Alien 3 - William Gibson - Lost Screenplay

Started by felix, Jan 14, 2021, 01:24:54 PM

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Alien 3 - William Gibson - Lost Screenplay (Read 33,318 times)

skhellter

Book arrived today.

Cover looks great in hand. Shiny.

Guess i'll line up a Alien/Aliens special edition rewatch..

Gentleman Death

While I was reading this I realized a few things, but the one that caught me off guard the most was the fact that I wasn't interested in seeing these characters again as much as I thought I would've. I've really enjoyed the expanded universe of this series and although it was nice to see what could've been with familiar faces, it wasn't entirely necessary.

One of the things Pat Cadigan does really well in the book was getting into the politics of "the company" and people's thoughts on them as well as a group called the UPP. She seemed to really enjoy talking about these groups more than the actual laying out of the story itself, or the characters and setting.

I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I was expecting to get a little more regarding the alien(s) itself as there pretty vicious and spawn inducing in the book. Instead, the "alien kills a person" is left at just that, and the next paragraph moves on.

There was a few times I had to reread a section because it jumped so quickly from one scene to the next.

I wouldn't say not to read this because it's a good and enjoyable for what it is. I wouldn't recommend it to a non alien fan and feel this is just for the hardcore fans.

Plus I really, really like what the Earth Hive wars did with the characters and probably will always hold that up on the mantle.

Nightmare Asylum

Yeah, I think that in this book - but also, in the script that it is adapting - the political climate and worldbuilding and establishing of the relationship between such forces as Weyland-Yutani, the USCM, and the UPP is much more interesting than the characters' narratives and the evolution of the Aliens. Hicks isn't really much of a character in this story, and that's even after Cadigan enhanced his character from what was there on the page that Gibson left behind. :D That's one of the main reasons I'm happy that this script isn't what we actually got as a film back in the day; the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 remains, to me, the very best of the multitude of potential Aliens sequel options that we have been presented with, but on the flip side, Gibson's script's ideas and concepts offer a ton of fascinating ideas and concepts that feel so at home in the world of those first three movies that I'm glad to have this novel that explores them in a more fleshed out fashion (and Cadigan's novel is a stronger exploration of those ideas than the source material script in my opinion), and I'm glad that ideas from this iteration of the story, like the UPP and the new Aliens, have been worked into other recent materials like the RPG and Into Charybdis despite this story itself not having been what we got on screen.

I'd be pretty down to see Pat Cadigan explore a followup in this alternate timeline outside of the main continuity as well, just for the fun of it.

Gentleman Death

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 25, 2021, 12:01:10 PM
Yeah, I think that in this book - but also, in the script that it is adapting - the political climate and worldbuilding and establishing of the relationship between such forces as Weyland-Yutani, the USCM, and the UPP is much more interesting than the characters' narratives and the evolution of the Aliens. Hicks isn't really much of a character in this story, and that's even after Cadigan enhanced his character from what was there on the page that Gibson left behind. :D That's one of the main reasons I'm happy that this script isn't what we actually got as a film back in the day; the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 remains, to me, the very best of the multitude of potential Aliens sequel options that we have been presented with, but on the flip side, Gibson's script's ideas and concepts offer a ton of fascinating ideas and concepts that feel so at home in the world of those first three movies that I'm glad to have this novel that explores them in a more fleshed out fashion (and Cadigan's novel is a stronger exploration of those ideas than the source material script in my opinion), and I'm glad that ideas from this iteration of the story, like the UPP and the new Aliens, have been worked into other recent materials like the RPG and Into Charybdis despite this story itself not having been what we got on screen.

I'd be pretty down to see Pat Cadigan explore a followup in this alternate timeline outside of the main continuity as well, just for the fun of it.

Better said than I could have! I completely agree that the world she was building on was far more interesting than the story itself. I'd have no issue with her doing something in this universe if they let her.

I really liked the idea of the alien shedding the human skin and I wish that would've been explored more in the sense of the how but also of how crazy that could've been if it was more written out. Kinda feels like a missed opportunity

Nightmare Asylum

Quote from: Gentleman Death on Sep 25, 2021, 03:38:59 PM
Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 25, 2021, 12:01:10 PM
Yeah, I think that in this book - but also, in the script that it is adapting - the political climate and worldbuilding and establishing of the relationship between such forces as Weyland-Yutani, the USCM, and the UPP is much more interesting than the characters' narratives and the evolution of the Aliens. Hicks isn't really much of a character in this story, and that's even after Cadigan enhanced his character from what was there on the page that Gibson left behind. :D That's one of the main reasons I'm happy that this script isn't what we actually got as a film back in the day; the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 remains, to me, the very best of the multitude of potential Aliens sequel options that we have been presented with, but on the flip side, Gibson's script's ideas and concepts offer a ton of fascinating ideas and concepts that feel so at home in the world of those first three movies that I'm glad to have this novel that explores them in a more fleshed out fashion (and Cadigan's novel is a stronger exploration of those ideas than the source material script in my opinion), and I'm glad that ideas from this iteration of the story, like the UPP and the new Aliens, have been worked into other recent materials like the RPG and Into Charybdis despite this story itself not having been what we got on screen.

I'd be pretty down to see Pat Cadigan explore a followup in this alternate timeline outside of the main continuity as well, just for the fun of it.

Better said than I could have! I completely agree that the world she was building on was far more interesting than the story itself. I'd have no issue with her doing something in this universe if they let her.

I really liked the idea of the alien shedding the human skin and I wish that would've been explored more in the sense of the how but also of how crazy that could've been if it was more written out. Kinda feels like a missed opportunity

In Alien: The Roleplaying Game...

Spoiler
The Destroyer of Worlds campaign actually uses this iteration of the Alien a fair bit. I'm currently playing the campaign, so I don't have all the details/spoilers on hand and won't until my playthrough is finished (we're nearing the end of our campaign now), but apparently from what I've heard it even develops a sort of origin/explanation for this "New Beast" that originated in Gibson's script. Someone that's already played through Destroyer of Worlds in its entirety (or at least, someone that's read all of the campaign's spoilers) might be able to provide a more explanation on this subject.
[close]

skhellter

the way Gibson wrote Hicks in those 2 drafts felt very... noncommital.

As if Gibson was still hoping that Weaver would want to make the film so he didn't really detail much about Hicks' inner journey (to make the leads easier to swap down the line). The only bit where he comes alive (outside of the action man persona) is when he starts talking about class A drugs.

Cadigan said that Gibson's favourite characters were Ripley and Bishop (not really Hicks).
But Hicks IS a fave of Cadigan and the way she expands on his characterization shows.

Wweyland

I'm quite enjoying this, but it might have too many flashbacks to Aliens (Hicks is always remembering some line from that movie) and too many "people in meetings" scenes.
Also loving the sarcastic tone.

Kradan

IRC "people in meetings" was something Gibson's first draft suffered from too

Wweyland

Quote from: Kradan on Oct 08, 2021, 08:57:37 AM
IRC "people in meetings" was something Gibson's first draft suffered from too
I'm touchy on this subject, I have to sit in meetings most of my day.

In criticism of Gibson's draft, I felt it was clunky for the story to have these 2 similar space stations that did similar things.
I mean the Sulaco is boarded twice and basically, the same thing happens: Bishop's parts are analyzed in a similar way, people sit in meetings on both stations, the Aliens break out, etc.
Would have been more organic to combine these into one station (Gateway?), which would have perhaps had a UPP section (Babylon 5 style).
Or just go with only the Rodina where all the Sulaco crew end up on.

TheBATMAN

Quote from: Wweyland on Oct 08, 2021, 11:13:14 AM
Quote from: Kradan on Oct 08, 2021, 08:57:37 AM
IRC "people in meetings" was something Gibson's first draft suffered from too
I'm touchy on this subject, I have to sit in meetings most of my day.

In criticism of Gibson's draft, I felt it was clunky for the story to have these 2 similar space stations that did similar things.
I mean the Sulaco is boarded twice and basically, the same thing happens: Bishop's parts are analyzed in a similar way, people sit in meetings on both stations, the Aliens break out, etc.
Would have been more organic to combine these into one station (Gateway?), which would have perhaps had a UPP section (Babylon 5 style).
Or just go with only the Rodina where all the Sulaco crew end up on.


Chalk that down to the era it was written. It was meant to be an analogy for the end of the Cold War was it not.

skhellter

Quote from: Wweyland on Oct 08, 2021, 11:13:14 AM
Would have been more organic to combine these into one station (Gateway?), which would have perhaps had a UPP section (Babylon 5 style).
Or just go with only the Rodina where all the Sulaco crew end up on.

this would be the ideal path.

regardless, all the meetings give the novel the occasional feel of a tom clancy thriller (a la red october).
And Cadigan added a lot more wit to those sections. It doesn't hurt the book.

Wweyland

Unfortunately, neither Gibson nor Cadigan goes very deep with exploring the cultural differences between the Soviets and the US, something that Alex White did wonderfully with Iranians in Into Charybdis. It might have just been one space station.

Local Trouble

Local Trouble

#163
Like Cold War Berlin in SPAAAAAACE!


Wweyland

The script and book offer some small tidbits about the background of the characters like Hicks has a sister named Zelda and Newt's father's parents are living in Oregon. I wonder if this information could be considered canon to an extent, as it happened before the story "branched off"?

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