AVPR Wolf Predator On Set - studioADI Video

[426Buddy]

I think what really went wrong was that Anderson had made a shitty AvP1...and Fox was hesitant to make a big investment with AvP2. Thus the terrible budget-saving decision to set the film in a hick town.

Anderson was hit a small budget as well, they had to reuse old suits and placed the movie on earth to keep costs down.

Although I think they chose Anderson because he said he could do it on the cheap.

[marrerom]

I think what really went wrong was that Anderson had made a shitty AvP1...and Fox was hesitant to make a big investment with AvP2. Thus the terrible budget-saving decision to set the film in a hick town.

Anderson was hit a small budget as well, they had to reuse old suits and placed the movie on earth to keep costs down.

Although I think they chose Anderson because he said he could do it on the cheap.

I never understood why AvP-R was given such a small budget and such a shitty writer/directors.  The first AvP was no masterpiece but it made a TON of money for fox.  Why didn't that warrant a better investment in its sequel? 

[426Buddy]

Personally I think FOX never respected the franchises let alone a mash-up of both. I remember listening to some of the producers on the aliens films and you could tell they thought the material was a joke and just wanted to make a buck while they could, they never understood the series. I think that was Hill and Giler.

Anyway yeah AvP should have had a big budget to start with considering the insane amounts of money both franchises have brought them.

[JungleHunter87]

Personally I think FOX never respected the franchises let alone a mash-up of both. I remember listening to some of the producers on the aliens films and you could tell they thought the material was a joke and just wanted to make a buck while they could, they never understood the series. I think that was Hill and Giler.

Anyway yeah AvP should have had a big budget to start with considering the insane amounts of money both franchises have brought them.

Other than Scott's Prometheus, I think FOX's attitude has always been (with both franchises) the less money spent the better. That way the return will be or at least look more profitable for them. Even though, as you said, these franchises have made them millions. Alien³ was allegedly made in part with saving FOX as a whole in mind. You'd think they'd treat these series with more respect and better budgets. But, nope.

[Corporal Hicks]

Personally I think FOX never respected the franchises let alone a mash-up of both. I remember listening to some of the producers on the aliens films and you could tell they thought the material was a joke and just wanted to make a buck while they could, they never understood the series. I think that was Hill and Giler.

Anyway yeah AvP should have had a big budget to start with considering the insane amounts of money both franchises have brought them.

I always got that impression from the Alien producers too. In fact, what stopped AvP getting made in the early 90s was down to the squabbling between producers over who would get what share.

I do think John Davis had genuine interest in the property though.

[Johnny Handsome]

they had to reuse old suits and placed the movie on earth to keep costs down.

I will never understand this, they place the movie on earth, yet 80 % of the movie takes place on build sets. Rest are some outdoor locations in prague and/or CG and matte paintings, where is the benefit here?

I really don't think setting the movie on another planet or space would have made any monetary difference for them, might as well build some spaceship corridors instead of huge pyramids, they even build parts of the ice breaker and Predator spaceship, used miniatures etc.

I don't know the reason, but i don't think the real reason for Setting this movie on earth was ever Money, for AvP-R yes, i can see that as they used a lot of outdoor locations on that, but with the first AvP it really wouldn't have done any differences.

I think FOX wanted to place the movie on earth in present time because they wanted to engage more people into the "Our World, their War" theme, making it seem like it's relevant for human kind instead of an epic battle "somewhere we don't actually give a shit for".

I always liked the earth theme for the movies though and you don't really need other worlds to make the creatures seem scary, it always depends on how it's done, and a spaceship corridor isn't a Magic warranty that the Alien doesn't look like a turtle on wires, like many seem to think.

[426Buddy]

I think people just would have preferred for AvP to take place in a setting from one of franchises, personally I just like the future alien universe for AvP.

When you are selling a script to a studio and it says future, space, sci-fi, planets, and ships the studio would assume the price tag for creating convincing effects for that film would be pricier then say a script that has earth, present day, pyramid, and boat. Whether or not it would be pricier doesnt matter when you're pitching a too the execs.

[Johnny Handsome]

I think people just would have preferred for AvP to take place in a setting from one of franchises, personally I just like the future alien universe for AvP.

When you are selling a script to a studio and it says future, space, sci-fi, planets, and ships the studio would assume the price tag for creating convincing effects for that film would be pricier then say a script that has earth, present day, pyramid, and boat. Whether or not it would be pricier doesnt matter when you're pitching a too the execs.

Not entirely true though, a pitch is a pitch, it still comes down to the script that gets a movie greenlit, and there were scripts being written that were set on other planets, so FOX obviously didn't say NO to a space setting from the beginning or the pitch phase of the Project, the scripts just weren't good enough in their book.

And like i said, it really doesn't make any difference, a space shot can be cheaper than a matte painting of a huge landscape like antartica, for example, and they build huge sets in prague for little money. Yes the movie takes place on earth, but they never actually take any Advantage of that, there are maybe a handful of shots that take place on outdoor Locations, like mexico or the icefall at the beginning... and they were enhanced with CG.

Predators for example was greenlit on another planet because they could do it relatively cheap, yet AvP takes place on earth and was the more expensive movie of the two.

I go with the Marketing strategy, they wanted to appeal to a wider audience by setting it on earth, hence the whole "If the Alien escapes, the world will end" theme that would engage the viewer more.

[JungleHunter87]

I go with the Marketing strategy, they wanted to appeal to a wider audience by setting it on earth, hence the whole "If the Alien escapes, the world will end" theme that would engage the viewer more.

Which, ironically was the original setting for Alien III. So perhaps the budget wasn't completely the reason for the setting. Still, I think most will agree. That even the idea of the pyramid had its merits. It just wasn't executed as perfectly as it could have been.

[Corporal Hicks]

There was never actually a script written for Alien 3 set on Earth.

[JungleHunter87]

There was never actually a script written for Alien 3 set on Earth.

Ah, just a marketing ploy at getting people hyped. Well it worked...To their detriment,

[happypred]

  The first AvP was no masterpiece but it made a TON of money for fox.  Why didn't that warrant a better investment in its sequel?

As I recall...AvP made 172 mill on an 80 mill budget and AvP-R made 128 mill on a 40 mill budget. So perhaps not that huge of a profit difference?