Director Paul W. S. Anderson, who helmed the first Alien vs. Predator film way back in 2004, has recently gave a lengthy interview to Forbes contributor Josh Weiss. Anderson reminisced on his time with the film and its legacy after 20 years.
The interview touches on a number of topics including Anderson’s original idea for a sequel, which would’ve had the same premise as the eventual sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, of a Predator ship crashing into a small town with chaos ensuing. It seems Anderson was at one point involved in the AvP sequel but backed out because of a fast-tracked studio timeline.
Weiss: Did you have a specific idea for an AvP sequel involving the newly-born Predalien?
Anderson: The graphic novels had taken the Alien into a small-town environment. That was the idea I was hinting at. The spaceship would crash back down to Earth and more chaos would ensue. Fox knew the movie was going to be very successful and as soon as it opened, they said, “Okay, let’s go. Let’s make another one.” I hadn’t written the script at that point and they set this very aggressive timeline, wanting to go into production immediately. I didn’t want to do that, because I’d given two years of my life to Aliens and Predators — and I delivered a movie I was really proud of. If we were going to do a sequel, I didn’t want to rush it. I also felt like it would be great for me to go make something slightly different, rather than just being slam-dunked into the same thing. But mainly, I didn’t want to feel like we didn’t deliver the best possible product we could have done, and I didn’t feel I could do that on the timeline that was being proposed. So I backed out of it and because of that, they had to go find a different filmmaker, a different take on it. The concept remained the same, with the Predalien coming to Earth in a small-town environment, which is pretty much what I set up. But obviously, it required a different script and different filmmakers, so it still ended up taking them longer than they’d originally wanted. I felt like that wasn’t the movie it should have been, either. I was disappointed in [the sequel], because I felt there was very much a vibrant franchise to be had combining the two creatures.
Director Paul W. S. Anderson on the set of AVP – Alien vs. Predator
AvP was divisive among fans and critics upon release, however, the film was considered a box office success. Anderson feels that some of his films are reevaluated as time goes on, becoming cult favorites.
You were asking how my relationship with the movie has changed. I feel like a lot of the movies I’ve made — and I’ve kind of gotten used to this — get a bashing when they first come out, but then 10-20, years later, there’s a real reassessment. I’m always pleased that they get pleasantly reassessed. I also felt Event Horizon was overlooked when it was first released, and I’m really pleased with the reception and cult following that it got. I feel like AVP fits into that mold as well. A friend of mine worked on the Prey movie said, “We’re looking at your movie all the time for the [Predator’s] laser sighting to see what you did.” It’s nice to know that the ripples continue. In many ways, AvP did bring those two moribund franchises back. For a while, it was the biggest grossing [entry] in either franchise. It really relaunched both of them.
Though the interview was done before the trailer landed for Predator: Badlands, which features a Predator protagonist leading the film, Anderson was positive about the idea of a movie more focused on Aliens or Predators, rather than humans.
Weiss: Do you think there’s a way to make a purely AvP movie without any humans?
Anderson: I think so. Potentially. It would be a pretty striking film, a non-dialogue, almost silent movie. It’s a very exciting and interesting idea. I think if the AvP franchise had continued, there would have been room for that kind of exploration. I would have loved to go back to the Alien and Predator home-worlds at some point. I feel like that’s an area that audiences have always wanted to see. The Alien and Predator movies always skirted around it. You never really went there.
With an eventual return of AvP seeming all but inevitable at this point after the Alien universe connections seen in the Predator: Badlands teaser trailer, and comments by Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez & studio head Steve Asbell, Anderson was asked what advice he’d give to whoever is tasked with bringing the battle back to the big screen.
Weiss: If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that no franchise is ever really dead. Do you have any advice for the eventual reboot of AvP?
Anderson: Just have fun with it. I know I did. It was a real treat. It was like working with the two biggest movie stars in the world, but they both smelled of rubber. It was definitely a career highlight for me. At the time, I said to all of the human actors in it, “Really enjoy this, because you’re becoming part of a pop culture phenomenon. There are going to be other Alien and Predator movies, which means AvP is always going to be revisited, repackaged, and repositioned.” Which is true. It’s wonderful being a part of that, and it keeps the work alive and in people’s minds — even when it’s 20 years old.
There’s plenty of insight from Paul W. S. Anderson about his time with AvP so head on over to Forbes to read the full interview.
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Of course Alien is more famous in the public consciousness. Shit jumping on people's faces and bursting out their stomachs and 'The mostly come at night' and 'Get away from her you bitch'. The most famous thing from Predator is Dillon and Dutch arm wrestling in memes and half the people who use it wouldn't even know which movie it's from.
Scroll through the YouTube comment section of an AVP/AVPR clip and despair.
I don't think this is true at all.
I think that Predators just tend to get the edge over Aliens in the crossovers because they're the ones that can be squared more easily as "characters"/protagonists.
Predators don't have enough T for those feats.
Then very resilient too.
Well if you watched Alien Romulus
Reality disagrees.
Same, just dont have a bias, both creatures had good and bad moments, usually the bad comes down to bad writing on how the creature is to be defeated, on both AVP they f**ked it up.
Ripley a woman with no experience beat the alien on the first movie with a cheap harpoon
Very impressive perfect organism.
You forgot to mention that city hunter retreated from Harrigan after that to seek immediate medical attention. Guy was breathing through a respirator and was willing to blow himself up after Harrigan shoved him off the roof. City hunter knew he was dead in that moment, that's why he tried to blow himself up. It was only after he got his arm chopped off that he was given time to heal his wounds. Predators are tough but they're not that tough.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/47b93fd8bce4d0e1b81f9025c8e52aaf/tumblr_pvoqwjRs9r1rrkahjo8_400.gif
He gets wrecked by a shotgun at close range numerous times in the chest area which is likely to have vital organs, and still is able to fight after that (and minus one arm too).
You mean characters armed with high-powered pulse rifles and smart guns? Between an Alien and a Predator: who got killed with a single swipe of a samurai sword? Who got their ass completely handed to him by a teenage girl out on her first hunt? Who lost to an LA cop afraid of heights? But it's the 8-foot-tall, super strong, super fast, stealthy, durable, cunning Alien that you fanboys can't stand having a victory over a Predator? You Predator fanboys are just embarrassing yourselves at this point. Stop pretending like the predators are special, they're not.
lol aliens were killed easier in their movies by weaker characters than the Predators
It's supposed to be 59:30 in the extended cut so I don't know where your 15 minutes went, but I'd start by checking the starting timecode.
No, especially since the extended version adds most of its runtime before then.
Though weirdly, that's the Disney+ TC version. I have a copy of the extended cut on my computer and the stab happens around 45 minutes. Eight minutes earlier in the extended version. Difference that big can't be down to framerates could it?
Agreed.
I have more fun watching AVP over Prey. Prey just... pisses me off.
You can easily handwave that as being part of the Stealth tech of the ship.
A future-set AVP '04 sequel could practically write itself. Predalien is born, massacres the Predators on the ship, goes into hibernation. The ship is left derelict in our solar system. Flash forward a couple hundred years and a WY vessel (with a squad of Colonial Marines on board!) discovers the ship, gets on board, accidentally sets off a beacon that calls in another Predator ship, the Predalien wakes up, etc. Have some Facehuggers in stasis on board so we can build up a hive of human-born Aliens. Easy!
But I find Prey infinitely better in every department.
That's no comment on quality. I'd just rather watch one over the other.
It just looks like a normal Alien mouth. Upper mandible folds in so the upper tusks form fangs. Ditto lower mandibles. You really have a look at it to note how the mandibles fold up. Hard to explain. When Spaghetti Basterd was doing the art for an AvP fan comic I wrote I did him a rough sketch of what I had in mind, but it was nearly 20 years ago and long gone. The work he produced didn't have a take on that look specifically though.