Festival host and moderator Geoff Boucher started off the Q&A by asking Scott how he was doing. He recently had knee replacement surgery and is still on the mend.
- Scott was amazed we were going to watch two of his films back to back. He joking said he wished we had done it when Blade Runner was released because it was a box office failure, not in small part because it opened the same day at E.T.
- As a child, Scott thought science fiction was sort of cheesy until he saw the Mad Max films and the art work of Moebius, who he mentioned on SEVERAL occasions.
- He told the story of how Alien came to be. He was trying to get something going after The Duelisits and after a meeting in Hollywood, his producer took him to see Star Wars at the Grauman’s Chinese. Scott said he felt a vibe in the packed theater that he hasn’t felt since and walked out sick with envy. A few months later, the script for Alien came across his desk and he had to do it.
- He said he was the fifth person the script was sent to and it was in danger of being killed. When he realized he knew how to shoot it, he went in and proposed they don’t change one word.
- The original budget was 4.2 million dollars, but after spending several months drawing storyboards, the studio got excited and doubled the budget. He feels storyboarding is almost as important as writing.
- When he can, Scott will spend two hours in the morning each day just reading with no distractions. He thinks it’s essential to read things pure.
- Scott loves the Alien franchise and was kind of upset they never asked him to come back. In fact, he didn’t even know they were making a second one when they started.
- He stressed that, though after Alien he had two flops with Blade Runner and Legend, filmmakers should be their only critic. Money doesn’t matter as long as you are proud of it. That dogma has paid off as both films are now revered.
- This was when he started talking about his new Alien movies. He said he was always amazed that no one explored the backstory of “The Space Jockey” in the sequels because it’s so obvious in the first movie. So now a script has been written and it’s being prepped. The story has no set timeline except that it’s WAY before the first Alien so that they can fit in enough history for two movies. Scott explained that once you learn the history of how the jockey encountered the aliens, you’ll also want to learn about how he got there.
- He’s done a lot of underwater research for the upcoming movies.
- This film will go very deep into the possibilities of terra forming and the realities of what it would actually take for humans to leave earth. He then started talking sort of technically about light speed and stuff.
- Sigourney Weaver wasn’t cast until 3 weeks before shooting and though she’d gained acclaim on Broadway, she hadn’t really done a film at the time. When he met her the short Scott (who is 5 foot 8 inches) was extremely impressed and kind of taken back by her size. She tested on the actual set, because they were close to shooting and it was being built. Scott said he could have cut the test into the movie.
- While casting Blade Runner, he decided he might want Harrison Ford for the lead role but his producers hadn’t heard of him. Ridley then said he was the guy who flew the “maltese falcon” which got a laugh. Anyway, he figured if Spielberg and Lucas cast him in their new movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, he must be good. That film was shooting down the street from where Scott was so one night Ford showed up for a meeting in full Indiana Jones gear. He got the job that night.
- He believes all the on set friction between him and Ford has been largely overstated, however, believes that tension keeps people honest on a set. He had a very specific look for Blade Runner and hated having to explain himself over and over.
- Scott operated the camera himself on Alien and Legend.
- Filmmaking is a team effort without question. The director is the coach and must be left in control.
- Working in advertising was his film school and didn’t get into films until much later. He was 42 when he directed Blade Runner and felt a lot of pressure.
- He has been doing physical therapy for several months now on his rehabbed knee and sees Harrison Ford every day at the same gym. Said he has put on a lot of muscle for Cowboys and Aliens, which begins shooting this week.
- Scott wasn’t able to pick which of his brother Tony Scott’s films was his favorite but he said his two student films, One of the Missing and A Loving Memory, were the best student films he has ever seen.
- They are currently on the 4th draft of a screenplay for the sci-fi The Forever War, based on a novel by Joe Haldeman. He hopes to make it in the future.
- Scott’s favorite Star Wars film is Episode 4, A New Hope, because it is so romantic. As a producer, he looks for “romantic bones in a director’s body” and that was Lucas at his most romantic.
- Growing up, his family was very strict and didn’t talk about sexuality. So, at the time, he felt sci-fi was very tawdry and he was discouraged from seeing the movies. The Day the Earth Stood Still and On the Beach changed that, followed by 2001.
The rest of the questions were from the audience.
- When setting up shots, it’s all through intuition from a lot of preparation. He used to do 100-150 commercials a year so he is used to shooting very fast and doing everything on the fly.
- He never rehearses with his actors outside of table reads. Many times, the first time he sees anything play out is on the set. He said that’s okay because the actors he hires do their homework.
- Boucher asked about a Robin Hood sequel but instead of answering that, he just started talking about his Robin Hood movie. He loves the Mel Brooks film, not so much the Errol Flynn, and felt the film was a challenge because everyone has incorrect preconceived notions of Robin Hood and he wanted to go against that. He would, however, like to do a sequel.
- Alex Billington from FirstShowing.net said that in the past Scott said that “Sci-Fi is as dead as westerns” and asked why he changed his mind? He said he didn’t remember saying that but now has a western in development, and it’s being written by Larry McMurtry (Brokeback Mountain).
- If he had done the sequel to Alien, he would have made the movie he is making now about “The Space Jockey.”
- Blade Runner is so radically different from Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? because that book has way too much going on to be just one movie. It was Hampton Fancher’s choice to diverge from the book.
- The title Blade Runner came from a William F. Burroughs story and they bought the rights for $4,000. This sounded like a joke but maybe it wasn’t.
And that’s the end of the weekend. It was a total blast. A class operation that ran smoothly and professionally thanks to Geoff Boucher, the Los Angeles Times and the Mann Chinese Cinemas. Here’s hoping they do it again next year.
... I was able to arrange a brief sit-down with Sir Ridley Scott to discuss Alien and his forthcoming Alien prequels.
I only got 6 minutes, but I was the only person to get any alone time with Scott when he dropped by the Hero Complex Film Festival to discuss his career between screenings of Alien and Blade Runner. We go over some interesting things with a focus on why he’s wanting to go 3-D with the Alien prequels...
- Edited -
Sir Ridley Scott: Well, you guys do it! You spread the news!
Quint: Oh, I realize what part we play a part in that.
Sir Ridley Scott: The danger is are we removing the magic? I don’t know. By letting everybody in the door…
I’ve heard now that audiences object if it’s not purely 3D, if it’s 2D to 3D. I could show you 2D to 3D and you wouldn’t know the difference. But when they’re told it’s 2D to 3D they say, “**** that, man! I’m paying another four dollars…” It’s about money, of course, but you’re still paying for the effect. Really, it’s very close. 2D to 3D is awfully close.
Quint: Speaking of, I know a lot of our readers, myself included, are very excited to see you return to the Alien franchise, but there was some concern over your interest in doing the prequels in 3D.
Sir Ridley Scott: People don’t want me to do it?
Quint: I think there’s just a worry there because of the technical limitations of filming a movie in 3D.
Sir Ridley Scott: Not at all.
Quint: None at all?
Sir Ridley Scott: Naw. You know, what’s happened is the scientists have gone in the room… because it is complex. The beam-splitter, the this and the that and blah, blah, blah… it all sounds very complex.
I always (camera) operate. I operated entirely on Alien, for instance. Because I’m an operator I think lenses. If you think lenses then the crossover to 3D honestly is nothing.
I was told it was going to slow us down… it didn’t slow (Michael) Bay down. Bay is moving like lightning. Once he realized, “Oh, Jesus… there’s no difference, really. Except I’m adding dimension.”
They say, “Aren’t you worried about how it’s going to cut?” No, because when I’m planning I think in 3D anyway. Even when I’m storyboarding the scene is already thought of in dimension. “When he comes in there, I’ve got a deep two-shot. Should I cover that in singles or not? Will I need a reversal?” You’re already thinking in 3D.
Quint: But will it effect the lighting? My understanding is you have to light 3D brightly for it to really work, which doesn’t seem to fit into the atmospheric mold of an Alien film.
Sir Ridley Scott: You need a stop more. This new (film) stock is running at 800 ASA (ASA being American Standards Association, which sets film speed standards globally). I think when it melts down is will be about as fast (as standard film stock). Normal stock is 500 ASA, so even that is going to be equalized.
I think what people forget is that sometimes you want to fill a little bit more so you have the information in the blacks. So then later, when I grade it, the digital grading will have something to pick up. If there’s nothing to pick up, there’s nothing to pick up.
So, you protect yourself, particularly if you’re doing a film where you see a lot of effects shots you want to protect your negative. If I was just pure film, I would worry less about that and shoot for what I want, but because I’m going to go through a phase, or a generation, digitally I have to protect the negative by having information.
Quint: So, as long as the information is there you can go in during post and put whatever shadows you want.
Sir Ridley Scott: Yes. Then later I can take it, if the information is there, and crush it and contrast it.
Quint: Thank you so much for your time. They’re pulling me away here. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what you’ve got in store. I hope we’ll be seeing a lot of real, practical Aliens running around!
Sir Ridley Scott: Yeah, you will!
I’m not terribly sold on 3-D in the Alien universe, but from the above conversation I’m at least convinced that Scott has put a lot of technical and creative thought into the decision and isn’t just jumping on to the 3-D bandwagon.
I could have spent a couple hours talking with Sir Ridley about his career, but who gets that kind of time? I’m lucky to have gotten the 6 minutes I did. I hope you guys enjoyed it!
Lurking away in the dark reaches of the internet is a PDF file for what some believe is the next Alien movie, the prequel film that Ridley Scott is prepping for 20th Century Fox. But is the Alien Harvest screenplay legitimate or is it a piece of fan fiction? Six months after the script leaked online the question still remains unanswered, and with the latest bits of information that Scott himself said publically last night, the mystery has deepened still further.
Here are the known facts as best as I've been able to sort them out:
Sometime in early January 2010 the Alien Harvest PDF file was uploaded to the Scribd file sharing website. The 122-page script is credited to Jon Spaights, the screenwriter hired to write the untitled Alien prequel that Ridley Scott was developing at Fox. Shortly thereafter word about Alien Harvest began to trickle out to Alien fansites about the existence of this script. Discussions arose in the message forums of these sites (like this one at AVP Galaxy, this one at Alien vs Predator forum and a third at the IMDb) whether it was actually a leaked draft written by Spaights or someone's idea for a practical joke. Throwing yet more confusion into the mix, the original PDF file was removed from Scribd and a screenshot of what is allegedly a cease-and-desist email from a legal firm representing Fox was uploaded in its place. To this date no one knows for certain if the Alien fan community has been punked or if Fox has been trying its best to contain its intellectual property from spilling out on the net.
But at the event held last night by the L.A. Times' Hero Complex blog where Alien director Ridley Scott answered questions from the audience about the prequel he's developing, new information that the filmmaker dropped on the audience about the Alien prequel seems to give more weight to the Alien Harvest script being legit, or its creator being eerily prescient.
During the post-Alien Q&A, Scott reiterated several story points about his Alien prequel that were already known:
it takes place approximately 30 years before Alien.
it reveals the origins of how the skeletal alien at the controls of the crashed spaceship came to be found by the crew of the Nostromo.
as Scott explained to the crowd, the prequel will show us "who [the Space Jockey] was and where did he come from. . . then you may want to find out where they came from, you might want to go to him and go to the place where his people come from."
it will feature a new group of characters not seen in the Alien films.
it will feature a new version of the Alien as Ridley Scott believes the original impact of the creature has lost its shock value.
Furthermore, these new story items were mentioned by Scott at last night's event and had not been previously known about the Alien prequel:
the movie will expand on the notion of terraforming, the process of turning an inhospitable planet into one where beings can live on it.
somehow the way that faster-than-light travel is accomplished in the movie is going to be shown in a realistic manner, and with apparent downsides. As Ain't It Cool News' Quint quoted Scott as saying at the Q&A: "But what we're allowed to do [showing interstellar travel] by movies is to cheat like hell. But I think the closer it is to the truth, the closer it is to the technological feasibility then it becomes that much more interesting. And if it's a film like the one I’m going to do, then it becomes that much more frightening."
These latest two points are particularly revealing as they are indeed raised in the screenplay available on the net.
Now that the known facts are on the table, let's turn to the main piece of evidence: the Alien Harvest screenplay. Even though it's not confirmed that this script is authentic, the spoiler flag is raised. Turn away if you don't want to know any more possible story elements for the Alien prequel.
There are two stories at play in Alien Harvest. On an alien world outside of human exploration, two human men are living among the elephantine race we call Space Jockeys. Here they are referred to as "growers" as they are terraforming the world the men find themselves on. Using a second mule-like alien race, the growers/Space Jockeys are cultivating wheat-like plants. The two men, the experienced Fin and newcomer Karik, were each rescued from deep space by the growers and are now assisting in the farming of the wheat. Among them is a cat called Oleo, another survivor.
The growers don't communicate much to the humans except for gut feelings delivered by what the men think is a weak psychic link, thus Fin has to explain what he thinks is going on to Karik. In another corner of the area is a hive where the Giger Aliens live -- except they're the size of three-inch insects in this place, with four to six legs. Fin thinks that the growers use the "ant-aliens" as part of their terraforming. Small leathery alien eggs are within the ant-alien's hive, but the facehuggers contained in them are too small to harm the humans -- but not Oleo the cat.
The second storyline concerns a human spaceship called the Arrowhead in deep space. They are under orders from the Complex, hinted at being a rival faction to the Company from the Alien movies, to protect certain regions of space from interlopers. Upon detecting a strange vessel, the Arrowhead gives chase and pursues the alien vessel -- the future derelict craft from Alien -- to the same solar system that the Nostromo went to, LV-426.
I don't have to get into further details or what happens that sets the stage for Alien; the info is out there if you want to search for it. Upon first reading the Alien Harvest script I was immediately struck by how strange it was. Even though I didn't have much of a shaped idea as to what the prequel's direction could be, it was not the kind of Alien prequel storyline that I had been expecting. For starters, there were really unusual ideas in it, even for a supposed fanboy creation. Let's begin with the miniature ant-aliens. Would anyone out there have figured that the new version of the Alien would be a diminunative, bug-sized version? Then there's the two separate storylines which, while they set up what we see in Alien, never intersect in Alien Harvest. And for an Alien movie there's very little horror in the plot; in fact, no one is killed by an Alien during the course of the script. It's really more of a drama that takes place in outer space and on an unusual planet. Furthermore, there's a subplot involving, believe it or not, forced homosexuality between Fin and Karik that would be odd to see in a mainstream sci-fi movie, especially one as commercial as the Alien series. I don't have an issue with the homosexual content, or the weirdness of the ant-aliens or the revealing of the grower/Space Jockey society, or adding new elements to the Alien universe, but if Alien Harvest is real then it represents not just a harder sci-fi edge to its storyline but an inherit alienness from the earlier films. After this franchise has had just about every drop of originality squeezed from it, having weirdness return to it is not a bad thing at all...it's just that I find this sort of direction completely unexpected from what I assumed Fox would want and eventually market for mainstream commercial purposes. Hey, with Ridley Scott behind the wheel, who knows what he's convinced Fox to go along with?
What works against Alien Harvest being legitimate are small circumstantial pieces of evidence: in the based on original characters credit that comes at the beginning of the script, the name of Alien co-screenwriter Ronald Shusett is misspelled; an email address for Spaights is given but it doesn't correlate with the email that appears on his earlier screenplays Passengers or Shadow 19; and under the PDF properties the author of the file is given as "David Bryan". There are also the story peculiarities: the traditional three-act structure of nearly all screenplays is almost dispensed with in Alien Harvest; the absence of a strong horror undertone as is found with the other Alien films; and the unconventional character and plot elements.
What works for Alien Harvest being possibly real: the ebb and flow of the script is somewhat remindful of Spaight's earlier work, especially the hardcore strangeness found in Shadow 19; the story is told in a manner indicative of what a professional screenwriter would do; the ending sets up for a second prequel, something that Scott said he plans to make; and, perhaps most importantly, the references that Scott made at the Q&A to the prequel expanding on terraforming and the downside of what real faster-than-light travel would do sync up. On that last note, in the Alien Harvest script the humans onboard the Arrowhead have to follow the derelict rapidly, and using true relativistic physics they age slower than the outside universe does -- meaning that their families will age quicker and they will come home to Earth years later than they originally planned for. That sounds a little like what Ridley Scott said last evening, didn't he?
In the end I can't tell you one way or the other if Alien Harvest is a leaked screenplay or someone's weird idea of a hoax. I've seen stranger leaks turn out to be true, like the leaked Predators draft that was supposed to be bogus but is lining up perfectly with what has been released so far about that movie's storyline. On the flip side, I've also seen screenplays and leaked items turn out to be fake. If this truly is a leaked Alien prequel script then it has to be a first draft; I can't see Scott proceding ahead with this without adding more to the Arrowhead storyline, which is all but a chase sequence stretched out over a two-hour movie. I also can't see Fox suits being too happy with the lack of any Alien-inflicted deaths during the movie. If Fox is cool with giving $90 million dollars to make an art house hard sci-fi movie, I'm cool with it too -- but I highly doubt that's going to be allowed to happen.
Personally? Alien Harvest was strange enough to make me wonder if I liked the answers to the origin of the Space Jockey and the new twists to the origins of the Aliens. Now it's kind of grown on me: if we are to have answers to the mysteries of Alien, then let them be uncomfortably alien.
Ok, I read this supposed script and all I got to say is; "WAT DA F***?"
This is my feelings towards this script;
[Show spoiler]it's odd. The whole Space Jockey doing the whole Jedi Mind Trick and essentially raping the two guys should be cut. That was kind of explicitly told in detail in the script. It seriously turns into like Brokeback Mountain but with the Xenos added to it. I think making the Xenos ant sized is a neat play on their origins and then having the cat make a Cat/Xeno Hybrid sounds interesting and I'd like to see how it translates from the script to the screen.
Ok, I read this supposed script and all I got to say is; "WAT DA F***?"
This is my feelings towards this script;
[Show spoiler]it's odd. The whole Space Jockey doing the whole Jedi Mind Trick and essentially raping the two guys should be cut. That was kind of explicitly told in detail in the script. It seriously turns into like Brokeback Mountain but with the Xenos added to it. I think making the Xenos ant sized is a neat play on their origins and then having the cat make a Cat/Xeno Hybrid sounds interesting and I'd like to see how it translates from the script to the screen.
From my understanding not only did the company know about the ship but they knew about the Aliens. The android in the first movie told Ripley that the mission was to bring one back for study.
So how did the company know about the Alien?
Second. The company knew that the Alien signal came from LV-426. And the Nostromo never returned. So why did they colonize LV-426?
Why didnt they send another ship to investigate?
When they surveyed the planet for colonization, how come they never came across the alien ship? Newt's parents came across it how come no one else did? It apparently wasnt far from the colony. Why would the company colonize a planet that is so inhospitable to human life, and could have a hostile alien lifeform?
Just some questions I've always had about the movies.
I read this like 2 years ago but there was supposed to be an Alien movie and it surrounds the ship that the marines came on.
Last was seen of it the escape pod was jetisoned to the prison planet Ripley died on. And the ship kept on going. So a search is sent out for the ship. And when it is discovered Aliens of course are found on it. Some questions regarding the Aliens and the company were supposed to be addressed.
From my understanding not only did the company know about the ship but they knew about the Aliens. The android in the first movie told Ripley that the mission was to bring one back for study.
So how did the company know about the Alien?
I don't know if I ever knew the answer to this one about the knowledge of the actual 'hostile organism' from just an ALIEN warning beacon. Anybody????
Quote:
Second. The company knew that the Alien signal came from LV-426. And the Nostromo never returned. So why did they colonize LV-426?
Why didnt they send another ship to investigate?
Volcanic activity HEAVILY damaged the alien ship and also the functioning warning beacon, which then stopped sending it's warning and location.(this was also shown in the SE of the movie as well as the movie novel)
They sent another ship in the form of the colony to hopefully stumble upon the derelict alien ship since the alien transmitter was no longer functioning, as this was the best way to eventually re-locate the alien ship until Ripley's shuttle finally provided the much needed data on it's location.
Quote:
When they surveyed the planet for colonization, how come they never came across the alien ship?
Because volcanic activity HEAVILY damaged the alien ship which then stopped transmitting the warning, which is the very reason they established the colony...to re-locate the precious Aliens.
Quote:
Newt's parents came across it how come no one else did? It apparently wasnt far from the colony.
That was explained in the theatrical and SE versions of Aliens. Slimeball Burke extracted the data from Ripley's shuttle which had the info on the Alien ship's location, and then the data was relayed back to the colony, in which Newts parents became the unlucky volunteers to investigate...so to speak.
Quote:
Why would the company colonize a planet that is so inhospitable to human life, and could have a hostile alien lifeform?
This was explained clearly in both movies through 'The Company's and Burkes actions.
"PRIORITY ONE. INSURE RETURN OF ORGANISM FOR ANALYSIS. ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY. CREW EXPENDABLE."
Hope this helps.
Also here is a great reply from James Cameron in the Starlog magazine regarding responses to Aliens critics in the letters section of the mag.
Quote:
James Cameron's responses to Aliens critics
JAMES CAMERON is the writer/director of ALIENS. Previously, he co-wrote (with Gale Anne Hurd) and directed Terminator. His first film as director was Piranha II: The Spawning. Cameron's other filmmaking credits include Rambo: First Blood II (as co-writer), Battle Beyond the Stars (as art director), Escape from New York (as special FX co-supervisor) and Planet of Horrors (as production designer/second unit director). Interviews with Cameron have appeared in STARLOG #89 & 110 and FANGORIA #56. A previously unpublished Cameron interview, conducted after ALIENS' release, appears in THE BLOODY BEST OF FANGORIA f6. This essay, Cameron's reply to readers' letters on ALIENS, was addressed to the Communications department but is published here as part of the ongoing SF professionals' forum, Other Voices.
As the writer and director of ALIENS, I naturally prefer the sort of cogent criticism contained in Lisa Snyder's letter (STARLOG #116) stating "ALIENS is perfect!" However, since there were 11 other letters in the same issue containing complaints of flaws in logic, accuracy and asethetic execution, I thought I would take this opportunity to reply en masse.
I will take them in the order they were printed. First, Peter Briggs, who seems otherwise to be a fairly well-researched student of ALIEN, points out incorrectly that "LV-426 was a ringed planet." The unnamed planetoid harboring the alien derelict ship, to which I gave the designation LV-426, was in fact a moon of a ringed gas giant, which was occasionally glimpsed in the sky in ALIEN. The gas giant does not appear in ALIENS because the exterior scenes on LV-426 have an unbroken cloud cover or overcast, and the space scenes are handled in a cursory manner, advancing the story without dwelling on the wonders of interstellar travel, which so many other films have done so well, as their primary raison d'etre. You might say we approached LV-426 from the other direction, and the ringed gas giant companion was out of frame.
Briggs' next problem was "Why do the colonists not pick up the derelict SOS?" by which I assume he is referring to the acoustic beacon broadcasting a "warning." As some readers may know, scenes were filmed but cut from the final release version of the film which depicted the discovery of the derelict by a mom-and-pop geological survey (i.e.: prospecting) team. As scripted, they were given the general coordinates of its position by the manager of the colony, on orders from Carter Burke. It is not directly stated, but presumed, that Burke could only have gotten that information from Ripley or from the black-box flight recorder aboard the shuttle Narcissus, which accessed the Nostromo's on-board computer. When the Jorden family, including young Newt, reach the coordinates, they discover the derelict ship. Since we and the Nostromo crew last saw it, it has been damaged by volcanic activity, a lava flow having crushed it against a rock outcropping and ripped open its hull. Aside from considerations of visual interest, this serves as a justification for the acoustic beacon being non-operational.
Briggs' idea that the company had already discovered the derelict is therefore unnecessary and would invalidate Carter Burke's motives for attempting to bring back a sample of the organism for study, and using such drastic means to do it.
The missing scenes also provide a more solid connecting link in the process of the colony's infestation. We see Russ Jorden dragged back to their vehicle by his wife with a "facehugger" parasite attached to his face. We see the wife call the colony for a rescue party. It's fairly simple extrapolation to assume that the progress of the organism through the enclosed and isolated population of the colony followed much the same course, on a greater scale, as the life cycle of the original Alien on board Nostromo.
These scenes, as well as four or five others, which would certainly be of interest to fans, will be restored for the ABC airings of the film and, if all goes well, in a "special edition" videocassette, running roughly 12 minutes longer than the release of 137 minutes. No confirmed release date is set for either of these, but stay tuned.
Briggs' next beef is with the Alien Queen, and for several reasons. His contention is that she destroys the original intention of the missing scene in ALIEN. This is perfectly correct, but I find it somewhat irrelevant since as an audience member and as a filmmaker creating a sequel, I can really only be responsible to those elements which actually appeared in the first film and not to its "intentions." ALIEN screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's proposed life cycle, as completed in the unseen scene, would have been too restricting for me as a storyteller and I would assume that few fans of ALIENS would be willing to trade the final cat-fight between the moms for a point of technical accuracy that only a microscopic percentage of ALIEN fans might be aware of.
In my version of the Alien life cycle, the infestation of the colony would proceed like this:
1. Russ Jorden attacked, they radio for rescue.
2. Rescue party investigates ship...several members facehuggered... brought back to base for treatment.
3. Several "chestbursters" free themselves from hosts, escape into ducting, begin to grow.
4. Extrapolating from entomology (ants, termites, etc.), an immature female, one of the first to emerge from hosts, grows to become a new queen, while males become drones or warriors. Subsequent female larvae remain dormant or are killed by males... or biochemically sense that a queen exists and change into males to limit waste. The Queen locates a nesting spot (the warmth of the atmosphere station heat exchanger level being perfect for egg incubation) and becomes sedentary. She is then tended by the males as her abdomen swells into a distended egg sac. The drones and warriors also secrete a resinous building material to line the structure, creating niches in which they may lie dormant when food supplies and/or hosts for futher reproduction become depleted (i.e. when all the colonists are used up). They are discovered in this condition by the troopers, but quickly emerge when new hosts present themselves.
Thus, even with the Queen's vast egglaying capacity, the Aliens are still a parasitic form, requiring a host from a different species to create the warrior or Queen stages of the life cycle. Since the warriors are bipedal with two arms (H.R. Giger's original design), it may be inferred that the facehugger is an indifferentiated parasite, which lays an egg inside a host, but that the resulting form (chestburster through adult) has taken on certain biological characteristics of its host. This would account for the degree of anthropomorphism in the design.
One admittedly confusing aspect of this creature's behavior (which was unclear as well in ALIEN) is the fact that sometimes the warrior will capture prey for a host, and other times, simply kill it. For example, Ferro the dropship pilot is killed outright while Newt, and previously most of the colony members, were only captured and cocooned within the walls to aid in the Aliens' reproduction cycle. If we assume the Aliens have intelligence, at least in the central guiding authority of the Queen, then it is possible that these decisions may have a tactical basis. For example, Ferro was a greater threat, piloting the heavily armed dropship, than she was a desirable host for reproduction. Newt, and most of the colonists, were unarmed and relativelyhelpless, therefore easily captured for hosting.
Please bear in mind the difficulty of communicating a life cycle this complex to a mass audience, which, seven years later, may barely recall that there was an Alien in ALIEN, let alone the specifics of its physical development. I had a great deal of story to tell, and a thorough re-education would have relegated ALIENS to a pedantic reprise of Ridley Scott's film. The audience seems to have a deepseated faith in the Aliens' basic nastiness and drive to reproduce which requires little logical rationale. That leaves only hardcore fans such as myself and a majority of this readership to ponder the technical specifics and construct a plausible scenario.
Kelly Godel deplores the Aliens as "lame, weak and shameful follow-ups to their predecessor." A careful analysis of both films would show that the adult warrior (my term for the single adult seen in ALIEN) has the same physical powers and capabilities in ALIENS as it did previously. Since the Nostromo crew were unarmed, with the exception of flamethrowers (which we never see actually used against the creature), the relative threat was much greater than it would be to an armed squad of state-of-the- art Marines. One, crazed man with a knife can be the most terrifying thing you can imagine, if you happen to be unarmed and locked in a house alone with him. If you're with 10 armed police officers, it's a different story.
We set out to make a different type of film, not just retell the same story in a different way. The Aliens are terrifying in their overwhelming force of numbers. The dramatic situations emerging from characters under stress can work just as well in an Alamo or Zulu Dawn as they can in a Friday the 13th, with its antagonist.
Jim ****** discusses plot lines for ALIEN III but I can't comment, since Gale Hurd, the producer of ALIENS, and myself have decided to move on to other things and leave a third film to others.
Ben Smith asks where the Aliens originated. In dialogue, I have Ripley specifically telling a member of the inquiry board, "I already told you, it was not indigenous, it was a derelict spacecraft, an alien ship, it was not from there." That seems clear enough. Don't ask me where it was from... there are some things man was not meant to know. Presumably, the derelict pilot (space jockey, big dental patient, etc.) became infected en route to somewhere and set down on the barren planetoid to isolate the dangerous creatures, setting up the warning beacon as his last act. What happened to the creature that emerged from him? Ask Ridley. As to the purpose of the Alien... I think that's clear. They're just trying to make a living, same as us. It's not their fault that they happen to be disgusting parasitical predators, any more than a black widow spider or a cobra can be blamed for its biological nature.
David R. Larson makes some interesting comments and yes, the design of the "warrior" adult was altered slightly. His rationale for this is as good as mine (that the individual in ALIEN never reached maturity).
Daniel Line asks more questions about the derelict which, as a writer, I could provide plausible answers for, but they're no more valid than anyone else's. Clearly, the dental patient was a sole crew member on a one-man ship. Perhaps his homeworld did know of his demise, but felt it was pointless to rescue a doomed person. Perhaps he was a volunteer or a draftee on the hazardous mission of bio-isolating these organisms. Perhaps he was a military pilot, delivering the alien eggs as a bio-weapon in some ancient interstellar war humans know nothing of, and got infected inadvertently. "How could the man who went onto the derelict not know something was wrong when he saw the dead gunner?" Well, Dallas, Kane and Lambert saw the dead gunner and that didn't stop them. Human curiosity is a powerful force. As for the equipment left behind by the Nostromo crew being a deterrent, this requires that Jorden and the other colonists enter the derelict through the Freudian main door. In ALIENS gong version), they enter through a large rent in the hull caused by damage from the lava flow, going directly into the egg chamber level.
Abbas Rezvi takes exception to Ripley's ease of adjustment to 57 years of technological change. First of all, ask yourself if an intelligent and willful person from 1930 could or could not adapt to the technology of 1987, given a few months of training. They had automobiles (including traffic jams), machine guns and airplanes then, only the specifics are different now. Conversely, however, who could have dreamed of the impact of computers and video on our current environment? A second point is that there have been 57-year periods in history where little or no social or technological change took place, due to religious repression, war, plague or other factors. Perhaps technology had topped out or plateaued before the Nostromo's flight, and the changes upon Ripley's return were not great. You decide. It doesn't bother Ripley, and it doesn't bother me. I hope this answers a few of your readers' concerns. I would like to thank STARLOG for its support of our film through articles ("Viva Vasquez"), movie books, etc. We'll keep you posted on upcoming projects, several of which are science fiction.
By the way, it's not in the goddamed cat and it's not in Newt, either. I would never be that cruel.
I'm not saying I'm not excited, but let's hope that the 1970's and 1980's Ridley Scott is directing it and not the more recent Ridley Scott, because I could swear they're two different people.
I also hope there's human beings in it and it isn't a two film prequel about the damn elephantine pilot from the first Alien. I doubt it will be, but I'm seeing less and less people in movies and more and more CG creatures. I just hope Alien doesn't fall victim.
I'm not saying I'm not excited, but let's hope that the 1970's and 1980's Ridley Scott is directing it and not the more recent Ridley Scott, because I could swear they're two different people.
I also hope there's human beings in it and it isn't a two film prequel about the damn elephantine pilot from the first Alien. I doubt it will be, but I'm seeing less and less people in movies and more and more CG creatures. I just hope Alien doesn't fall victim.
yeah its a tough risk doing the alien Prequels
Predators was a HUGE Improvement and a down right SOLD sequel..
I'm not saying I'm not excited, but let's hope that the 1970's and 1980's Ridley Scott is directing it and not the more recent Ridley Scott, because I could swear they're two different people.
I also hope there's human beings in it and it isn't a two film prequel about the damn elephantine pilot from the first Alien. I doubt it will be, but I'm seeing less and less people in movies and more and more CG creatures. I just hope Alien doesn't fall victim.
Ridley Scott just had the best decade career. In the 80s only Blade Runner was good. He's an amazing technician and storyteller still.
Cameron's alien lifecycle does not necessarily contradict the Dallas scene that was cut from the theatrical cut of Alien, but re-inserted into the "directors cut" Its quite possible that the Alien from the first one had not quite reached Queen maturity and was saving Brett and Dallas until it had the ability to lay eggs and this be cocooned.
I can completely buy that and feel it works quite well.
Cameron's alien lifecycle does not necessarily contradict the Dallas scene that was cut from the theatrical cut of Alien, but re-inserted into the "directors cut" Its quite possible that the Alien from the first one had not quite reached Queen maturity and was saving Brett and Dallas until it had the ability to lay eggs and this be cocooned.
I can completely buy that and feel it works quite well.
I have also read in the books that in the right circumstances, such as a drone being alone, or a queen dying before laying an egg with a queen facehugger, a drone can change into a queen. Therefore, in ALIEN it might have been in the starting stages of this transformation.
I have also read in the books that in the right circumstances, such as a drone being alone, or a queen dying before laying an egg with a queen facehugger, a drone can change into a queen. Therefore, in ALIEN it might have been in the starting stages of this transformation.
I buy that a drone being alone will ultimately change into a queen and the queen will produce a hormone preventing other drones from becoming queens.
[Show spoiler]Interesting take on the origins of the "aliens", but there is very little action throughout the movie. It lacks the claustrophobic nowhere to run feel the first two movies had.
Also the two sex scenes seem to serve no purpose other then to ensure the movie a R rating because of its surprisingly lack of violence..
The whole thing felt nothing like the first two movies.
[Show spoiler]Interesting take on the origins of the "aliens", but there is very little action throughout the movie. It lacks the claustrophobic nowhere to run feel the first two movies had.
Also the two sex scenes seem to serve no purpose other then to ensure the movie a R rating because of its surprisingly lack of violence..
The whole thing felt nothing like the first two movies.
It is. That is a book that was written in 96 and a lot of the plot details seem to be from it or other Alien novels written in the 90's.
Ridley Scott just had the best decade career. In the 80s only Blade Runner was good. He's an amazing technician and storyteller still.
The only movies he's done since Thelma and Louise that I thought were half way decent were American Gangster and, maybe, Hannibal.
I think, since the end of the 1980's, he's become indistinguishable from Steven Soderbergh, Sam Mendes, and especially Wolfgang Petersen. He and Wolfgang Petersen might as well be the same director, when it comes to the kinds of choices they make.
Legend wasn't that good, but, at least, it wasn't exactly like every single movie that came out that year or that decade.
I just think he makes really safe, usually forgettable movies. He picks the kind of subject matter that's in the vogue with people that give a damn about the Oscars and keeps making the movies he thinks they want him to make, so he can win a g.d. award. I think it's lame.
Sorry you like everything he's done, recently. I don't.
Well here’s some interesting news. Deadline is reporting that Lost writer/executive producer Damon Lindelof has been hired to rewrite Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel. Lindelof reportedly met with Scott and 20th Century Fox to talk about the gig, but also ended up sparking a discussion that “could well turn out to be a free-standing science fiction film.” The studio will decide once Lindelof turns in his script. However, Deadline doesn’t say whether or not this means Lindelof is writing the prequel, is writing an Alien script that could be adapted into a stand-alone sci-fi film, or penning the Alien prequel and a stand-alone sci-fi movie.
Lindelof is also hard at work writing Star Trek 2 with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. As for Scott, he hasn’t confirmed that the Alien prequel (which would actually be two 3D movies) will be his next projects.
Scott has a multitude of projects that he could make into his next movie. He’s got The Wolf of Wall Street, which might re-team him with Leonardo DiCaprio; an adaptation of the board game Monopoly, a Gucci biopic with Angelina Jolie as the female lead, an remake of the Red Riding Trilogy, the vampire flick The Passage, and an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. So if the Alien prequels don’t come up next, it’s not like Scott’s going to be lounging around the house playing XBox 360 all day (although, if he did, I’m sure it would inspire him to take on yet another movie).
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