AvP Movie Trivia
Posted by Darkness on December 10, 2006 (Updated: 22-Aug-2023)
Below you’ll find various bits of AvP movie trivia.
Pre-Production
- Paul Anderson stepped down from directing both Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Mortal Kombat: Devastation to write and direct this film, though he does remain as producer to Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
- AvP was rumored to be in development ever since a skull from an alien appeared in the spaceship trophy room in Predator 2.
- The Alien Vs. Predator story crossed over virtually all forms of media before becoming a feature film. There was a successful comic book series, toy line, many video games, and even a card series.
- Screenwriter Shane Salerno was the last writer and “closer” on “Alien vs. Predator”. He worked on the film for 15 months, including prior to production, through filming in Prague and all the way through post production without receiving the co-screenplay by credit that 20th Century Fox recommended him for to the WGA. Shane has a co-screenplay credit on the novelization of the film, dozens of magazine articles, and many of the original theatre posters.
- The character of Verheiden was named after comic book writer Mark Verheiden, creator of the first Aliens vs Predator comic series and first story ever involving both species. It was released prior to the infamous alien “skull” in Predator 2, contrary to popular belief.
- The drawings that Paul W.S. Anderson used for his original presentation to 20th Century Fox were done by ‘Patrick Tatopoulos’ .
- The role of Max Stafford was written specifically for Colin Salmon.
Production
- At ADI, the workshop crew nicknamed the 3 Predator characters Scar, Celtic, and Chopper.
- The animatronic Queen was controlled by a motion-control rig which could save her movements digitally. So, if the Queen made a nice looking move in rehearsal, the move could be replayed verbatim in front of the camera.
- The green glow stick dropped down the shaft contains the fluorescent liquid used by the effects departments of all the Predator movies as the Predators’ blood. According to director John McTiernan, on Predator they stumbled on the effect after unconvincing attempts to make the blood look orange forced the crew to look for alternatives.
Afterwards
- Around the time of the film’s release, it was reported that at a special industry screening director Paul W.S. Anderson said that the film was always planned as an R-rated movie and shot that way, but only three weeks prior to release the studio changed that by severely cutting the film for a lower PG-13 rating. This account has been heavily disputed by original “AVP” writer Peter Briggs. It was later revealed that this “press-screening” never took place, and was only an Internet rumor started by fans. Paul W.S. Anderson has claimed in interviews that the film seen in theatres is the version he intended audiences to see.
- In an interview, director Paul W.S. Anderson said that Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to reprise his role as Dutch Schaeffer (from Predator) at the end of this movie as a cameo, but only on the condition if he lost the election for Governor of California.
Other Things
- AVP had both the shortest filming & post-production schedules of any “major studio” film in 2004, filming was given 2 1/2 months while post-production was given just 4 months to complete.
- When one of the explorers is searching the whaling compound and walks past a door to a building, there is a shot from within the building in which the red light from the guy’s flare comes through the crack in the door to form a flat vertical beam that’s picked up by the dust/snow from inside the room, just like the blue-green scanner from the salvage scene at the beginning of Aliens.
- This is the first Alien film, and also the first Predator film, to get a rating other than R.
- After the opening credits are shown, SFX designers Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis have brief cameos as technicians who discover the heat bloom coming from the pyramid.
- First Predator movie to feature a left-handed predator.
- The first film in the Alien franchise to not feature Sigourney Weaver, who has said in interviews the idea of the crossover “sounded awful”.
- The words “alien” and “predator” are never said in this movie. Aliens are called “things”, “creatures” and “serpents”. Predators are referred to as “hunters”.
- The morse code picked up by the satellite at the beginning of the film spells out the words, “Whoever wins, we lose”. This is, of course, the tagline used to promote the film.
- When Lex asks Sebastian how to say “scared shitless” in Italian, he replies “Non vedo l’ora di uscire da questa piramide con te, perché mi sto cagando addosso.” Translated, this literally means “I can’t wait to get out of this pyramid with you, because I’m shitting myself.”
- Except for scenes with stand-ins, Ian Whyte played all of the Predators.
References
- Paul W.S. Anderson scattered references to the individual franchises with his film. The opening shot of the movie is a silhouette of the Alien Queen from Aliens, before being completely revealed as a Weyland Satellite.
- The character played by Lance Henriksen, Charles Bishop Weyland, is a co-founder of the Weyland Yutani Corporation. This is “the company” referred to in the earlier Alien movies. The Bishop Android from Aliens, and Bishop II from Alien 3 were also played by Lance Henriksen.
- When Charles Bishop Weyland is sitting in his office on the ship, we can very briefly see him playing with his pen in a similar manner to the way the android Bishop is playing with a knife in Aliens.
- The theatrical trailer includes soundbite samples from the original trailer for Alien and Bret (Harry Dean Stanton) screaming.
- At the beginning of the film in the satellite control station, the technician has a “drinky drinky” bird among the Tweety Pie dolls. These are the same birds that were seen on the dining room table in Alien, and also in the abandoned prison canteen at the end of Alien 3 .
- The readout of the predator ship at the beginning of the film, is shown reflected in the visor of the predator mask, as the readouts of the Nostromo in Alien were reflected on the space helmets.
- The shot of the team approaching the top of the pyramid, with their flashlights, taken from inside it references the shot of the of the Nostromo’s expedition team walking up to the entrance of the derelict.
- The design in the center of the floor in the sacrificial chamber is almost identical to the artwork of the Alien 3 poster.
- The heroine calling an Alien an “ugly mother…” is a reference to the two previous Predator films, in which both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover refer to the Predators as such.
- The black & white movie playing in the beginning of the film is another popular monster face-off, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
- The altars where victims were placed in the Chamber of Sacrifices of the pyramid is arranged exactly the same as the hibernation pods in the original Alien movie.
- A title near the beginning of the film identifies the ice cutter transporting the exploration team as “The Piper Maru”. The ship’s name comes from episode 3.15 of The X-Files. The The X Files episode was named after Gillian Anderson’s daughter.