Max Headroom creator made Roswell alien

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2136617,00.html

 

The Sunday Times April 16, 2006

 

Max Headroom creator made Roswell alien

Marc Horne

 

 

THE creator of Max Headroom, a 1980s television cyber-presenter, has claimed he was one of the hoaxers behind the Roswell film, the grainy black and white footage supposedly showing a dead alien being dissected by American government scientists after a UFO crash.

 

Alien Autopsy, a movie about the footage, is currently on release across Britain. It stars real-life television presenters Ant and Dec.

 

John Humphreys, a sculptor and consultant on Alien Autopsy who has also worked on special effects for Doctor Who, said it was he who made the models for the alien dissected in the original fake footage.

 

His confession, 11 years after the Roswell footage was first shown, will raise questions about the role of Channel 4, which unleashed Max Headroom on the world in the 1980s and bought the UK rights to screen the Roswell footage in Britain.

 

The footage was first exposed as a fake by The Sunday Times, but an estimated billion people still watched it around the world.

 

Rather than being shot in 1947 near Roswell in the New Mexico desert as previously claimed, the film was actually made at a flat in Camden, north London, in 1995.

 

Philip Mantle, a UFO researcher and author who has been investigating the Roswell hoax for 10 years, said Humphreys had been a prime suspect but had never before admitted involvement.

 

Mantle, who next month will deliver a lecture at Glasgow University on the Roswell story, said: ?I didn?t think it would take so long, but I am delighted this hoax has finally been exposed and the mystery has been solved.?

 

Humphreys, who is based in Manchester, says he also appeared in the Roswell film as the chief surgeon. The bug-eyed alien models were filled with sheep brains, chicken entrails and knuckle joints bought from Smithfield meat market. After filming, the dummies were cut up and dumped in bins across London.

 

For a few short weeks the world held its breath after the 91-minute silent film was unveiled by Ray Santilli, a London-based video distributor. He claimed to have bought the footage, shot on 14 reels, from a retired American military cameramen.

 

Humphreys said the Roswell film was shot by himself, Santilli and three others. He said he spent four weeks fashioning the models from latex using clay sculptures.

 

Humphreys, a graduate of the Royal Academy who has also created special effects for the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp, says he only told his wife about the hoax when he was hired to work on Alien Autopsy.

 

?It was a very, very strange feeling to know that I had played a key part in it,? he said.

 

Santilli, who is played by Declan Donnelly in Alien Autopsy, insists he was trying to ?re-create? a real Roswell incident. He claims he bought genuine footage that was badly damaged when it was exposed to the air after 48 years in a can. ?John was given very precise images to work with and what he did was sheer genius,? he said.

[polopony]

he'd claim to be part of the Kennedy killing if it brought him any attention, was Max the last paying job he had or what

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Don?t know the man. A bit of an attention whore, you reckon?

[lfcrule1972]

Mmm - so you fake an alien autopsy, keep quiet about it and then get paid to work on the film about the fake ???? Interesting

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Creating and then exploiting a market. Capitalism at its best.

[dbminter]

I remember when that footage was pitched on American TV by the guy who played Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

 

The autopsy IS real people! The hoax is that the alien itself set it up. The body being dissected is actually a human dressed up as an alien. Aliens were in disguise as the doctors, and that alien was filming it the entire time. Then, the footage was dropped off and they've spent the rest of the intervening time laughing the triple buttocks off at us. Yes, you guessed it... ANOTHER job by the Venusians!

[polopony]

in South Florida all thats done by illegal aliens

[lfcrule1972]

I know I am watching "Invasion" at the moment - keep away from Homestead polo !!!

[polopony]

its not far away LFC theres a really cool castle there Coral Castle it has a great story built by a guy 10 stone soaking wet and he found a way to move coral rock that was huge also drilled and cut it.its worth a Google www.coralcastle.com

[lfcrule1972]

Have you ever been polo ? I like places with a bit of mystery attached to them....

[dbminter]

Someone gave me a post card from a Roswell museum. One of those classic grey bodies laid out on display, etc. What surprised me most was the body... WAS MINE! Where did the US government get my old body?! The Venusians swapped me out, but, I made sure to get rid of my corpse. I must have slipped up somewhere! Better find out...