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Peter Briggs’ Alien vs. Predator is a topic that I’ve always enjoyed and a script I’ve always enjoyed reading. I have just uploaded two new articles about the subject and the 30th episode of the AvPGalaxy Podcast where RidgeTop, Xenomorphine and I discuss the could-have-been Alien vs. Predator film.

Our first article is titled The Hunt Begins: The Early Days of Peter Briggs' Alien vs. Predator and is a look at the first days of development for the Alien vs. Predator film:

“Briggs' then agent Steve Kennis coincidently had a meeting with Larry Gordon from Fox and managed to sell the script that very same day. According to one interview with Peter Briggs, Larry Gordon would eventually tell Briggs that the concept of an Alien vs. Predator had only been discussed days before the meeting with Kennis where Fox had asked Gordan to develop the project. It was very much a case of being in the right place at the right time.

Briggs' first draft was handed to Joe Roth, the then chairman of 20^th Century Fox who optioned a second draft which significantly "tidied up" the initial spec script. There are reports that tend to indicate that as many as 4 drafts were produced by Briggs but in AvPGalaxy's own conversations with Peter Briggs he confirmed he only completed 2 drafts.”

Our second article on Peter Briggs’ Alien vs. Predator is a breakdown of the script itself and provides a detailed look at the events of the script itself: “The Hunt: Alien vs. Predator opens with a group of five Predators on a hunt on a barren, acrid planet which is described as "Death Valley on a grand scale". The Predators land on the planet and make their way to a cave entrance hidden within a canyon. Inside they find the cave walls covered in Alien resin and used carcasses of facehuggers.

Readying themselves, the Predators proceed further into the cave system and eventually encounter the Aliens whom the first victory goes to. An Alien emerges from the floor behind one of the Predators and stabs the Predator through its throat with its tail and drags him below the cave floor.”

I’d like to thank Peter Briggs for taking the time to chat with us and to fact check The Hunt Begins: The Early Days of Peter Briggs' Alien vs. Predator article. Last, but by no means least, we have the 30th episode of the AvPGalaxy Podcast.

We mention in the episode that this episode was intended to be the last of the year but not long after Alien: Covenant was announced and we recorded another episode. This should hopefully be released sometime next week.

So what did you think of Peter Briggs’ Alien vs. Predator script? Have any comments on our newest episode or articles? Let us know in the comments below.

Link To Post

Like everyone else, I think that Brigg's script should've been the movie we got. As much as I love both AVP films, this is the one we definitely should've gotten provided a little bit more polishing here and there. I'm sure had we gotten this instead, we wouldn't be having these massive retcons which turned the franchises into the mess they are now.

This was a good listen, very nostalgic for me and it reminds me of my childhood and teenage years when I was really getting into Alien-Predator. Those were some good times, good times indeed and... perhaps those were just better times in general for me, not just as a fan for the films.

I remember reading the script and loving it, still have printed copy around here.

In regards to AVP3, a hypothetical AVP3, I wouldn't want it to be a reboot... but perhaps.. a "distanced" sequel. Still set in the same universe as the previous two films, but with little references (except for Charles Bishop Weyland). Kind of like how Jurassic World did.

Quote from: RakaiThwei on Dec 12, 2015, 12:53:53 AM
In regards to AVP3, a hypothetical AVP3, I wouldn't want it to be a reboot... but perhaps.. a "distanced" sequel. Kind of like how Jurassic World did.

That's pretty much the kind of approach I would love to see them take too.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 12, 2015, 01:03:37 AM
That's pretty much the kind of approach I would love to see them take too.

As long as it's set in the same universe as the previous two movies with little to no reference, without Prometheus or PREDATORS influence, I'd be for it.

I wouldn't care about that as long as it felt natural. But at it's barest it just needs to be Alien/s and Predator.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 12, 2015, 01:11:25 AM
I wouldn't care about that as long as it felt natural. But at it's barest it just needs to be Alien/s and Predator.

For me, as a fan who grew up with the old stuff and the two movies, it's something I care about. Lately I feel like as an AVP fan, I'm no longer really part of the demographic and I want to keep on supporting one of my passions but at the same time, I feel like... that's just not happening with the current direction they are going. But if they did do a hypothetical AVP3, and keep it in the same universe-- even with little references to the previous films.. I'd be happy. I just want to be happy again.

I mean this is what we call a loose continuity, and some movie franchises have it more than others. Jurassic World, while having tighter knit roots to the previous movies, is a case of that in a way. Also, TMNT 2007, while touted as the fourth movie... generally is kind of it's own movie that can either be taken or left with the previous TMNT movies (although there are references to Secret of the Ooze and TMNT III), it's kind of a stand alone.

So... if AVP3 does that like Jurassic World or TMNT 2007, fine. I'd be down with that.

I've uploaded the podcast again - in mono instead of stereo this time.

I've got a printed copy of the first draft and i always enjoy reading it

Seriously? People actually like seeing Aliens used as targeting practice for Predators and Marines?? Got to have low iq to actually want stories like this... Predator vs Alien is just a dumb idea that should never have even happened. Many of the smart people who made and played in Alien and Aliens will agree. It's just dumb mindless action. Smart Alien fans don't want to see lasers flying all over the screen...wooppiiee effin doo. Aliens in a jungle jumping around like a bunch of monkeys...wow..I just thank God for Ridley Scott is all I can say.

If theres another Avp movie why would it be Avp 3? Wasn't Avp 2010 the the 3rd part of that act? i thought so. The Alien and Predator franchise has multiple universes if you count the expanded universe stuff. You got the Charles Bishop Weyland universe and the Peter Weyland universe. Now in one universe the xenos take over earth after Aliens. Multiple comics follow this event including Avp Three World War and its two prequels(The predator comic could be excluded).The Charles Bishop Weyland universe exclusively links the games Avp 2010 and Predator Concrete Jungle since Charles is mentioned in both. Prometheus and its continuing story line can also be counted as its own universe on account of 3 things:1-The color of the ringed planet in Prometheus isn't the same color as the one in Alien. 2-The Weyland Storm rifle replaces the M41-A pulse rifle. And 3-the powerloader is a product of Weyland corp and not Caterpillar. I myself like to think the 1st Avp by rebellion takes place after Alien 3 and the big deletion from Civilized Beasts causes almost all information about xeno contacts after Ripleys sacrifice to be lost. Hence general perez's misinformation about the xenos being wiped out when the Colonial marines technical manual states wy was in the process of going to acheron after the Sulaco reached its destination with no crew.

Quote from: LordCassusSnow on Dec 12, 2015, 06:14:09 PM
The Alien and Predator franchise has multiple universes if you count the expanded universe stuff.

I am all for multiverses, and I would love it if it was confirmed but... we were kinda cock-teased into thinking there was one but.. weeeell... >_<;

If done right, this could have been a super boost to the franchise, and possibly saved it from the downward spiral in terms of public opinion, even if the other films had been exactly the same.  The general public was hungering for an Aliens-style film, and this could have delivered the goods big time.  With that need satiated, I think that Alien 3 would have been more accepted as a return to the style of Alien, and Predator 2 would probably not have been viewed as harshly by the public either.  Alien Resurrection would either have not existed, or again, would not have been judged so harshly as it would not have been the only Aliens-style film out there.  The 2000s AVP films would probably have not existed (or at least we would not have gotten the poor Resurrection Alien designs).  A successful 90s AVP film would have gotten a sequel, furthering the series.  There would have been the comics and action figures as well, and the cartoon might have been greenlit.  AVP might have become one of the biggest sci-fi franchises out there without the reputation of having loads of post-80s detritus.

Quote from: Avp is crud on Dec 12, 2015, 03:55:19 PM
Seriously? People actually like seeing Aliens used as targeting practice for Predators and Marines?? Got to have low iq to actually want stories like this... Predator vs Alien is just a dumb idea that should never have even happened. Many of the smart people who made and played in Alien and Aliens will agree. It's just dumb mindless action. Smart Alien fans don't want to see lasers flying all over the screen...wooppiiee effin doo. Aliens in a jungle jumping around like a bunch of monkeys...wow..I just thank God for Ridley Scott is all I can say.

You can have it both ways; the beauty of Alien is that you can have stuff like Isolation and the AVP computer games in the same universe and it all works.  Aliens work equally well as either lone, invincible warriors or swarming plague monsters.

True. I actually loved the AVP - AVP 2 games. I just don't see Predators in Alien movies though. It completely takes away the horror for me. I could care less about discs and lasers flying around. Predators should be in samurai or ninja movies not alien movies.

Quote from: Avp is crud on Dec 12, 2015, 03:55:19 PM
Seriously? People actually like seeing Aliens used as targeting practice for Predators and Marines?? Got to have low iq to actually want stories like this... Predator vs Alien is just a dumb idea that should never have even happened.

First off lets keep the insults to a zero please.

And secondly, it really doesn't have to be bad. There's a lot of potential in the concept. It's just about balance.

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Quote from: TS on Dec 13, 2015, 06:39:47 AM
Actually, I wouldn't mind an AVP animated film(cartoon as opposed to cgi) that gets released straight to dvd/blu ray. Even if it's an hour and a half as opposed to 2 hours. That might be interesting if the voice acting and the script was decent enough.

That's something we discuss in the podcast actually. I'd love to see an animated AvP - whether CG or cartoon.  I think it'd present less of a risk to the studio and mean they could experiment more.

I'm loving some of the things I'm hearing from Pete Briggs, such as the other types of Aliens coming from the wildlife. I wonder how the immature queen would've looked like in the film. I also would've loved to see that ending bit where the Predators invite Hiroko, how it would've looked like on screen.

While I liked the AvP films, this one feels like it sticks more true to the roots.

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Wow, now that I heard it in the podcast, I'd love to see zero gravity combat!

You know how liquid turns into a sphere in zero g, imagine the Xenomorph acid spheres floating around melting whatever they touch. It makes wounding them so much more dangerous as you have less control in zero g unless you grab onto something and push yourself out of the way.

Quote from: Guan Thwei 1992 on Dec 14, 2015, 01:15:12 PM
Wow, now that I heard it in the podcast, I'd love to see zero gravity combat!

You know how liquid turns into a sphere in zero g, imagine the Xenomorph acid spheres floating around melting whatever they touch. It makes wounding them so much more dangerous as you have less control in zero g unless you grab onto something and push yourself out of the way.

Exactly why I'd love to see that!

Actually, I wouldn't mind an AVP animated film(cartoon as opposed to cgi) that gets released straight to dvd/blu ray. Even if it's an hour and a half as opposed to 2 hours. That might be interesting if the voice acting and the script was decent enough.

Briggs' script is OK, but it falls apart by the end. The finale's a bit of a mess. It really needed tightening up. A shame we've never got the second draft because hopefully that would've improved on the problems.

I'm hoping that will surface one day. I'd really love to see how it was tidied up.

Yeah.

Good articles anyway, I've only skimmed them so far but I'll have a proper read this afternoon. When I'm not busy watching space stuff ;)

Haha. I've got it on my other monitor too. Had to get it set-up on a big TV monitor for another department too. Nice to see my work taking interest in it.

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 15, 2015, 10:59:48 AM
Good articles anyway, I've only skimmed them so far but I'll have a proper read this afternoon.

To be fair, if you're read the script then the Early Days article will be of more interest. The breakdown is there for folk who haven't read the script.

Given them a read, great stuff. I never even knew the full "The Hunt" title, I'd always thought the project was just called Aliens vs. Predator. The fact it was done so quickly merely to garner interest certainly explains why the ending's a bit of a mess. Nice to hear some snippets about the second draft, too!

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 15, 2015, 01:49:08 PM
The fact it was done so quickly merely to garner interest certainly explains why the ending's a bit of a mess.

I think it's really a good example of everything falling into place at the right time - obviously that didn't all hold together until the end but it all fell into place quickly early on.

QuoteNice to hear some snippets about the second draft, too!

Those were real treats for me. I'd had memories of that new opening sequences for the second draft for ages but I couldn't remember where I'd seen them confirmed. Had to go through all my old conversations to find the ones with Briggs.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 15, 2015, 01:58:26 PMThose were real treats for me. I'd had memories of that new opening sequences for the second draft for ages but I couldn't remember where I'd seen them confirmed. Had to go through all my old conversations to find the ones with Briggs.

Some of those quotes may have been appropriated for Xenopedia ;)

No problem. Happy it's doing its job and getting some extra info out there.  :) The link in your sources bit is coming back to the wrong article though.

You helped out with this one yourself. I don't know if you noticed the picture?

I did. But it's OK, I won't be suing :P

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 15, 2015, 02:12:56 PMThe link in your sources bit is coming back to the wrong article though.

Fixed!

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 15, 2015, 02:34:51 PM
I did. But it's OK, I won't be suing :P

Pft. You got credit. By common law that's all fair game, brother.  :P

In all seriousness though, I had a blast putting that one together.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 15, 2015, 02:39:43 PMPft. You got credit. By common law that's all fair game, brother.  :P

That I didn't notice! Cheers!

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Dec 15, 2015, 02:39:43 PMIn all seriousness though, I had a blast putting that one together.

Yeah, I really enjoyed reading through and researching the Alien 3 scripts when I did the pages for them on Xenopedia. Although Eric Red's was hard going... :P

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 15, 2015, 02:42:47 PM
Yeah, I really enjoyed reading through and researching the Alien 3 scripts when I did the pages for them on Xenopedia. Although Eric Red's was hard going... :P

I'm not a massive fan of doing the break-downs. I just find them a little dull to write. It quickly becomes very he said, she said. They're important to have though - not everyone wants to read a script.

They should collect all of the copies if them, the master copy, Paul Anderson, the Strauss Bros, pile it up and set it a blaze. Burn it all out of the public's memory and do the Briggs Script like they should have in the first place. Problems solved.

I went and finally read this script after listening to the podcast. I agree that it's pretty good, especially for a first draft that was written very quickly. It's a shame that two pages are missing, and that the later drafts aren't out there to read. It's also a hell of a lot better than his Freddy vs Jason script. :laugh:

Quote from: KiramidHead on Jun 15, 2016, 02:50:28 AM
I went and finally read this script after listening to the podcast. I agree that it's pretty good, especially for a first draft that was written very quickly. It's a shame that two pages are missing, and that the later drafts aren't out there to read. It's also a hell of a lot better than his Freddy vs Jason script. :laugh:

What 2 pages? There were 2 pages the wrong way round but I don't think the PDF we've got was missing any.

He only did a single draft after this one. I really really really want to read that. I hope it surfaces eventually. From what I've heard of it it sounded like it had some really interested sequences.

The one that's floating around on the net as a text file has two pages missing.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jun 15, 2016, 07:36:38 AM

Quote from: KiramidHead on Jun 15, 2016, 02:50:28 AM
I went and finally read this script after listening to the podcast. I agree that it's pretty good, especially for a first draft that was written very quickly. It's a shame that two pages are missing, and that the later drafts aren't out there to read. It's also a hell of a lot better than his Freddy vs Jason script. :laugh:

What 2 pages? There were 2 pages the wrong way round but I don't think the PDF we've got was missing any.

He only did a single draft after this one. I really really really want to read that. I hope it surfaces eventually. From what I've heard of it it sounded like it had some really interested sequences.

Yeah, I ran into the pages the wrong way round and fixed it. The missing pages are 70 and 84, in my scan.

Yep, you're right. I forgot about that!

I've run into missing pages before when reading scripts. Sometimes, like this one, you don't miss a whole lot. In others, you miss how a certain scene resolves and go "what the fu- oh, it's the missing page."

http://omegaunderground.com/2016/10/14/90s-alien-vs-predator-video-game-capcom-based-roland-emmerichs-unused-script/

Just some speculation that I ran across about Emmerich and Devlin's possible outline.

That would've been insane :laugh:

So it would have been about Arnold saving Goleefornya. I can dig it, especially since was back before Emmerich started sucking.

That would have been pretty interesting lol

I actually wanna watch Moon44 now lol

Video of The Hunt Begins article, with artwork from Declan Loftus visualizing that zero-G scene from the second draft.

Hope I got a thanks for my crucial Aliens mag knowledge :P

You know, I did actually forget to mention.  :'( Your credit was in the image captions in the article, not the text and I forgot for the video. Sorry, brother. I'll add it to the video description.

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Also, here's an interesting one that Peter Briggs dropped on Facebook that I hadn't heard before.

QuoteThere WAS a treatment (I think that was John Davis produced?), which was set in the snow in somewhere like the Himalayas, if I recall. I might be wrong, but I thought that was Jim and John Thomas who did that?

https://twitter.com/ThePeterBriggs/status/1332715796242575364

..i'd like to read that.


I'd also like to get my hands on Emmerich's avp treatment.  :laugh:

Didn't Emmerich's treatment supposedly get adapted into the brawler game? :laugh:

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 29, 2020, 12:35:29 PMYou know, I did actually forget to mention.  :'( Your credit was in the image captions in the article, not the text and I forgot for the video. Sorry, brother. I'll add it to the video description.

I'm only joshing, all I did was give you a page number :laugh:

Quote from: skhellter on Nov 29, 2020, 01:18:01 PMI'd also like to get my hands on Emmerich's avp treatment.  :laugh:

As far as I'm aware, Emmerich was just attached to direct Briggs' script.

someone reach out to https://twitter.com/dean_devlin

Quote from: skhellter on Nov 30, 2020, 09:54:19 AM
someone reach out to https://twitter.com/dean_devlin

I did try in the past but got no reply.

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Nov 30, 2020, 09:21:36 AM

Quote from: skhellter on Nov 29, 2020, 01:18:01 PMI'd also like to get my hands on Emmerich's avp treatment.  :laugh:

As far as I'm aware, Emmerich was just attached to direct Briggs' script.

It was something I mentioned in my article, but they were on about throwing Briggs' script out and starting from scratch themselves. Though it doesn't seem like they got as far as actually getting any treatment done. I think the Dorman artwork was done for them.

Quote from: KiramidHead on Nov 29, 2020, 03:23:37 PM
Didn't Emmerich's treatment supposedly get adapted into the brawler game? :laugh:

An old article about the creation of that game said that Capcom based their story on some treatment that Fox was considering at the time...

(here it is:)
https://www.destructoid.com/stories/a-brief-and-bloody-history-of-aliens-videogames-117257.phtml

Arnold did visit the set of Emmerich's Universal Soldier at the time.. and Dutch is indeed featured in that Capcom game.. so... maybe....

The "story" of that game.. btw:

QuoteCalifornia has been overrun by the Aliens, and the cybernetically-enhanced Major Dutch Schaefer and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa of the United States Colonial Marine Corps have been abandoned by their superiors and are cornered by a swarm of the Alien drones. Before they can be killed, a pair of the Predators appear and destroy the Aliens. The Predators offer an alliance with the two humans in order to stop the Alien infestation.

:laugh:

This does feel like the kind of goofy bullshit that Emmerich loves, tbh.

Some more interesting bits from Peter Briggs.

https://twitter.com/ThePeterBriggs/status/1396512580387188738?s=19