Will Ridley Scott's New "Alien" Prequel Mimic William Gibson's Awesome Unfilmed Alien 3 Screenplay?
FADE IN: DEEP SPACE - THE FUTURE: The silent field of stars -- eclipsed by the dark bulk of an approaching ship. CLOSER...
William Gibson's "Alien 3" Screenplay
20th Century Fox is rebooting its "Alien" franchise with Jon Spaihts to write a prequel that has Ridley Scott set to return as director.
The film will be a prequel to the seminal 1979 film about an extraterrestrial creature that stalks and kills the crew of a spaceship. The 1979 epic starred Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver. The new treatment will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal was generated by an empty ship to warn them.
Alien garnered both critical acclaim and box office success, receiving an Academy Award for Visual Effects,[and was ranked by the American Film Institute in 2008 as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre.
The success of Alien launched three sequel and two prequel films, including Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997).[10] The subsequent prequels Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).
Spaihts has carved out a niche for space thrillers. Fox has also hired him to rewrite "The Darkest Hour," which Timur Bekmambetov to produce with Tom Jacobson. Spaihts is writing "Children of Mars" for Disney and Scott Rudin, and he will follow by rewriting "St. George and the Dragon" for Sony and Red Wagon.
The BIG question is will in follow William Gibson's screenplay where the action takes place on a space station above Earth. Gibson's Aliens become an air-born virus that cause infected humans to rip off their skins and become Xenomorphs. Gibson's script was never made into a movie.
William Gibson's "Alien lll" Screenplay
Posted by Casey Kazan.
Sources:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006722.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
http://io9.com/5327020/yes-ridley-scott-will-direct-the-alien-prequel
Huh? I don't get the screenplay, are they replacing that travesty that was formerly known as Alien 3?
Alien and Aliens were the best. The rest was horrible.
Posted by: Milkman | July 31, 2009 at 03:21 PM
The William Gibson script for Alien 3 had what many fans wanted: Aliens on Earth; not on present-day Earth, but Aliens on Ripley's Earth with the general population caught in the middle..
Posted by: Casey Kazan | July 31, 2009 at 03:34 PM
Gibson's Alien 3 script never made it to Earth proper, iirc.
Posted by: Charles Gaines | July 31, 2009 at 08:28 PM
I hope it does not involve earth.
The problem with every film after Aliens is the mood of the universe changed.
Most importantly: We really need to see another Alien film set in the future. Also important for me would be elements like: marines space hulks/space stations, Off planet Colonies, long haul space travel, mech-suits, That pulse rifle! Bio-med stations, Androids or some sort of cool tech, motion scanners, lots of in-hive footage with the cool Geiger styled props. It needs some silent scenes with alienns stalking people: reminds me of the terror induced watching Aliens as a kid.
Aliens built on the original Alien as it introduced the concept of an Alien hive and the terror of the Aliens like an ants nest or swarm of wasps with an intelligent mother Alien.
An airbourne virus sound like a good idea only if done correctly.
There needs to be a bigger hive. Maybe some slightly different types of Alien. Maybe elabourate on the pilot spaceship. Also liked the idea of a pseudo-government agency complicating the plot with their 'research' into the xenomorphs.
Posted by: sam | August 02, 2009 at 06:59 AM
They need to look at some of the books for inspiration. I read all the alien vs predator books when the movie came out and they were all much better than the movie they made.
Posted by: Aaron | August 03, 2009 at 06:26 AM
People ripping their skin off to become aliens?
Gibson's script was completely idiotic. Which was typical of most of the script ideas for Alien 3, and which was why the film ended up being re-written whilst it was already being filmed, and the whole project ended up being an unsatisfying mess.
Of course, this was followed by even stupider ideas for Alien Resurrection, and so on.
They need to return to what made the first two films so legendary. If they can't do that, it's just creative suicide.
Posted by: Rob | August 22, 2009 at 07:36 AM