!
http://movie-memorabilia-emporium.blogspot.com/