Check out A.I. Artificial Intelligence concept art by Chris Foss!

Every Friday I feature artwork from a classic of science fiction cinema. This week's "Flashback Friday" post is on A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).

A.I. is a polarizing film with the critic site Rotten Tomatoes calling it "a curious, not always seamless, amalgamation of Kubrick's chilly bleakness and Spielberg's warm-hearted optimism. [The film] is, in a word, fascinating."  One of the artists who helped develop the films striking visuals for the legendary Stanley Kubrick was Chris Foss.

Christopher "Chris" F. Foss is a professional concept illustrator who's worked on Hollywood films like Dune (1977), Superman (1978) and Alien (1979)

Check out the rest of the images after the jump and find out why he got fired (click to enlarge).


While the film was written, directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, it was originally developed by Stanley Kubrick in the 1970s until his death in the 1990s. A.I. is based on Brian Aldiss' 1969 short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long."

Foss started working for Kubrick visualizing the film when the two split for creative differences. According to an interview with Moviefone Foss was frozen out of the project after the two disagreed on one of his paintings.

Kubrick was known as a very meticulous and abrasive director and some found him difficult to work with.
"One day I came back after what we would call a rather good lunch, and Stanley [Kubrick] is standing in my room scowling at the picture, and this has been repainted more times than you've had hot dinners." Foss recalled, "He said, 'This picture's not working,' and I absolutely blew up. I said, 'Stanley, this picture is not working because the concept is not working, because the film is not working, because there is no clear concept!' And he hit the wall and said, 'OK, no clear concept, no clear concept' and walked out. And then the next week when I called to say my car wasn't working, I was late, they said, 'Well actually, Chris, you don't need to come back.'"

These paintings are from a scene where New York is flooded.

See more of Chris Foss' work on the film at ChrisFossArt.com.

Click on the links if you want to see more of Chris Foss' work and A.I. Artificial Intelligence on my blog.

What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen A.I Artificial Intelligence what did you think?

Official A.I Artificial IntelligenceSummary
It is the near future. The polar ice caps have melted as a result of global warming leaving many coastal cities underwater. Man has created machines that are aware of their own existence to help us with the increasing environmental damage that we are doing. One of these machines, a young boy, is the first robot programmed with emotion. Now his "love" is overpowering his robotic programming. He seeks answers as to whether he can ever be more than just a machine. 

Updated ;)

directed by Stanley Kubrick
Cinematography by Janusz Kamiński
Producton Design by Rick Carter

Starring: Haley Joel Osment,  Jude Law,  Frances O'Connor,  Brendan Gleeson,  William Hurt

Release date: June 29, 2001 (USA)

Official Site: http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com

© Copyright 2001 Amblin Entertainment,  The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Stanley Kubrick Productions, DreamWorks Distribution (Int.),  Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros Pictures. All rights reserved

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C is for Ron Cobb
One of the greatest concept artists ever is Ron Cobb (Alien, Aliens, Back to the Future, Firefly). Ron Cobb (born 1937) is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director. Some of his most memorable work was on the classic film Alien (1979). This is some of his work on the ship Nostromo.

The design of the Nostromo is credited to illustrators Ron Cobb and Chris Foss. Ultimately Chris Foss' highly organic visions of the spacecraft were discarded in favor of Cobb's NASA-like utilitarian renderings. Ridley Scott made his own design contributions as well, adding most of the cathedralesque "refinery" portion, which dominates the craft on screen. Much of the ship's architecture, particularly its interiors and the colossal spires of its refinery structure, are inspired by the cavernous yet simultaneously claustrophobic sensibilities of haunted houses and castles from Gothic Horror films such as Nosferatu.

Early Ron Cobb designs for the ship and the Nostromo's ramp and air lock access.

Images from the collection of scenes Ron Cobb painted under Dan O'Bannon's direction to be "shopped" around with the original Alien script. Top pic is an illustration of the ship (then named "Leviathan"), the middle image is of the blueprint elevations of the same vessel, and the bottom image details the arrangement of the ship's interior.

Early Ron Cobb designs for the ship's bridge.

 Astronauts explore the Alien sanctuary in early concept art.

An early design for the Nostromo ship.

Here's what the ship looked like in the film.

Ron Cobb's website isn't up at this writing, but you can check out http://roncobb.net/ later.

Some text is from http://annex.wikia.com and io9.com

This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For the next 27 days, we'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

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