This should be fun for all you Alien 3 fans out there. Movie podcast website The Projection Booth has done a monster of a podcast all about Alien 3. It’s 3 hours 15 minutes long and features interviews with writers Vincent Ward and John Fasano who worked on the wooden planet script. The podcast also features Lance Henriksen who played Bishop and Holt McCallany who played Junior – the prisoner with the goggles who tries to rape Ripley. Lastly, the website speaks to Mark Veheiden who wrote some of the early Aliens and Predator comics for Dark Horse.
It’s very interesting if you like hearing about all the behind-the-scenes on Alien 3. They talk all about the movie’s troubled production and the various early scripts and directors such as David Twohy’s prison planet script. Lance Henriksen talks about his role in Aliens and Alien 3 and answers the age old question on whether Bishop II was an android or a human being. Holt McCallany discusses how he got into acting and what it was like working with director David Fincher. You can download the podcast directly here.
Here's a person who understand what this movie means:
Alright - maybe I've read that and forgot about it. Sorry, Val.
He didn't really talk about much different in the podcast to your interview. Still interesting though.
Very cool find. Thanks for posting that. It honestly deserves its own thread. Most interestingly, there was a mention of Verheiden and Nelson putting together some new one-off issues of Aliens. I've never seen those let alone even heard of them. Anyone have any insights? OT. Oh boy.
https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/strange-shapes-interviews-mark-verheiden/
You obviously read a totally different comic to me because the writing just wasn't that memorable or spectacular at all.
Certainly not bad writing. But nothing especially noteworthy.
Even Ridley can't get his stories straight about Alien any more. Behold the ravages of time...
I used to refer the CGI thing myself until somebody here told me it was puppets. That was like a decade ago. To the casual movie viewer, it does look like bad CGI.
Gets on my nerves every time.
I honestly think he retconned his thoughts on it after AVP., because he always referrred to him as a human being before 2003, then suddenly, it was meant to be ambiguous, was an advanced android, etc etc. I think he tried to keep AVP in continuity and it's affected his memory or something.
Otherwise, I'm just not enjoying the actual hosts. They don't sound as if they understand the series/film at all and just come across as complaining.
I got to the end of the actor interviews yesterday. I did like hearing Henriksen's take on it all (and his voice is just so soothing). Interesting to hear he thought of Bishop 2 as an android.
Shame the Holt one didn't really talk more about Alien 3 and his tendency to say Like got a bit distracting. xD
It's also in Goldenthal's 'Titus' score which is often referred to as a 'Remix' amongst fans (download sample here). Some of the score for Titus has a lot of Alien 3 elements/tones in it. It's almost like an alternate score for Alien 3 when you listen to most of it.
Yeah yeah, the entire opening of the film was dedicated to that. They couldn't think of how to get the character to work in the third act so they wiped the slate again after wasting however many scenes dedicated to him alone investigating the Alien (a mystery to which the entire audience already knew the answer). A waste of my time, I feel. He was only mentioned off-handedly once afterwards.
Yeah, there are a few more similar cues and discordant noises that I recall, too.
Clemen's death was there to remind Ripley that no matter how much she longs for peace she won't find it until the species is dead.
It's so well shot and the music is creepy as hell! Not to mention it gave us the iconic image of Ripley and the alien.
The soundtracks to 'Alien 3' and 'Interview With The Vampire' are almost exactly the same, in terms of tone. Completely different arrangements, but if there were ever two soundtracks which could be put together into one epic collection, it'd be those two. You can listen to them back to back and it's almost as if the composer made them for the same film.
Some of it is reminiscent of Batman Forever, which obviously came out later but I saw it long before Alien 3. Kind of tainted it for me.
Also thought Clemens' death was a waste of time. Haven't had the time to listen to this podcast yet, though.
The score in Alien 3 is easily the best in the series, despite having very strong competition.
Indeed. It's not a very balanced approach. It's why I haven't rushed back to it yet. I still want to hear the other interviews but I agree with everything you've just said.
To me, Alien 3 is about the brutality of facing the Aliens and the harshness of the world they live in.
Heh, yeah I love that bit. Definitely owning how much of a dark movie it is.
I'm only about 40 minutes into this podcast so far, listening to it in segments (currently in the Vincent Ward phone convo). They are really hard on the movie. It makes me wonder why they hosted this at all honestly, because they won't shut up about how much they hate Alien 3. The first guest who gets introduced is a really insufferable person, it seems to me at least. He's annoying and really overexaggerates his displeasure with the film, seems to be nitpicking for every little thing (such as the credits!?). Talking about how Clemens's death contributed to the film being "garbage," and that it made his set-up a waste of time. I find Clemens's death to be one of the high points in the entire series. It comes out of nowhere, reinforces how ruthless the movie is, and is well edited for my tastes. I find that scene to be really impactful, not a slap in the face.
They haven't mentioned how good the movie looks or how good the score is.
"It's missing something... and your brain keeps on trying to fill in the blanks."
Narratively, Alien 3 is undoubtedly a mess. But I will always love its moodiness. Scout Tafoya's film is a great piece that explores the essence of the film that Fincher was trying to realise : https://vimeo.com/76672771
https://tracipanderson.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/exorcist.jpg
You can count me as one. Absolutely detest everything about it. Shonky FX, pointless characters who exist only to swear with every other word and get killed in largely stupid ways, stupid beginning with the magic egg that effectively killed the series. Just didn't have a single redeeming feature for me...
'Alien' fans, by and large, are not unfamiliar with themes of futility and nihilism. The first two deal heavily in them. Back in the eighties and early nineties, it was probably characterised as the one futuristic science-fiction series you gravitated to if you were fed up with the (relatively) superficial overtones of 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars'. It was only later that stuff like 'Babylon 5' and 'Farscape' began to pick up the same ball and run with it.
If someone can clear up the egg(s) on the Sulaco for me, I'd appreciate it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHbBvuo4Yak
Alien 3 is my favorite in the franchise, and contrary to this podcast, for totally non-hipster reasons. I like the visuals and music the best of the series, and it's my favorite Alien costume design. The workprint version has only enhanced it, in my eyes. As is repeatedly said, it's amazing that such a wonderful film can come out of such a clusterf$%^ of circumstances. Shame Fincher won't talk about it at length. I might go revisit the "making of" documentary.