What if the ALIEN franchise had gone differently?

[:eek:]

Unused screenplay for Alien 3 by William Gibson:

http://home.online.no/~bhundlan/scripts/alien3/gibson.htm

 

[Gort Baringa]

I believe that Harrison Ford wanted Winona to play opposite him in Sabrina but his wife at the time put a stop to that casting!

Looks like he went out and found another young missus who suited him.

 

[Lord]

Sigourne could be up for more

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41188

I disagree about the notion of going to Earth, going from Horror to action in Aliens was an even bigger risk and paid off, i think that a Xenomorph war in an old and used Future Earth sounds like an amazing idea and the next logical step.

If they want to make it in another place, then a merge of Alien/ Prometheus could be interesting, where the future Ripley goes to a planet of the Engineers that is mostly infested by Xenomorphs and other creations of theirs.

I'm not holding my breath for a proper Aliens vs Predators, the various video games and comics show that the idea can work, but the films they've made will make sure the concept is shelved for movies.

 

[Teelie]

Making it happen on Earth makes no sense in the context of Resurrection. Why go through all the trouble to clone Ripley and get the DNA from there when you have literally an entire planet's worth of them to work with?

A fifth movie is both exciting and dreadful. What side of the coin will it be? Alien/Aliens or Alien3/Resurrection?

 

[Lord]

I don't understant what you mean exactly, can't a Chestbuster simply finally reach Earth and cause havoc? Creating more and more Off-springs. The "evil corporation" wouldn't really have an antagonistic role, since their plans would finnaly blow up in their faces right at home.

 

[Teelie]

I assumed you meant that they would explain Earth's "****hole" status from Resurrection as being uninhabitable from infestation. Even then though it seems that Earth is no longer seen as a good planet to live on. There was no explanation for what happened to Earth to make it seen so badly.

 

[Jochimus]

I assumed you meant that they would explain Earth's "****hole" status from Resurrection as being uninhabitable from infestation. Even then though it seems that Earth is no longer seen as a good planet to live on. There was no explanation for what happened to Earth to make it seen so badly.

I think it would have been interesting if Weyland-Yutani's motives for so desperately wanting the xenomorphs had turned out to have something to do with Earth's condition by that time...something so dire as to justify their repeated attempts at trying to find a way to control something so uncontrollably murderous, no matter what the cost in expendable meat (and hardware).

I haven't seen the AVP movies (I just never had any interest), so I don't know if maybe they already addressed that or not...

 

[Teelie]

The AVP movies have not addressed it. Both took place within hours of each other and were set in modern times, roughly 2004-2005 so there was no immediate need there. Even Resurrection's script with the unused Earth landing and fight scenes were vague on what happened to the planet. Other than it being equivalent to rocky and barren there was little to go on.

 

[titansupes]

I'm trying to picture a scenario that would lead to what Weaver wants and have it make sense. What would make Ripley and co travel to "the far reaches of the universe where no-one in their right mind would go" and have to face off against Xeno's again? Is she seeking them out?

It's a bit like how so many people wanted Grant and Malcom to return for Jurassic World. Under what circumstances would they choose to go back after all that happened to them?

 

[DA_Champion]

On badass digest, there is a greatest villain of all time competition, the xenomorph is in the finals against the joker.

 

[Teelie]

I'm trying to picture a scenario that would lead to what Weaver wants and have it make sense. What would make Ripley and co travel to "the far reaches of the universe where no-one in their right mind would go" and have to face off against Xeno's again? Is she seeking them out?

It's a bit like how so many people wanted Grant and Malcom to return for Jurassic World. Under what circumstances would they choose to go back after all that happened to them?

There is one and only one explanation I can think of for Ripley to go out to the far reaches: to exterminate the last of the Xenomorphs and end their existance for good.

Supposedly in Resurrection they had to clone her because they were otherwise extinct but that's merely an assumption on the part of the military and whoever took over the Weyland-Yutani corporation (as I recall they were originally bought out/taken over by WalMart of all things). It might come to pass that there's more of them somewhere out there.

 

[:eek:]

An old interview with Clive Barker where he talks about Alien 3:

http://www.hitfix.com/the-dartboard...iserwait-clive-barker-almost-directed-alien-3

 

[Thundarr]

I don't understand what you mean exactly, can't a Chestbuster simply finally reach Earth and cause havoc? Creating more and more Off-springs. The "evil corporation" wouldn't really have an antagonistic role, since their plans would finally blow up in their faces right at home.

That's the Alien movie I want to see. The Corporation gets their wish and brings several xenomorphs back to Earth for their bio-weapons project. The xenomorphs somehow get loose and begin breeding wild. The soldiers sent to retrieve them are too preoccupied with capturing them rather than destroying them and are used to incubate more chest bursters. By the time steps are taken to eradicate the problem it's too late. Xenomorphs are now the dominant species on Earth, and the human race is virtually extinct.

 

[James.B]

William Gibson’s ‘Alien 3’ Script Brought to Life Through Comics
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/william-gibson-alien-3-comic-book-1202872008/

Despite never making it to the silver screen, cyberpunk fiction pioneer William Gibson’s unproduced “Alien 3” is finally seeing the light, with a comic book adaption.

Published by Dark Horse Comics, Gibson’s original late 1980s vision of the franchise’s xenomorph nightmare has been resurrected thanks to the panels from “Angel Catbird” artist Johnnie Christmas and “Doom Patrol’s” colorist Tamra Bonvillain.

Gibson’s action-heavy script was inspired by and takes place directly after the events of “Aliens,” where Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop are captured by a group called the Union of Progressive People and are taken to a space station called Anchorpoint. After discovering the U.P.P. and the franchise’s shifty corporation, Weyland-Yutani, are running a secret arms race to develop an army of bloodthirsty xenomorphs, the station is overrun.

The Cold War-style thriller script dissatisfied producers, and Gibson eventually abandoned the project after being asked to do rewrites after a writer’s strike while he was in the middle of working on other projects.

Despite being David Fincher’s feature directorial debut, the freshman director was forced to initially shoot the movie without a completed script, and with $7 million of the film’s budget already in the hole from the beginning. It eventually released in 1992 to negative reception from critics and fans alike. Fincher eventually disowned the film, stating that no one hated the movie more than he did.

Gibson eventually posted a link to his Twitter in 2013 to his original draft, which got far better reception from various fan forums across the internet.

Running for five issues, “William Gibson’s Alien 3’s” will be available nationwide on Nov. 7, and is currently available for preorder.

 

[Mandon Knight]

It went 'sour' because for whatever reason a studio wishes to hire a first time director for 3 (which is fine) then dictate to him what he can and can't have in his cut (not unusual you might add) however, either hire an experienced director and let him or her follow their intended wishes or allow a new director (in this case, Fincher) the freedom to express his vision.

I controversially can't stand Aliens, I much prefer Alien and in addition I think Alien 3 is SO underrated, to be un-true. The cinematic cut is decent enough, but the re-stored Director's Cut is even better for me.

Alien 3 didn't translate (not least due to the edited cuts in footage) but Fincher wanted a brave approach to it being a 'survival' prison drama not the gung-ho machismo of Aliens.

They all have a different identity in the franchise and genre sub-versions as well, each stands by it's own spin on what an Alien film means for human-kind.

 

[TheVileOne]

I mean they hired an experienced respected director for Prometheus and Covenant...and look what happened

The franchise is now in tatters because Ridley Scott had all these weird grandiose ideas about Space Jesus and ancient astronauts.

 

[Aximili86]

I wish I had a cool name like "Johnnie Christmas".

 

[:eek:]

Alien - Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson: Cadigan, Pat, Gibson, William: 9781789097528: Amazon.com: Books

 

[TheVileOne]

I want to read all the material Neill Blomkamp had for cancelled Alien 5.

 

[Drizzle]

I want to read all the material Neill Blomkamp had for cancelled Alien 5.

I do too. I still wish we had gotten that instead of Covenant, and I'm saying that as someone who liked Prometheus. Fassbender was the saving grace of Covenant but the rest of it was so derivative of both Prometheus and the original Alien. At least Blomkamp would have given us something different and Ripley would have been back.

 

[Lily Adler]

I mean they hired an experienced respected director for Prometheus and Covenant...and look what happened

The franchise is now in tatters because Ridley Scott had all these weird grandiose ideas about Space Jesus and ancient astronauts.

I wish he had kept going with that instead of what Covenant ended up being.

 

[Yowza]

1) Newer Movies
I think the ancient astro guy theorizing was a fun thing for Ridley to try and tap into with Prometheus but just didn't work as it played out the same beats as Alien... Same thing with Covenant...

Overall, these 2 films wanted to be something new and different but couldn't as they had to tie back to Alien. Really going into the origins of the intelligent humanoid alien looking being with what looked like an Elephant trunk on the ship of Alien 1 then re-envisioning it as some giant humanoid white guy who was wearing a mask really wasn't the original creative intent I don't believe... The comics I think sort of had the idea closer to home.

2) Alien 3
It was stripped down and studio meddled no doubt but the special edition version of the movie I think holds up well. These things in a space prison works and takes the franchise back away from Cameron's action movie back to a purely horror film with less scifi than Ridley's original take. It was the most straight up horror movie in the alien franchise yet I feel. After this, there really was no need for any further movies centered around these alien creatures as things went as far as they could go.

3) AvP and Resurrection I think were more knockoff takes and that's cool but those have run their course.

4) Where to Go Next?

A TV Series.

In the past, a re-boot really wouldn't add much so the more expansive scifi movies failed to really dig deeper (after the knockoff take movies of Resurrection and AvP ran their course) to the extent they probably needed to but couldn't due to the obligations of a theatrical release tying it to the Alien franchise's horror beats of the 1st film.

A TV series that's interactive Choose Your Own Adventure with digital media tie-ins to be accessed via tablet/phone/laptop while watching would be the next step but only when budgets and technology can take things to the level needed. Too early and fails again.