AvPGalaxy Exclusive - Early John Logan Alien: Covenant Script!

Started by Corporal Hicks, Aug 15, 2017, 09:19:06 AM

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AvPGalaxy Exclusive - Early John Logan Alien: Covenant Script! (Read 65,444 times)

chromhart

hey does anyone know about the original plot for prometheus 2 before it became Paradise Lost?

Corporal Hicks

From what I've been able to learn it actually isn't as drastic a difference as we all expect. I think I've mentioned it in the past but I've managed to talk to someone who was on the film pre-dating John Logan and Dante Harper and they said the narrative was pretty much the same. The only major difference was that Shaw survived to meet up with the crew and that David had some strange pet creatures.

Baron Von Marlon

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Mar 15, 2018, 01:13:55 PM
From what I've been able to learn it actually isn't as drastic a difference as we all expect. I think I've mentioned it in the past but I've managed to talk to someone who was on the film pre-dating John Logan and Dante Harper and they said the narrative was pretty much the same. The only major difference was that Shaw survived to meet up with the crew and that David had some strange pet creatures.

The narritive might been the same but a different version might have been better.
And like you said, Shaw surviving and meeting up with the crew is a major difference. I think it implies she had at least some dialogue.
Perhaps it would've made the transition between Prometheus and Covenant better.
David pet creatures were supposed to hunt and kill people. Could've been in place of the neomorphs.
But I'm thinking they might take the victims alive so David could experiment on them.
Time will tell...

SM

Finally finished reading this. The only scene that would've been nice to see was Griffin and the facehugger. The escape from the planet was better in the film. The climax wasn't bad, but ultimately still better in the film. Ultimately I think the issue with the last half hour or so is the pace. It stops once they get back to the ship, then needs to start up again when there's no time to do so.

asil

Thanks Corporal!

The Prologue is brutal!

So, The Crossing means between Shaw or David? Between Prometheus 2 or Alien:Covenant?

Ultimately, David won.

Gabe

This is fascinating, I just read the prologue and it was dark!
Gonna check out the script in a bit.

I really want to see the 2014 and earlier scripts where there was a lot of change with the original ideas!

Keep it up guys!

Keyes

Thank you for the scripts Hicks! I've only read the Prologue so far, and it was fascinating to read what I presume was originally shot for Shaw going by past interviews.

I presume the footage is being held back for possible inclusion as a flashback for the next film.

ChrisPachi

QuoteA long, snaking, tendril-like CABLE extends from the SHIP, reaching out, tethering to DAVID'S BROKEN BODY, ATTACHING.

Hello!

QuoteHe gently reaches out .. She doesn't flinch. He touches her cheek. She looks at him.

SHAW
Are you going to kill me now?

DAVID
Why would I do that, Elizabeth?

He smiles, his face utterly readable.

Oh FFS, who hires these people?

Denton Smalls

Thanks again, Hicks!

Regarding the early story versions from Paglen/Green/Harper, did your contacts by chance speak about some of the things that got revealed in unused concept art like elongated Engineer heads, parasitic worms bursting out of infected Engineers, more exotic versions of goo-altered plant life, and all the Giger-esque portrayals of David growing things with the goo?

Do you think those drafts will ever see the light of day?

SM

Quote from: ChrisPachi on Mar 19, 2018, 11:35:54 AM
QuoteA long, snaking, tendril-like CABLE extends from the SHIP, reaching out, tethering to DAVID'S BROKEN BODY, ATTACHING.

Hello!

QuoteHe gently reaches out .. She doesn't flinch. He touches her cheek. She looks at him.

SHAW
Are you going to kill me now?

DAVID
Why would I do that, Elizabeth?

He smiles, his face utterly readable.

Oh FFS, who hires these people?

Because, of course, every word of a script draft has to be profound poetry.

NetworkATTH

NetworkATTH

#160
Quote from: SM on Mar 19, 2018, 10:24:00 PM
Quote from: ChrisPachi on Mar 19, 2018, 11:35:54 AM
QuoteA long, snaking, tendril-like CABLE extends from the SHIP, reaching out, tethering to DAVID'S BROKEN BODY, ATTACHING.

Hello!

QuoteHe gently reaches out .. She doesn't flinch. He touches her cheek. She looks at him.

SHAW
Are you going to kill me now?

DAVID
Why would I do that, Elizabeth?

He smiles, his face utterly readable.

Oh FFS, who hires these people?

Because, of course, every word of a script draft has to be profound poetry.

To be fair this was a very very rough draft, just hitting off story beats. Still, I wish some of the imagery was in here. Dead Engineers in their Suits surrounding the Derelict in the hundreds is far more foreboding, right before it all goes to shit. Kareen being a victim of the spores as well as Ledward. And especially at the end, one of the beasts trying desperately to rip your space/ice suit open, and shooting its  tongue at your visor multiple times. But not getting through after twice. I know in most movies it would have shot right through, but the idea you're pinned to the ground by this thing, and it's shooting its jaws right into your face, cracking the visor harder each time, that's a f**king terrifying image. Reminds me of the first Jurassic Park, when the Tyrannosaurus blast through the sunroof.

There's a lot of imagery in here I think should have stayed, while the rest of the script remained mostly the same.


Another scene needed (that weren't in either script I read) I think, is Orrem and David bickering about God in the temple. Something along the lines of

Orrem: "These things, the city, they look just like us. What is going on, how can this be possible"
David: "They are your Gods"
Orrem: "That's not possible, God created man in his own image"
David: "So did they."

ChrisPachi

Quote from: SM on Mar 19, 2018, 10:24:00 PMBecause, of course, every word of a script draft has to be profound poetry.

Nope, just not so awful.

NetworkATTH

Quote from: ChrisPachi on Mar 22, 2018, 12:35:25 PM
Quote from: SM on Mar 19, 2018, 10:24:00 PMBecause, of course, every word of a script draft has to be profound poetry.

Nope, just not so awful.

Rough drafts that come right after a treatment tend to be awful. There's some gems, I actually like some of this (not all of it) more than what we got in terms of tension. Like the Alien shooting its tongue out at "Griffin's" visor, only not to break it, trying to rip into the suit. And shoots its tongue out again, and again, as the visor begins to buckle before she shoots the airlock open. There are a lot of good ideas in this script that I would have loved to see, but a lot I wouldn't have. But, this is from 2015. Three years prior.

I know it's awful, but not for the reasons you and I might agree on. The writing crew working out, what can we do with the Alien that we've never done before, was fairly interesting. Like an Alien pinning someone in an armored space suit down but being unable to get in, as they're pinned to the ground. That would have been great to see.

There's a number of things I'd love to  have seen, and I'm perplexed why they didn't include it.

ChrisPachi

Why is the Shaw/David stuff so shit though? These are THE ONLY CHARACTERS.

NetworkATTH

Quote from: ChrisPachi on Mar 22, 2018, 12:50:18 PM
Why is the Shaw/David stuff so shit though?
Probably because it was from an earlier treatment and they were just shooting the shit how to handle it. Eventually they made the right call not to show it.

You would be surprised how many early drafts of movies you might like are pretty shitty. It's just kind of going with the flow, and improving upon it later. It's about throwing ideas out there even if they read horrible. That's where further drafting begins.

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