The Low Down on the Alien Franchise

alien

Ridley Scott’s return to science fiction, Prometheus, opens in theaters today.  To mark the occasion, I am looking back on one of the most beloved science fictions franchises in movie history.

The original Alien started from humble beginnings.  Dan O’Bannon co-wrote the John Carpenter sci-fi comedy Dark Star.  Dark Star is a really intelligent sci-fi comedy made on a shoestring budget.  It included an alien that was basically a spray painted beach ball.
O’Bannon thought it would be interesting to do a serious take on the subplot of astronauts trapped in space with a real alien.  He set about writing a screenplay borrowing from several influences.  “I didn’t steal Alien from anybody. I stole it from everybody!” said O’Bannon.
O’Bannon and his co-writer, Ronald Shusett pitched Alien to studios as Jaws in space.  They were close to a deal with low-budget mogul Roger Corman, when a friend hooked them up with Brandywine Productions which had ties to 20th Century Fox.  After the success of Star Wars, Fox was interested in science fiction again but lacked a lot of sci fi scripts.  On this basis, Alien was greenlit.
The studio approached a lot of directors before finally settling on a promising new-comer, Ridley Scott.  Scott was interested in playing up the horror elements of Alien.  When O’Bannon showed Scott some paintings by H.R. Giger, Scott knew he had found the look of the film.
Alien was released in 1979 with the now-classic tag line, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”  Reviews were somewhat mixed.  A lot of critics didn’t know what to make of the sci-fi/horror hybrid.  But audiences got it and Alien was a commercial hit.
Alien gave us so many indelible images that have seeped into pop culture.  Just about every alien depicted on film since 1979 has been inflienced by Giger.  There are face huggers and chest bursters.  Even a relative throw-away like the “space jockey” still lives in our collective imagination decades later.
Alien (along with Scott’s Blade Runner) created a new set of visuals that would inform every science fiction movie made in the last several decades.  Its cultural impact can’t be under-estimated.

This is going to sound crazy, but despite the success of the first film, 20th Century Fox wasn’t interested in an Alien sequel.  The movie was a hit.  But the studio didn’t feel like it was a big enough hit to merit a sequel.  It was a different time and studios were actually wary of making sequels which generally cost more and returned less.
While he was working on the original Terminator, a young James Cameron approached Fox with an idea for an Alien sequel.  Filming of Terminator was delayed for a few months so Arnold Schwarzenegger could fulfill his contractual obligation to make a Conan sequel.  During the delay, Cameron punched up his Alien script.  Fox was impressed.  They told Cameron that if The Terminator was a hit, they would be interested in his Alien sequel.
Given the fact that they are still making Alien movies decades later, it seems silly.  But the notion of an Alien sequel was a tough sell at the time.  The original Alien was a self-contained horror movie.  Scott used up every trick in the sci-fi/horror bag.  There didn’t seem to be any reason to go back to that well.
The genius of Cameron’s take on Alien was that he changed up the formula.  Where Scott’s film had been a psychological thriller which Scott described as a “fun house”, Cameron’s sequel was a take-no-prisoners action movie more along the lines of a roller coaster.
However, Cameron also knew enough to retain enough elements of the original film to make it feel like an Alien movie.  The face huggers and chest bursters were still present.  Cameron just raised the stakes.  Instead of a small crew being slowly hunted by a single alien, Cameron set up space marines vs a planet of aliens.
Seven years after the first film, Aliens took the franchise in a completely new direction, made Cameron an A-list director and Sigourney Weaver an action heroine.

Books could be written about the troubled misfire that was Alien 3.  Following the success of Aliens, Brandywine planned to shoot the next two Alien films back-to-back.  The plan was to focus on Michael Biehn’s character from Aliens with Sigourney Weaver making a cameo appearance.  Obviously, things didn’t work out that way.
The original script went through several re-writes.  Eventually, 20th Century Fox president Joe Roth balked at the idea of an Alien movie that didn’t center on Weaver’s Ripley character.  He famously declared that Weaver was the franchise.  With all due respect to Sigourney Weaver and the iconic Ripley character, I wholeheartedly disagree.
The film went through so many revisions that at one point Fox released a teaser that implied that Alien 3 would take place on earth.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk_x9W1xKng] Eventually, they settled on a script that was a hodge podge of bits from previous scripts.  It took place on a prison planet and centered on a religious order.
For practical reasons, the popular characters of Newt and Hicks from Aliens were killed off off-screen in the opening scenes of Alien 3.  This decision immediately alienated (no pun intended) fans of the franchise who felt it invalidated Ripley’s struggles in Aliens.
Alien and Aliens were both overseen by visionary directors early in their career.  The same can be said of Alien 3 which was directed by David Fincher.  Fincher is undoubtedly a talented director and I would love to see his take on Alien.  However, the studio meddled with the film to an alarming degree.  Fincher has disavowed the final film.  When given an opportunity to participate in a director’s cut for the DVD release, Fincher was the only Alien director to decline.
Alien 3 was a downer of a movie.  It took place on a drab planet populated by bald English actors wearing robes.  Most of the cast was indistinguishable from one another.  The entire movie leads to the death of the series’ lead character (after opening with the death of a child).  Oh, and Ripley shaves her head.
Even so, I think Alien 3 could have been a worthy entry in the franchise had Fox not hacked it up so badly.  The lack of Alien action worried the studio, so they cut together a bunch of scenes of the alien hunting the robed prisoners.  The result was an extended sequence of darkly lit bald men running through corridor after corridor.  The action scenes committed the crime of being boring.
Not surprisingly, Alien 3 was a box office bomb in 1992.  The reviews were mostly negative.
Despite the failure of Alien 3, Fox was still interested in the Alien franchise.  They approached screenwriter (and future Avengers director) Joss Whedon to write a treatment.  The original script centered on the idea of a clone of Newt since Ripley had been killed off in the previous film.
Once again, Fox decided to double down on Ripley who they stubbornly believed was the heart and soul of the Alien series.  Whedon had to completely rework his script to accommodate the change in lead characters.  Weaver found Whedon’s script (which included a final act on earth) to be interesting enough to agree to reprise the Ripley role one more time.
The first three films in the series all benefitted from the involvement of truly talented directors.  The series’ luck ran out with Alien: Resurrection.  The fourth Alien film was helmed by a French director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  This was after Danny Boyle, Peter Jackson and Bryan Singer all declined.  Sigh.
What went wrong with Alien Resurrection?  Joss Whedon summed it up thusly:
“It wasn’t a question of doing everything differently…it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong…They did everything wrong that they could possibly do…it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable.”
I think that just about sums up Alien 4.  Alien Resurrection was the least successful film in the franchise to date.

In the late 80’s, comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics published a story pitting two of its most popular licenced properties against each other.  The Alien vs Predator comic book led to several more comics and video games.  Rumors circulated for years that an Aliens vs. Predator movie would be made.
In the early 2000’s there was a brief fad of pairing off popular franchises.  2003’s Freddy vs. Jason was a modest hit.  A Batman vs. Superman film was in development but thankfully never produced.  Aliens vs. Predator seemed like a no-brainer.  And boy, was it!
Director (and Milla Jovovich’s husband and chief employer)  Paul W.S. Anderson pitched 20th Century Fox on the mash-up.  Anderson (who uses not one but two initials in his professional name) built his career on movie adaptations of video games like Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil.
In spite of his two initials, I have found Anderson’s films to be dumb, simple fun.  I can turn my brain off just long enough to enjoy Milla Jovovich killing zombies in a torrential downpour and a tank top (preferably in 3-D) for the 90 minute running time of a Resident Evil movie.  But that didn’t carry over to the dumb, joyless (and also Jovovichless) Aliens vs. Predator (or AVP its friends like to call it.)
Inspite of terrible reviews, AVP was a pretty big hit at the box office.  In fact, it outgrossed all previous Alien and Predator movies.  Further proof of my theory that Paul W.S. Anderson has made a pact with Satan.

Given the success of AVP, it’s no surprise that Fox rushed production of a sequel.  Feeling emboldened by their ill-gotten gains, the studio decided to go even lower on the director chain by hiring the special effects team of the Brothers Strause to direct.
The sequel was aptly subtitled Requiem as it signaled the death of the mash-up series.  Without the Satan-pact of W.S. Anderson, AVP 2 was a major box office disaster.

But Fox wasn’t done with the lucrative Alien franchise.  Instead, they lured back original director Ridley Scott for a prequel/reboot.  The prequel gradually morphed into Prometheus which has been rather coy about its connection to the original film.
Reviews have been strong.  Clips have that signature Ridley Scott look.  Hopefully I can get out this weekend and post a full review soon.
Review: Prometheus
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umi
umi
11 years ago

I’m definitely excited to see Prometheus tonight! After my boyfriend showed me a few trailers, I was hooked. It’s going to be amazing!!!!

tbob1
11 years ago

Sanaa Lathan made AVP worth the price of admission all by herself! It’s true that it plus Requiem are mostly forgettable, but still watchable none the less just for the sheer spectacle of watching the two alien races go at each others throats. It’s been a long time since I watched either of the first two, but I seem to remember getting into the second one a little more than the first. With the exception of the chest-bursting scene I don’t remember much about part 1. I’m not sure I ever watched 3 or 4 all the way through. I… Read more »

I am an Idiot
I am an Idiot
11 years ago

They should call it Prosuckeus, the movie was boring, slow and not worth the price of admission or the wait.

cinemarchaeologist
11 years ago

I started a reply to this, got a little too enthusiastic, and, after it got quite long, I just turned it into a full-blown blog of my own (again). So a little cross-pollination, perhaps:
http://cinemarchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/06/rating-alien.html

cinemarchaeologist
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I would have really loved to see an Alien flick done by Fincher at that moment in his career if he’d been involved in the creative process from the beginning, but at the point at which he became a part of the project, it wouldn’t have mattered if the studio had backed off (and it wouldn’t have mattered who was directing, either). By the time he was hired, they’d settled on the awful slapped-together storyline, and were already building sets. Something like 9 writers had worked on the script, and it still wasn’t finished; the final script wasn’t until the… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Alien‭ ‬3:‭ ‬Comparing the Assembly Cut to the Theatrical Cut
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/alien/259437/alien-3-comparing-the-assembly-cut-to-the-theatrical-cut
The 30-minute longer Assembly Cut brings Alien 3 closer to David Fincher’s original vision, making for fascinating contrast.

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

I’ve always thought that Alien 3, like The Godfather Part III, may be more beloved had it been the first in its series. In both cases, though, it is a film which followed 2 bonafide classics and, as a result, seems anticlimatic.

cinemarchaeologist
11 years ago
Reply to  Jake

Nah. If Cubed had been the first ALIEN flick, we would have never had another.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  lebeau

Alien 3 | Freakin’ Awesome Network Forums: http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/487971/alien-3 6 hours ago It had the unfortunate legacy of following up one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and one of the greatest action movies of all time, so the standards were extremely lofty to begin with. Killing off Newt and Hicks before the movie started really rendered much of the previous movie moot, Ripley’s character development and protectiveness of Newt was just thrown out the window. Now, on it’s own, it’s not a bad movie at all. I actually think history has been kinder to it than people were… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_r6AWJRV38
Enjoy this in-depth discussion on the extensive pre-production of Alien 3, failed drafts, recycled ideas and the eventual theatrical cut. We also discuss the differences between the theatrical cut and the assembly cut, and which is better.

JediJones
JediJones
11 years ago

Pitof, didn’t direct Alien 4, you’re thinking of Catwoman. Pitof did the effects, but Alien 4 was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The Alien series is one of the most overrated in the whole action/sci-fi genre. Sure, as horror movies go, the first two measure up, but horror is the genre with the lowest bar for quality. The main problem is that the Alien is a terrible villain. Just compare to the superior Predator or Terminator characters, who have intelligence (artificial or otherwise) and weaponry at their disposal. The Alien is just a mindless, faceless creature who has been unable to… Read more »

cinemarchaeologist
11 years ago
Reply to  JediJones

“Sure, as horror movies go, the first two measure up, but horror is the genre with the lowest bar for quality.” Actually, it’s arguably the genre with the second-highest bar for quality (the top one being comedy). Most movies of ANY genre suck, but there’s more worthless dreck produced within the horror genre than within any other (save comedy), because it’s one of the hardest to get right. “The main problem is that the Alien is a terrible villain. Just compare to the superior Predator or Terminator characters, who have intelligence (artificial or otherwise) and weaponry at their disposal.” Those… Read more »

cinemarchaeologist
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

“I can’t blame Ridley Scott for Batman.” Of course not–that’s absurd. Burton’s first BATMAN isn’t something for which someone should be “blamed,” anyway; it’s still the definitive live-action screen adaptation of the Batman. Burton went off the rails (and badly) with RETURNS, but the only films that really copied that were the subsequent live-action Batman films. “Alien and Blade Runner were not style over substance. They represented style and substance.” And style AS substance. Those films aren’t about offering up spectacle; they invite and, in fact, demand that the viewer think about what’s happening, another way in which, as I… Read more »

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

i saw prometheus and it was stupid. why make a prequel? worst movie from ridley scott i’ve seen.

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

well it got to be boring from the beginning, gruesome in the middle, and stupid in the end. i never should have watched it. i knew it was gonna suck. that is why i got to see better action movies, i already saw men in black 3 and avengers. besides the dark knight rises and gi joe 2 the only thing i can’t wait for expendables 2 in august.

jeremylukens
11 years ago

I pretty much agree with you. I absolutely love the first 2 Alien movies and thought Alien Resurrection was an insulting, series-killing movie akin to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. However, I’m one of the few people who likes Alien 3. It’s inferior to the first two, but I think Fincher was able to do some good things despite the studio’s interference.
I had no idea they wanted Corman to do the original movie. Sooo glad that didn’t happen.

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

Alien 3 invalidated Aliens in the same way that Exorcist II: The Heretic invalidated The Exorcist, and the same way Star Trek: The Next Generation was invalidated by all 4 of the movies it spawned (I could write an entire essay about that).

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

I haven’t written such an essay yet, (time for one thing) but I’ll definitely share my views once you get to the TNG films.

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

The CineFiles – The Alien Saga:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeSn2L_66GA
Uploaded on Dec 23, 2009
We go from ALIEN to ALIEN Vs Predator. And discourse the ramifications of eating spaghetti in a freighter in outer-space.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Which ALIEN movie was the best? – Freakin’ Awesome Forums:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.cult-movies.alien/E8g1IuZk7EQ

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

10 Terrible Films That The Wrong Person Got Blamed For: http://whatculture.com/film/10-terrible-films-wrong-person-got-blamed.php/7 Jean-Pierre Jeunet – Alien: Resurrection Who Else Was To Blame: Joss Whedon. This Alien film managed to pull the amazing double trick of both ripping off (oh shock, a character we thought was human is actually an android) and ruining the logic of (wait, that’s a… human alien?) the original. It was so dumb it retroactively made everyone warm a little to Alien 3 (a film director David Fincher has always distanced himself from to avoid inclusion on this list). Much of the blame falls on the film’s director… Read more »

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago

It’s interesting to think that Alien, indeed the whole Alien franchise, owes its existence to Star Wars. Literally, if George Lucas had never made Star Wars, then 20th Century Fox never would have made Alien, that’s what it comes down to. Writer Dan O’Bannon explained in an interview that the screenplay was offered to 20th Century Fox and just sitting in their vault for a stretch of time as they weren’t showing much interest, because they (along with all the other film studios at the time) had no interest in making sci-fi movies. But then, Star Wars is released in… Read more »

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Another interesting thing about Star Wars, is it actually got Star Trek on the big screen. Just before Star Wars opened in ’77, development was under way to bring Star Trek back to televsion. From my understanding, most (but not all) of the original cast was signed to come back and sets were already being built, scripts were written, models were made. It was meant to be syndicated, so it was going to remain low-budget. Then, Star Wars happens, and Paramount rethinks this whole Star Trek thing. Trek had built up a big cult following throughout the 70’s, and since… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

What Exactly is the Alien/Predator Universe? http://ohilodude.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/what-exactly-is-the-alienpredator-universe/ An Editorial by Avery Hinks. Dark_Horse_Alien_Predator_Prometheus_comic_covers Over the years, there have been many connections between the Alien and Predator movies through feature films, comic books, novels, and even video games. It is a vastly expanding universe with a lot of great lore behind it, and today I am going to take some time to look at the feature films that make up the Alien/Predator Universe. I will break down each individual film that takes place in this universe, as well as point out the connections and crossovers between each individual film, and show… Read more »

Brad Deal
9 years ago

Lebeau, I can remember as a child skipping class and going to see 2001 A Space Odessy. I had read the book and hoped the film would explain the meaning of life to me. I was mesmerized by the film. I didn’t understand a single thing that was going on but I knew from the quality of the production that it was an important film. Later, I ditched work and went to see Alien with my foreman one afternoon. We sat there transfixed feeling the terror of facing an unknown enemy with the certainty that everyone was gonna die. I… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

When Good Films Go Bad: The Alien Franchise: http://www.wewantinsanity.com/am2/publish/Peter_Dawson/When_Good_Films_Go_Bad_Alien_Franchise.shtml Horror from the Stars continues with probably the most obvious entry of the list. While there are of course the classic questions like Star Wars or Star Trek; Kirk or Picard; and Tolkein or Martin (for the record my answer is all of the above), Alien or Aliens is another pretty good one as it can help gauge pretty well what kind of films a person will go for (subtle versus action, though don’t think I’m not giving Aliens its due). Either way the franchise got one thing right: phallic monsters… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Alien franchise: ranking the movies in order of quality:
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/alien/33766/alien-franchise-ranking-the-movies-in-order-of-quality
Alien and Aliens are classics. But how do the other sequels, prequel and spin-offs compare? We try to rank them in descending order…

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

The Lifecycle of a Franchise: “Alien” and its Offspring
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-lifecycle-of-a-franchise-alien-and-its-offspring
Viewing the eight films that encompass the Alien series—including its sequels, prequels, and spin-offs—as a complete body of work.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection: given a raw deal? http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/alien/244150/alien-3-and-alien-resurrection-given-a-raw-deal Is the recent hint that the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection are to be overlooked a little too drastic? This article contains spoilers for Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. If there’s one thing that is, for me, an unqualified triumph in Alien 3, it’s Elliot Goldenthal’s score. With its cacophonous drums and heart-rending strings, it soared where the film itself faltered. But as I’ve argued many, many times on these pages, Alien 3 is itself a flawed masterpiece. Sure, it stepped roughly all over the story established in… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Should Alien 5 be the “true sequel” to Aliens? http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Alien_5_Blomkamp_True_Sequel_Aliens.aspx It’s official: 20th Century Fox is making yet another sequel to Alien, 18 long years after the last one (not counting, of course, various prequels and crossovers). Reportedly, attached writer-director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) tried unsuccessfully to get the project off the ground for a while, until he posted some of the concept artwork to Instagram. The designs provoked a huge reaction on social media, one thing led to another, and now the studio is moving forward with the film. Obviously, what got everyone so excited was a couple… Read more »

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