Ron Cobb, Star Wars creature designer, has passed away

Ron Cobb, the man who designed the Nostromo for Alien, and Doc Brown’s DeLorean in Back to the Future, as well as working on a vault of classic 80’s films and who designed cantina creatures for Star Wars has passed. He was 83 years old, passing on 21st September, his birthday. He was deeply involved with 80’s cinema, specifically Spielberg and his 1982 classic – E.T.

It was while working as a production designer on John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian that Cobb first met Steven Spielberg, who was working down the hallway at Universal on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“I would suggest [to Spielberg] angles, ideas, verbalize the act of directing — ‘Let’s do this and do that, and we could shoot over his shoulder and then a close-up of the shadow,’ ” Cobb told the Los Angeles Times in 1988.

So impressed was Spielberg that he suggested Cobb direct his future film Night Skies, a retelling of an infamous 1955 incident in Kentucky in which a family claimed to have had an encounter with five aliens at their farmhouse.

When the family threatened to sue to stop the making of the movie, Cobb offered to write a comparable idea, and the last scene of his story was to show an alien that is marooned on Earth.

“I originated the story, my choice for screenplay writer was John Sayles,” Cobb wrote on his website. But “projections of the effects budget proved problematic.”

Indeed, the cost to create the effects for the five aliens reached $3.5 million, so the project was shelved — until Spielberg reverted to an idea he had of a boy who protects an abandoned alien.

Cobb was given a cameo as a doctor in the ensuing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), but he didn’t think much of the finished product, calling it “a banal retelling of the Christ story, sentimental and self-indulgent, a pathetic lost-puppy kind of story.”

Later, Cobb’s wife noticed that there was a $7,500 “kill fee” in his Night Skies contract — plus 1 percent of the net profits — should he not get to direct the movie. She sent off an invoice to Universal and received an envelope with a check inside for more than $400,000.

For the rest of his life, Cobb was asked by friends, “What did you do on E.T.?” His reply was, “I didn’t direct it.”

Creatives from the Star Wars galaxy have paid tribute, including ILM’s Kevin Jenkins.

https://twitter.com/kev_jenkins/status/1308110045561925632

Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin also paid their respects.

https://twitter.com/amblin/status/1308127009105571840

Cobb designed races including Ithorian, Gotal and Duros, staples of a diverse galaxy and his contributions won’t be forgotten. Our condolences to Cobb’s wife of 48 years Robin, his family and friends.