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 33,333 times)

Kimarhi

At this point in time I wouldn't worry about canon. 

TheBATMAN

Quote from: Wweyland on Oct 08, 2021, 07:54:58 PM
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.

I meant Anchorpoint and Rodina representing the US and Russia with each side building weapons and neither side knowing how far ahead the others were. You cant really get that analogy and the paranoia associated with it if it was just one space station. Both parties needed to be separated so to speak.

Wweyland

Quote from: TheBATMAN on Oct 10, 2021, 05:23:17 PM
Quote from: Wweyland on Oct 08, 2021, 07:54:58 PM
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.

I meant Anchorpoint and Rodina representing the US and Russia with each side building weapons and neither side knowing how far ahead the others were. You cant really get that analogy and the paranoia associated with it if it was just one space station. Both parties needed to be separated so to speak.
I agree, but the parties need to be visually contrasted and in need of good characters to distinguish them.

VeteranSergeant

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 25, 2021, 12:01:10 PMThat'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
To be fair, this was literally a story in two drafts. It wasn't likely representative of what would have made it to the screen. It was just that they never moved forward with it, so the only things that exist are the two drafts Gibson wrote, before any real revisions. Who really knows what the actual "Alien 3" would have looked like had Gibson and Harlin not exited the project.  I too am a big fan of the Alien 3 we got in the Assembly Cut, and it's amazing that someone as talented as David Fincher touched the franchise, even in such a flawed entry.  But I still think there was potential to this story had it been made. Hopefully without the "skinburster" scene, at least. which is one of the things I think would have eventually been abandoned for being too difficult to film in the late 80s/early 90s, and too hard to get right without seeming schlocky to the audience.

Heck, this book is actually based on the first draft. So it's even further back in the developmental process than the Audio Drama or Dark Horse's adaptations.

I dunno, I always thought there was a ton of potential to this script. It just needed a bit more revision and the collaborative process of actual filmmaking.

Kimarhi

The skinburster and weaponized alien spore is kind of a precursor to what black goo does to people anyways. 



I actually thought removing the limiter on the Alien (the facehugger) was a good idea to make them scarier because it makes them more virulent and makes them the nightmare, nightmare scenario.  Aliens would be bad enough, but now there wouldn't be anyway to stop them.  At least in the old infestation the Aliens had to take host. 

BlueMarsalis79

You also remove part of what makes them unique.

Ridley Scott actually did the smart thing in keeping that idea separate from the Alien proper.

In my opinion anyway.

SiL

People forget the face-hugger and chest burster were the actual innovations of the Alien and that the adult was considered the boring bit when the film first came out.

Kimarhi

Maybe, but it always seemed like an obvious ploy to get the alien back on the ship to me.    Granted I saw alien last out of the trilogy growing up.

VeteranSergeant

Quote from: Kimarhi on Oct 19, 2021, 03:38:06 AM
The skinburster and weaponized alien spore is kind of a precursor to what black goo does to people anyways. 
The less the Plot Device Wonder Goo, or anything prequel related, appears in Alien-related material, the better.

skhellter

skhellter

#174
Quote from: Wweyland on Oct 10, 2021, 08:49:35 PM
I agree, but the parties need to be visually contrasted and in need of good characters to distinguish them.

dunno. I'm liking the characters in this a fair bit.
Luc and Welles are very different, for instance. I'd say that covers the "progressive" vs "capitalist" ground.

Characterisation here is uncomplicated and effective in the same manner as the first 3 films, i've found.
I'm glad Cadigan doesn't subscribe to the "every character needs to have an arc" school of writing because that shit can get really tiresome and often leads to overwriting and to telegraphing the characters' endings well in advance.

(near the ending atm)

This is the best of the Gibson adaptations, btw. Easily.

Local Trouble

Quote from: Trash Queen on Oct 19, 2021, 04:18:32 AM
You also remove part of what makes them unique.

Ridley Scott actually did the smart thing in keeping that idea separate from the Alien proper.

In my opinion anyway.

Correct.

SiL

Quote from: Kimarhi on Oct 19, 2021, 04:47:12 PM
Maybe, but it always seemed like an obvious ploy to get the alien back on the ship to me.    Granted I saw alien last out of the trilogy growing up.
It absolutely was a ploy to get the Alien on board, but at the time it wasn't obvious, it was innovative. Normally the monster would just sneak in, like the Queen. The chest bursting is what got the script sold and what first really hit the public consciousness as far as the monster was concerned.

Side stepping that leaves you with just another monster lurking around killing people.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#177
Maybe. 


The creepiest part of the Alien is probably the facehugger itself.  But the one limiting factor of the Alien is that they have to catch host, bring them back to the hive, and then gestate for more numbers. 


In reality the Alien would be a never ending guerilla threat, there are just too many easy targets out there for them, but you can discern movements and probable locations of where they would be at by just knowing their nature.  You know they are going to be around human prey, and that they would have to walk to get there, then you could just look for natural features or abandoned buildings once people in an area start disappearing.   Send a drone in to confirm, then scuttle the building with a precision munitions with very little threat to human combatants. 

The virulence of Gibson's script let the Aliens spread rampantly without the limiter.  Individual spores could infect people from some distance away and takes away something that would be a weakness. 

I also imagine you could alter the Aliens physiology to spread the spores instead of the eggs. 

I kind of imagined this as a one off to squeeze some more life out of the franchise, maybe to show how careless and stupid humans can be if they were to actually get the alien. But if we are at that squeezing the life out of it point, maybe we should stop and shovel dirt on it.

I also imagined Gibson's script redone as a new property. 




SiL

That last bit basically nails it on the head; if someone's changing something that much, do that idea as something new. The facehugger and chestburster aren't incidental to the Alien's identity (and one thing I like about Covenant, basically reaffirming that they're the aspect which really make the thing unique)

Kimarhi

I always wonder how watching them out of order altered my perspective of the movies.


Back in the old rental days, for whatever reason Kroger (the grocery store had a rental section) and Blockbuster both never replaced lost copies of Alien.  So I watched Aliens, then Alien 3 and then finally after about a year Alien was bought for my birthday. 

When I did finally watch the movie, the Aliens physical characteristics and forms just didn't hit me the same way because I had been overexposed to them previously.  I think.


The adult Aliens physiology is what actually is the iconic design to me.  if I try to come up with some sort of generic Kimarhi monster in my head, the Alien always finds itself back in there. 

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