There’s a new interview with Sigourney Weaver over on IndieWire where they spoke to her at the Marrakech Film Festival. She talks about Avatar and Prometheus but there’s nothing overly new in there. Sigourney wishes Ridley Scott luck with the movie and says Charlize Theron is a wonderful actress. Here’s the main bits:
“Ridley and I talked about the idea of ‘Prometheus’ and I always thought that was the only story to tell…So I think it’s great that Ridley is doing it,” she said. “I will be as excited as anyone to see how he recreates this creature, re-energizes the Alien. I’m very proud of our four movies and I wish him all the best with it.”
“Well, you know [the iconic nature of Ripley] happened over four movies so let’s give [Theron] a break. I’m sure they’re not trying to create a blonde Ripley or anything. She’s a wonderful actress, she’ll want to do her own thing with it and not be in the shadow of the other one.”
She goes on to say that she didn’t want to do another Alien movie because 20th Century Fox wanted to set it on Earth. She also recollects her time on Alien 3 about how the studio was rushing to get the film completed in time. Thanks to Darkoo for the news.
I play Traveller, the rpg game thats very much like Firefly but vanilla enough for any setting (including ALIEN, which I've played pastiche games of). Firefly is very Traveller-esque, a band of characters on a spaceship trying to keep it afloat by any means they can.
Serenity I found to be too dark theme-wise, but also including lighting-wise compared to Firefly, of course the Serenity's lighting could have broke between Firefly and Serenity!
I used to like Lexx myself, but after the excellent Firefly (recommended viewing, seriously) there is no comparison!
Maybe what I describe is cabin fever. You definitely got the sense that they had been together for a long time.
-Chris
My earlier comment wasnt alluding to serious characters being easier to write but that, seemingly anyone could have done a better job then he.
Because 'serious' and 'straightforward' characters are easy to write.
There was no affecting character interplay in Alien, just an ongoing 'I hate you' snipe-fest. The characters cared very little for each other, and that worked.
Do you think that humor belongs in these films? Alien had only one humorous moment... and it was quickly forgotten. Aliens had several. Alien 3 had none, at least none that worked.
-Chris
Whedon seems more interested in regurgitating old movie tropes than creating anything new, even though his characters are mostly well realized. Everything he does has a tongue planted well into it's cheek; the man takes the piss, and it works, just not in the Alien universe.
A masterwork of pulp science fiction: Bold, hilarious and engaging.
-Chris
Like I said, I quite liked 'Serenity'. It had comedic elements, but could easily be justified as serious as most others are.
His speciality is primarily character-driven stuff. The 'Alien' films aren't really focused around that quality. They're driven by events.
It would've probably been around the time of the first 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' series. As someone who became a fan of that show, I'd say the first had a few glimmers of intrigue, but that the writing, itself, didn't get truly amazing until the second and third (after which, sadly, it never quite recaptured those heights; possibly because that was around the time he split his focus between that and the 'Angel' spin-off show, then 'Firefly'). The second, especially. It's easy to dismiss the guy as not having much talent when you only go by stuff like 'Alien Resurrection', but there were some moments of genuine brilliance in the second and third series of BTVS, where the balance between emotional drama, action and moral consequences was just perfect.
I've still yet to see most episodes of 'Firefly', but the film, 'Serenity', was paced and written well for a science-fiction film.
So, in reflection of all that, I'd suspect his fifth film's script would've still probably felt a lot like AR. Would still have had that unfortunately superficial comic book feel. It just strikes me as that being his period for that sort of style. If he'd done it around 1998/1999, there is a chance it would've been better. He was writing in a much more realistic tone around then, even when dealing with extraordinary subjects.
Sadly, he's never been able to write for the military without portraying it as ridiculous (this extends to even the canon 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' comics he wrote). If he included any such aspect to the fifth film's script, I don't think it would've gone over well. He deals a lot better when the military is left in the background.
Strangely, he said in an interview that, a little while back, a fan pointed out to him how the Betty crew and the one represented in 'Firefly' were so alike and that he never realised until then. I always thought it was obvious, but just goes to show that he can sometimes let his old work bleed into new and not realise it.
It wasn't simply down to her, plus she nailed Ripley. Not seeing an issue.
I also have (somewhere) Whedons earlier draft of AR and yes, most of it didn't make it to screen thankfully. It was all a big nutty steaming load, with a transparent alien with wings.
Assuming it was a legitmate script - again Fox kept making them cut stuff to reign in the budget.
A L I E N at all, What was actually reported is the following quote -
'In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog, Scott says the last eight minutes of Prometheus will evolve into "a pretty good DNA of the Alien one." '
whatever that means.
She could have meant the space jockey? Maybe there will be a cameo appearance by Giger's alien at the end of the film. Ridley said the last 8 minutes would somehow tie into the first Alien film.
Exactly. Not sure why it's so difficult for people to comprehend this. And as I said the early buzz was very positive.
The shooting script was worse than what ended up on film. A lot of shitty dialogue thankfully got canned. Whedon did originally write more elaborate sequences in earlier drafts, but Fox kept taking money off them.
Anyway, it's nice to hear her thoughts, and I shall be interested in her reaction to the finished film. She's every bit as important as the creature to the mythos and it somehow feels right that everything should have her blessing.
I never knew Joss Whedon wrote a Alien 5 script? I'd love to get my hands on a copy!
Personally, I'd like to see them all die.
Really?
I mean, do you really need another movie where everyone dies at the end? Man, this is too cliché, and belongs to the 80's.
I'm expecting MUCH more than this from Mr Ridley... I want a movie full of suspense, fear, darkness, questions, mysteries and reveals... not another "Freddie Krueger" on a spaceship
And I want some of them alive for the sequel
Space jockey Simon says, "Get naked!"
Space jockey Simon says, "Do 50 push ups!"
i think will be nearer the end haha.
The scope of this film and the exploration into our own origins is huge. I don't think that Ridley would place the heroine of it all in a suit for some corporation because this is still a mainstream Hollywood film after all. I like the darkness of this idea but I also think that this sort of twist is too twisted, so to speak. I prefer that everyone dies at the end of Prometheus and all that is left for the WY corporate bosses is a vague log from Repace's ship that something strange, profound, and (possibly) valuable is on LV-426, opening the door for Scott's continuation into the original 1979 film.
Or something like that.
Aye, a good point. It might only be telling if she does them immediately after getting out of cryo while no one else is doing them. And we still don't know when she's doing the naked pushups.
Exercises really aren't that big of a deal... It's what astronauts do.
Personally, I couldn't care less whether they're shown naked, but seeing as, like SM said, they had it way back in 'Alien', it's really not a major thing. We're most likely going to see all of the characters doing it (male and female) to reflect the original.
I was thinking exactly the same...
So, did she just, like, confirm that this will be an Alien movie?
More likely to be the result of extended cryosleep/whatever they call it.
Burke didn't.
Would make sense if it's just the interviewer focusing on Theron. I can tell you the company's not exactly called Weyland-Yutani like the interview says. It's just Weyland like what an old interview or even the commentary in Aliens said it would be pre-alien, and pre-merger. The interviewer is likely just saying Weyland-Yutani too.
But what if that is the twist of sorts. We've heard that it's Theron that kind of stands in the background a lot. What if she steps up her game and becomes the hero. The evil cynical suit type becomes the righteous hero.
I noticed that too, but she is probably just confused like the rest of us. I doubt that she would have any kind of insider knowledge. Unless she just let the cat out of the locker, but who knows.
-Chris