ALIEN: Out of the Shadows (Novel 1)

[RobThom]

Any "never-before-revealed secrets" died with Dan O'Bannon.
(RIP)

My itinerary is already full ignoring prometheus, colonial marines, aliens vs predator, alienS, etc, etc, et al

In fact the only expanded Alien-verse that I thought was worth a fart was the AVP 2 game from 2001.

It was more alienS based then I'd prefer (a videogame based on a videogame),
and it had predators in it,
but it was impressively more then the sum of its questionable parts IMO.


Edit: Although if they're gonna be writing about "the company", that was Hills addition so I guess he deserves (and is always happy for) a few more bucks every time they sodomize that.

I guess its just me that after 30 years of every opportunistic shlub putting increasingly gaudy lipstick on grandma's poor corpse and doing their business again,
that I just want to remember grandma the way she was.

[Xenomrph]

They don't have permission to use that artwork, it is most likely going to change, if not, legal actions will be taken.

Is that your artwork?

No, but I'm good friends with the artist Dan LuVisi. I informed him about the cover and he had no idea. He's talking to his legal team.

I'd presume that Fox owns all commercially-created, licensed Alien artwork.

Yeah, Fox owns the IP, I suspect they could do pretty much whatever they want with it.

[RobThom]

Expendable for the purpose of breding a bunch of aliens.

Step 1. Build Terraforming colony with a certain monetary value stocked with hundreds of shlubs who have no extended family that might ask any questions.

Step 2. Eventually as shlubs are prone to do, they will take their helmets off, ignore all contamination protocols, abandon their posts to get laid, pet space snakes and create hundreds of murderous Aliens.

Step 3. Send in another handful of dudes.

Step 4. ?

Step 5. Profit!

I have a harder time believing WY just accidentally colonized LV -426, seeing as they sent the Nostromo there *because* of the derelict.

It seems like an asinine premiss from the get go if you make the mistake of thinking about it doesn't it.

And yes that was exactly the premiss.

It took Burke sending the newt family to the derelict after Ripley told everyone at the inquiry that it was there to finally set the master plan into motion.

Its lindelfof-esque.

[bishoop]

maybe this book will form what was original envisioned for the Alien prequels before Ridley changed it to the mankind origins thing?

[maledoro]

So, if this is "Novel #1", what would "Novel #2" cover?

[Kimarhi]

If they are doing outside the movie coverage one could bet that Hadley's Hope being overrun would be a thing they look forward to doing.

Undoubtedly with the whole conspiracy angle thrown in (the company knew about it all along!)

Or something Colonial Marinesish.

I'd rather they start someplace familiar, and go someplace new myself.

I got vague sense of nostalgia during the first exploration of Hadley's Hope in Colonial Marines...............then I got over it.

New places plz.

[RobThom]

The biggest problem with the extended Alien verse, is that its owned by suits.

Unfortunately the guys with the most talent like O'Bannon,
never recognize their own talent.

So they're always losing ownership of their own tears.

They're not business savvy.

And the guys with the least talent,
like lindelof always think they're more talented then they are!

Because suits tell them so and enable them.

But back to the problem with Alien/suits,
Alien was never meant to be serialized.

Star wars was a space opera including a whole "universe" at war.

Star Trek was Wagon Train in space.

Both lend themselves to serialization.

Alien was a movie about intimate personal threat.

It ended open, and there was the alternate written open ending that Dan re-used in screamers.
but that was only a melancholy punchline.

Not "see you next summer".

So getting back to the problem with Alien/suits,
the suits keep insisting that:

"Ripley is the audience interest!"

"And they really like that perverted Giger stuff!"

If anybody with any artistic,
instead of purely financial sense had thought about it,
they would have taken the set design/world space that they so beautifully crafted,
and written a new movie either about the company,
about the Alien,
about the SJ,
instead of trying to reframe/remake/reimagine/prequal/sequal the same story around the 2 bullet points of Ripley and the Alien.

(Yes, that is allegedly the intention of prometheus. But they proceed to fail miserably on every level. prometheus has as much to do with big questions or not blatenly ripping off Alien/alienS as me telling you that I'm Evil Kneival.)

[Cvalda]

Unfortunately the guys with the most talent like O'Bannon,
never recognize their own talent.

Oh, he "recognized" it alright, despite the fact his original script for Alien was pretty terrible. Have you not seen his interviews?

[Kimarhi]

I'll give props to O'Bannon for the lifecycle of the Alien.............but Starbeast was pretty terrible.


And he did think he was the shit.  It was pretty annoying.

[RobThom]

Oh, he "recognized" it alright, ...

Well he should have.

As should you.

But what do you mean?

Him insisting that Hills script was his script?

Dan built a HotRod.

Hill but a nice interior in it.

The HotRod exists without the interior.

But not the other way around.

.......but Starbeast was pretty terrible.

I beg to differ.

I thought Hill did add the nice working class verisimilitude to it.

Hill was a good writer and director in those days.

But he only added a suit of clothes to the man.

And he did think he was the shit.  It was pretty annoying.

Dan could be notoriously mean and irritable,
(maybe the tummy problem can do that to the best of us),
but example of pretentiousness?

Lindelof level pretentiousness?

[Cvalda]

The dialogue in his script was terrible. Even the names were terrible. It reads exactly like a gorier version of the tacky 1950s B-movies it borrows from.

Aside from the basic story, the script that made the film was mostly Hill & Giler's work.

[Kimarhi]

Alien isn't a one man show.  You can't discout Giger's involvement from turning what would've been a b movie horror flick with a giant tentacled space toad into something a little less mainstream, just like you can't deny Scott's direction.  Nor Hill from turning it into a schloky horror b movie into something a little more grounded in reality.

O'bannon gets credit for the chestburster scene.  The rest is straight from Voyage of the Space Beagle, It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Planet of the Vampires.

After you read/watched all these you'll be surprised at how Alien feels a little less original.  POTV and the first half of Alien follow almost identical paths.  It isn't until the horror parts start happening that they actually diverge in different directions.

[RobThom]

The dialogue in his script was terrible.

I do believe that he mentioned writing the treatment/script vague on character and dialogue purposely.

So that it could be tooled after it got sold and he found out what actors he would be working with and their attributes.

Hill polished the car before Dan was ever allowed to.

Even the names were terrible.

I completely and utterly disagree withy you here.

I though Melkonis and the other names Dan made where awesome.

You could be right, a matter of opinion I suppose.

I thought Hills were just as interesting,
and now classic,
but not an IMPROVEMENT.

It reads exactly like a gorier version of the tacky 1950s B-movies it borrows from.

Thats how the final Alien script reads also.

Except for Hills corporate 70's aesthetic.

I'll have to read it again.

Did Hill add any of the scare punchlines himself?

Also have you read the Hill's "Cylinder" script?

You thought it was better?

Before Dan made a nuisance of himself and they reinserted an Alien into Alien.

Aside from the basic story, the script that made the film was mostly Hill & Giler's work.

Have Hill and Giler ever wrote another sci-fi movie?

Other then Alien 3?

(Once again swooping in at the last second.)

The reason for the only plot holes in Alien is smooshing Hill/Gilers army man script onto Dans.

Alien isn't a one man show. 

I agree.

It was a time and place.

I've heard that the British film industry that enabled Alien and Star Wars collapsed soon afterwards.

But as far as specific inputs,
its was a friggen tribe effort!

Everybody involved in that one off deserves credit for being there.

[Cvalda]

I do believe that he mentioned writing the treatment/script vague on character and dialogue purposely.

So that it could be tooled after it got sold and he found out what actors he would be working with and their attributes.

Hill polished the car before Dan was ever allowed to.

That's a pretty convenient excuse for bad writing. Especially when O'Bannon has done nothing but brag about how amazing his original script was.

I though Melkonis and the other names Dan made where awesome.

Melkonis, seriously?

I thought Hills were just as interesting,
and now classic,
but not an IMPROVEMENT.

Ripley, Dallas, Lambert, Kane, Ash, Parker, Brett > Melkonis, Roby, Standard, Broussard, the other gee-willikers Scifi names O'Bannon used

Thats how the final Alien script reads also.

Nope. Hill & Giler's script is smart, stylish and beautifully written with sharp dialogue. O'Bannon's is barely readable.

Did Hill add any of the scare punchlines himself?

He certainly added the entire Ash subplot, which elevates the story immensely.

Have Hill and Giler ever wrote another sci-fi movie?

Other then Alien 3?

(Once again swooping in at the last second.)

Does it matter? The fact that they don't write scifi and don't traffic in the usual cliches of that genre is one of the strengths they brought to their final Alien draft -- it stopped being a gee-whiz R-rated Fantastic Stories thing and became a tough, gritty thriller. Everything else O'Bannon has written in the genre has been interesting, but pretty subpar, aside from Total Recall (which was rewritten by Gary Goldman) and maybe Return of the Living Dead.

The reason for the only plot holes in Alien is smooshing Hill/Gilers army man script onto Dans.

Like?

[Nightmare Asylum]

So, if this is "Novel #1", what would "Novel #2" cover?

Maybe something that runs concurrently with the films, but from a more corporate perspective? Though I guess that they'd have to shoehorn Aliens in there somehow.