You guys and gals ever heard the one that goes, “Sigourney Weaver wants to make a fifth Alien movie with Ridley Scott to reclaim the franchise’s past glory…and this time it’s set on Earth!”? Times infinity, right? Well, Weaver recently told MTV that she was genuinely, like seriously this time, considering making a third sequel with Scott…but then the first Alien Vs. Predator caca-fest happened and then AVP: Requiem fell on top of Alien’s remaining potential like a piano made of dung. Ripley is forever dead says Weaver (…or is she just enjoying a space nap?). Yeah, I forgot to intro with, “this post is headed to Bummerville.”
“The last time [Ridley and I] saw each other we talked about it. The character is still interesting [and] I’d love to work with Ridley again,” Weaver said. “But Fox has effectively killed it because of ‘Alien vs. Predator.’ What else can you do with the creature? You can take the situation, you can go back to where they came from. …To play someone who ages a couple hundred years was fascinating. [But] let [Ripley] rest.”
Last month we reported on a rumor circulating that had a third Alien Vs. Predator movie going forward. No new developments there. While 1997’s Alien Resurrection was veddy underwhelming, it’s a shame that 20th Century Fox has reduced the Alien creature, one of the pinnacle visions for sci-fi and horror, to the lowly status of an exhausted tag-team wrestler. Same for the Predator, natch, though the Predator doesn’t rely on a lifeline of mystery, darkness and dread to be effective. These cross-pollinating franchises need to take a breather and go back to the drawing board.
Discuss: Is this news surprising? Do you think a fifth Alien movie would have happened if AVP didn’t blow it? In your opinion, should a new Alien movie even include Ripley at this point, not to say Weaver isn’t great? Do you think a remake of Alien or Predator will happen in the next couple years?
April 18th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Thats Hollywood for you, I don’t know why us film geeks take this shit as shocking anymore. Studios will always fuck over a good idea to make some quick cash.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I remember some of this leaking a while back. The rumor is Ridley Scott and Cameron wanted to team up to do an Alien 4. And the studios kept messing with the project and they bailed.
The AVP films suck shit.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Ripley died in A3.
End of story
walk away.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Just like the Matrix sequels. Alien 3 and 4 never happened for me. Horrible, horrible stuff.
I wouldn’t mind a wipe after 2 from Scott or Cameron. At the very least Scott and Cameron have returned to the sci-fi genre (yay!). Which has been hurting for years now.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
@ Hunter & Captain
If I remember correctly there are already four Alien movies.There was talk a long time ago that Cameron and Scott were working together on Alien5. Wasn’t too long after Resurrection, which I thought had a better story than Fincher’s movie.
The greatest part of the Alien series was that Ripley made it back to Earth clone or not. I always thought after the fourth installment Ripley would find a way to the Alien homeworld, then nuke it. It would complete the series finally. I’d love to see all four directors come back to work together in some way. Too many egos on the set but it would be a creative epic.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
@Captain
those two movies weren’t that bad, the early CGI might have ruined the feel. but you have to admit that they are a million times better than the AVP flicks.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Yeah Chris I remember that.
Fincher was never happy with 3. He said many times that he was called in late into he project and had to just pick up from there. He hated how the studio killed Ripley and Newt off. I didn’t like 4 either, at all and I love both directors work outside of their alien films.
They just never felt like the same universe or creatures, almost at all.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Heh, I will give you that. They’re definitely masterpieces compared to the AVP movies.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
That’s very true Captain, there were a lot of things I disliked about them. The 4th added the newborn which was a disaster, though I liked how they cloned Ripley. When I found out the original plot for the 3rd movie, I thought the studio screwed all the fans over. A organically made ship full of monks, with crops and church like designs. It would taken the series in a different direction. I remember the girl who played Newt saying that Cameron wanted to do a sequel with the new family unit. I’d have to say that it would have been great if they had brought Hicks and Newt back.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Surprising? That the idiots at Fox chose AVP over this?
Um, that would be: no.
Vic
April 18th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
ALL they have to do is establish that the last few films were just bad dreams in hibernation sleep and they can start the films where ever they want.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Who gives a flying fuck?
Alien is thing of past. AVP movies can be cool but they are done by crappy people so you cannot expect much.
Atleast FOX is supporting james cameron in bringing his film AVATAR to big screen with sigourney weaver in one of the lead roles.
I hate fox a lot but sometimes you need to give them credit for their collaborations with some directors especially James Cameron.
Other studios say no to James while Fox says yes and we all james makes the best event movies.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
weaver + ridley = hell yah!
but we got shitty AVP.
a remake of alien and predator would be completely pointless. just like an american version of ‘oldboy’. why ruin a great thing? if weaver and ridley team-up, that would be great but what else could you do with the characters?
April 18th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I really think that, for a lot of people, the AVP films don’t even exist and 3 and 4 are sort of like the one-off episodes of X-Files - fun to watch the characters do something different, but not really part of the big arc. There are a lot of fans of the first two films (for good reason). If done right, you know that audience would embrace the new film.
That franchise is one of the biggest ball drops in film history.
Even the AVP films whiffed on the material that was out there. Chris Claremont’s “Alien: Deadliest of the Species” was some cool stuff. Newt would have been a great character as she got older.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:04 am
As usual, the comments seem more interesting than the actual story. But let me remind you of something, movies, and franchises in particular, don’t have to be explicitly linked as to preserve continuity (Batman and Hulk are few examples).
If anyone should completely forget about AvP thats the audience, in other words us. Those movies where utter crap, period. We know those movies don’t represent the vision behind the original Alien, and therefore a hypothetical new movie shouldn’t take off borrowing elements from them.
I honestly believe it’s still a great time to do good movies. Movies that aren’t limited to formulas, or treat the audience as idiots. Science fiction (and horror to the same extent) is not synonymous with lame characters, loads of guns, and the wow factor. It just opens the possibility to characters of facing new and diverse environments.
As a side note, the AVP movies remind me of Freddy vs Jason. Those where crap as well. I’m just saying, FvJ is a no, A Nightmare on Elm Street, yeah, AvP no, Alien, sure.
(By the way, some people in FOX should get fired, pronto)
April 19th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Hi, i am really hope to FOX do maby the last part of ALIEN. I really want to see it. I thing it could be great movie just like the first ALIEN.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am
This just ruined my entire weekend. I’m going to go curl up with my Legacy box set and try to forget I ever read this…
April 19th, 2008 at 7:07 am
“While 1997’s Alien Resurrection was veddy underwhelming”
What?!
Spellcheck? English? WTF.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:56 am
My hubby and I, well, we’re old ahaha We love love love Alien series of movies and have probably watched them a million times (ok not quite a million)
Hubby is seemingly dillusional and enjoyed the first Alien/Predator mixture, so he rented the new one last night. I had to forcibly keep my mouth shut cause I kept telling him what was going to happen as it was so predictable and just, well, CRAP.
I actually said that I couldn’t watch anything to do with Alien without Ripley. To me, she made that series of movies and I believe she was perfectly cast as Ripley.
Ahh, I ramble, off to take that damn movie back
April 19th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Anne,
Tell your husband he has an awesome wife. :)
April 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
*sigh*
James Cameron’s Aliens has been and probably always will be my favorite movie of all time. When Fox decided to do AvP, I had hoped they adapted Dark Horse’s seminal series of the same title. Alas, it was not to be and with each snippet of news I heard or read about the new AvP, the more dismayed I became. Good for you Fox, you turned Aliens and Predators into a pseudo-Friday the 13th franchise for the new generation, complete with stinking dialogue, actors who do a marginally better job than mannequins (an insult, I’m sure, to the mannequins), and an utterly stupid plot.
For me, the Aliens franchise ended with Alien: Resurrection. What a shame, the franchise had a real potential to be one of the all-time bests.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
FOX MUST DO ALIEN5 :):) I REALLY HOPE IT
April 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Short of throwing out and forgetting all of the movies that happened after Aliens, where exactly could this possible go? I do think that if anyone could do it, Ridley Scott could but the Alien series is dead! The complete and total mess that was Aliens vs. Predator put the final nail in that coffin.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Oh Captain Awesome, he knows !! lol and btw ty :-)
April 19th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Wow… talk about old news… we knew about this failed pitch what, a decade ago?
April 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I agree with the idea that an AvP movie could be awesome, but that they have been done by horrible directors/writers. If they do a third one, they need to have someone with great ideas come in and do it. I’d love to write the idea I have for AvP3. I think it would really satisfy the fanbase……and yes, apparently on the commentary for Alien, Ridley Scott said he wanted to do an Aliens 5 because he wanted to go back to the alien homeworld and I think explore the fact that these Aliens were actually manufactured as biological weapons.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
i don’t see why Scott, Cameron and Weaver still can’t make an Alien 5 because of AvP…. that’s like scrapping T4 because Sarah Connor Chronicles came out. makes zero sense…
April 20th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I still remember the first time I saw aliens when I was a kid. There were so many badass and scarry scenes. The motion detector with the ping, the crazy looking tank and plane, and that yellow forklift. To make the Alien spin interesting again just go to the home planet and make it visually exciting. For Predator all you have to do is give hime some new and interesting weapons. The shoulder gun in part one and the disc in part two are still classic. I only have one thing to say if they come up with another AVP project.
“get away from her you b!tch!”
April 20th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“the lowly status of an exhausted tag-team wrestler”
I think that about says it.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Bring back Ripley and the Alien world ( LV4-26 ) they could do a great alien (5) get the best directors no low class crap. Sigourney still looks amazing and we should send the film out for good with a great sci fi ennding .
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
C’mon, guys and girls. I ask you to take another look at Cameron’s ‘Aliens’. Everyone who considers themselves of discerning taste or a true fan or both says that 3 and 4 are OK (if not completely forgettable), that the first two are wonderful. I must disagree entirely. Alien is a masterpiece, end of story. Aliens is an enjoyable kiddie version of Alien. A real cornball of adolescent fun. Alien Lite, if you will. A testament to James Cameron’s perception of the movie-going public which culminated in the mother of them all…Titanic. “Let them eat cake!” The problem is that Cameron’s story ripped the guts out of Alien when he and Giler and Hill decided to neuter the Alien. It ceases to be scary when the monster is no longer an analogy for man’s savage nature, but instead an over-sized roach. And what is more frightening after all, a roach or your deepest, darkest self? Take a good look before you answer. With that established, it seems it wouldn’t matter if Fincher had been given ample time or any other director because the premise was trashed in Cameron’s crowd-pleaser.
June 24th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Hi,
read my script for Alien 5 at:
litpitch.com
you will find it at:
science fiction;
extraterrestrial life:
Alien 5: Erection