Which writers/directors would you have picked for ALIEN(S) sequels?

[Aquehonga]

Had you been a producer of the ALIEN(S) films back in the late 80's & early 90's & the canonical Alien 3 (& Rez) that we're stuck with now were never made & much more patience & time had gone into making sequels to ALIENS.

Which writers/directors would YOU have assembled to make ALIEN III?

Writers I'd consider would be ST:TNG writers, George Clayton Johnson, Harry Turtledove, among others.

Directors I'd consider would be Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Richard Donner, Ron Howard, among others.

YOUR turn now>

[Harvey]

I'm not sure on the writer. I'd have liked it if James Cameron had stayed on for a sequel to Aliens, though, if the ideas had been there.

Both David Fincher and Jeunet are very capable directors that were saddled with less than satisfactory screenplays and production constraints.

[Allyn Gibson]

Aquehonga wrote:

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Which writers/directors would YOU have assembled to make ALIEN III?

First, let me say that Alien3 is my favorite film in the series. It is a masterpiece of mood. It is, without question, the most unremittingly nihilistic film Hollywood has ever produced.

However, I don't think anyone could have planned Alien3. You couldn't make that film happen; it's a happy accident, and you'd never have achieved that deliberately.

That said, if I were in charge...

I've read the scripts leading up to Alien3. William Gibson's is interesting, and I imagine it in the hands of Paul Verhoeven.

Vincent Ward's script. Based on What Dreams May Come, I think he could have pulled it off.

Take those off the table...

Fox had two options -- the Xenomorphs attack Earth, or Earth finds the Xenomorph homeworld. The first was the subject of Mark Verheiden's trilogy of graphic novels for Dark Horse; I don't know if that could be compressed down to a two-hour film, but there are some moments, especially in the first and second parts, that would translate very well to film. I don't know about finding the Xenomorph homeworld; I think that could actually become too Star Trek-like, as the question of how and why the Xenomorphs evolved as they did drives the plot. (On their homeworld, they have natural predators, so their lifecycle makes sense. Absent the predators (not the Predators), they're far more dangerous than they should be because there's nothing to keep them in check.)

As for Resurrection, I'd say fire Joss Whedon for that stupid piece of crap, but the film is his rough draft for Firefly, so some good came of that unnecessary film.

And for directors, I'd love to see Peter Jackson or Guillermo del Toro tackle an Alien film.

[Anwar]

I'd keep Fincher, and have them do the Ward story with no changes or interference from the studio.

The Alienverse isn't about the Aliens, they are just plot devices to tell stories about the human characters. And stories like Aliens on Earth or Alien homeworld are trash anyways, the Dark Horse comics showed that.

[Reverend]

Which one was the one with monks living in the wooden space station? That was Terry Gilliam grade nutty. I was amazed when watching the "making of" doc on the quadrilogy the writer was still insisting it was a good idea.

[Ward Fowler]

I actually like Alien 3 and respect what Fincher was trying to do. However, Ridley Scott is the man. He should have directed them all.

[Captaindemotion]

Reverend wrote:

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Which one was the one with monks living in the wooden space station? That was Terry Gilliam grade nutty. I was amazed when watching the "making of" doc on the quadrilogy the writer was still insisting it was a good idea.

That's the Vincent Ward one. I think the movie sounds interesting, but the science of a wooden ship in space is dubious to say the least.

There is an excellent article on the various Alien 3s that never were in the December 2008 issue of Empire magazine, which may still be available. Not sure if it's on the website. I think the article owes a bit to David Hughes' book The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made (Titan).

Other ideas were William Gibson's shopping-mall-in-space set script. Ripley is in a coma for most of it and the movie would have centred on Hicks (the Michael Biehn character from Aliens). Apparently the barcodes on heads that were in Alien 3 originated here.

Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) wanted to make a movie set on the Aliens' home planet and explain what they were. He had the potentially interesting, potentially disastrous idea of suggesting that the creatures were maybe not born to be bad. The studio seemed to think it was disastrous and nixed that idea. Harlin eventually walked after the studio dithered about where to go with the next movie.

Eric Red (writer of The Hitcher and Near Dark) had a script involving a new marine hero, set on a farm space-station, with aliens being hatched from cattle and taking new shapes (shades of the various mutated ones in Resurrection?). No Ripley in this one.

David Twohy had one featuring a notorious badass criminal as its protagonist, set in a huge space station with prison slave labour. Any resemblance between this and his Pitch Black, featuring a notorious criminal, Riddick, taking on an alien monster is surely not coincidental ...

Personally, I don't know why neither Scott nor Cameron were asked back, nor for that matter, do I understand why producer Walter Hill, a first-class action movie maker in his own right, never stepped behind the camera. A John McTiernan Alien 3 might also have been fun and Paul Verhoeven is probably the only man in the world who could have upped the action & violence quota from Aliens, had they decided to go down that route.

[Anwar]

It's a common misconception that Vincent Ward's script had the entire orbiter be made of wood. Reading through the script shows that it wasn't, the wood was just a small part of the exterior/interior.

[Warp Coil]

Were Ridley Scott or James Cameron ever asked to direct the third Alien film? Considering how successful the first two films were, I would have chosen one of them to get involved. I really didn't like Alien3 or what came after it.

[TGTheodore]

Neil Simon. I'd love to hear an Alien banter humorously and use English in a number of clever ways.

--Ted

[Ward Fowler]

Who wouldn't want to see that? That sounds delightful!

[MyCylon]

I'm quite happy with the directors, actually. They're all very capable.

Plus I really like Alien 3 and enjoyed Res, for what it's worth. I'd certainly take 3 over Aliens any day. Aliens just isn't my cup of tea, really.

[Allyn Gibson]

Justtoyourleft wrote:

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Aliens just isn't my cup of tea, really.

I find Aliens painful to watch. Not because of the direction or the acting or the script -- all of those things hold up. It's James Horner's score. It's too distracting, because so much of it is cribbed from his two Star Trek scores, and I get a nasty case of cognitive dissonance. I expect to see Admiral Kirk stealing the Enterprise while Ripley is trying to save the Colonial Marines from a boneheaded move. "Bad move, Ripley," indeed.

[Aquehonga]

Yo', a few up above, love your username-

WARD FOWLER.

That COLUMBO episode is 1 of my favorites. The 1994 COLUMBO where Shatner played the Rush Limbaugh-ish Fielding Chase was a great 1 too.

PS:Weren`t you a Korean War deserter?

[Ward Fowler]

Aquehonga wrote:

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Yo', a few up above, love your username-

WARD FOWLER.

That COLUMBO episode is 1 of my favorites. The 1994 COLUMBO where Shatner played the Rush Limbaugh-ish Fielding Chase was a great 1 too.

PS:Weren`t you a Korean War deserter?

You're the first one that has known where my username came from. I hate to admit that I was a Korean War deserter, but I went by Charles Kipling back then. By the way, I loved the Fielding Chase episode. Shatner with mustache was awesome.