ALIEN DAY: Sigourney Weaver Talks A5 at Aliens Special Event

[Perfect-Organism]

I'm not 100% positive but I'm sure some horror franchises (Halloween?) and maybe even Godzilla has done that?

I'm fairly certain Halloween was a continuous series until they did the remake/reboot. And the Godzilla restarts have been just that - restarts. In fact they're a pretty relevant example - the 1984 film was an alternative sequel to the 1954 original. The '84 film then spawned its own line of sequels, none of which had any relation to the many sequels made between '54 and '84. The original series was essentially moved aside and left.

I am a Halloween fan, and I can tell you that a retcon, even before the reboot did happen.  The events that transpire between Halloween 4 and Halloween 6 are effectively ignored in 1998's Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.  Halloween: Resurrection continued from Halloween H20.  Then we had Rob Zombie's reboot after that.  All this proves is that films that end in "Resurrection" end the series.   

[CainsSon]

I think it's more indicative of what she's read in the script. Thanks for passing on the details and representing the AvPG community, Cain!

What I find interesting is the suggestion of that 4th person - Bishop, perhaps?

It was my pleasure. When she started talking Blomkamp's Alien-film - which, I guess, it's safe to STOP calling 'Alien 5', now - I was anxious to update you guys in real-time, because I was so excited. But I also needed to pay attn cause she seemed really excited to be talking about it.

As for Bishop - I don't know. And I want to be careful that I'm not misrepresenting her. Her delivery was, with baited breath, a "who knows maybe now it's four of them and they go back and get Jonesy..." I took that as maybe being Newt with someone else, possibly a love interest but there was no way to tell. Blomkamp shared that image of Newt yesterday... Maybe we will see one of Bishop soon. This is a great time to be an Alien-fan. Lots of stuff in the works.

One question I have is, wondering how much Fox has it's hands in things like this. For instance, I'm wondering if this event was produced entirely by Mondo and Alamo Drafthouse, or if say, Fox corresponded with Weaver about it. It would make more sense to me if this stuff was all subcontracted, but you'd think maybe Fox would touch base...I just don't know.   

[Perfect-Organism]

It worked really well for Star Trek because of the concepts and history of the show. It wouldn't work for Alien.

I agree.  No time travel please.  This is not the right universe for that sort of thing.  If anything, let them be 2 alternate realities that can be continued and developed independently of each other, intersecting at the juncture of the first 2 Alien films.  This would be unique.  All the AVP and Predator films could fit into the Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection timeline, and prometheus, Covenant, Alien, Aliens, Alien 5 could be the other time line.

[XenoHunter99]

That's not what Star Trek did at all. The earlier films won't happen after the new ones, when Spock and Nero went back in time they changed everything. The original films will no longer happen for the crew of the new movies.

*cough*Into Darkness*cough*

Not to derail the thread. 

Lindelof. He can try to deflect all he wants, but the guy is a movie-ruiner. Khan again. His idea! He makes a mess and leaves. And now, who knows what we're going to get? Star Trek seems poised to give us Fast & Furious in Space. And Covenant... Look, all these long-running franchises are on their deathbeds. The exception: Disney is going to ram Star Wars down our throats for the next several years, even if Ep VII was a beat-for-beat Ep IV Redux. And people are going to slurp it up with a straw.

But Alien? This is do or die time with Covenant. Predator: Same thing. Prometheus was at least as much a black eye on the franchise as Resurrection. In that respect, I think Predators was much better. I'd have liked to see a sequel to that. I suppose the only real hope is, these movies get the Michael Bay effect going - The movies themselves are simply awful, but people go see them because they're so pretty. Money talks, and we somehow get to Transformers 5, Star Trek Beyond, Blomkamp's Alien 5, and all this other nonsense. Hey, that worked for Ep VII, too.

Yeah, fully expect Blomkamp's Alien 5 to be eye candy and garbage at the same time. It's like 20 years too late for that to work. And the more I see, the happier I am that Ripley, Newt and Hicks all died on Fury 161. Also, when shown these alternatives, I start to actually love Alien 3.

But it's all beyond our control. As with many things, it is what it is; and whatever happens, happens.

[PRJ_since1990]

Cool. I'd be down for Lance reprising his role.

[CainsSon]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's Bishop. The movie *HAS* to have him. So you'd have Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop.

I'm still going with my theory that we'll find out the Ripley, Newt and Hicks we saw in Alien 3 were clones, thus Alien 3 and Resurrection still "counting" towards the franchise.

I'm not against this. But if they are going back to the space between 2 and 3, I'm only into if it's sort of an after-thought and its gonna be there, they should let fans draw the line to that - IF THEY WANT TO. If they make a big thing out of it, it will just seem really forced and risk cheapening the story. Ironically, I used to talk up Blomkamp as the one guy who could continue Ripley 8's story successfully, after seeing the themes of District 9 and the world of Elysium...

Its not hard to find a way to do this story wise - the reasons for cloning, I mean.
Have a Company ship dock with the Sulaco - they were always on their way, to bring the species back but kept it hush-hush because of the colony being MIA - then, they impregnate and clone Ripley to harvest more than one specimen, just as the rescue team arrives, and to cover up that they have the crew in stasis, they put the clones in the hypersleep chambers and mayhem ensues, and the Clones are jettisoned. Then the shady company people leave with the actual Ripley and Hicks in stasis, to bring them to Weyland Headquarters, without the rescue team knowing. Once they get there, more mayhem happens...

A buddy and I worked this out yesterday in a fan-fiction sequence that starts with a film version of Newt's Tale, and that leads to the above Sulaco-story, which links to Blomkamp's intended sequel (as I imagine it).

[HuDaFuK]

Its not hard to find a way to do this story wise. Have a Company ship dock with the Sulaco - they were always on their way, to bring the species back but kept it hush-hush because of the colony being MIA - they impregnate and clone Ripley to harvest more than one specimen - just as the rescue team arrives, and to cover up that they have the crew they put the clones in the hypersleep chambers and mayhem ensues, and the Clones are jettisoned, then the shady company people leave with the actual Ripley and Hicks in stasis, to bring them to Weyland Headquarters, without the rescue team knowing. Once they get there, more mayhem happens...

And where did they get these clones that are already exactly the same age as the survivors (not that they would've had any idea who'd actually survived until they got back onto the Sulaco at the end of the previous movie) on such short notice?

It makes no logical sense.

[CainsSon]

Bishop is not a human. Fourth human - Hudson! He's alive! I always knew it!

Aliens.5? 

She doesn't say human though.

I'm still going with my theory that we'll find out the Ripley, Newt and Hicks we saw in Alien 3 were clones, thus Alien 3 and Resurrection still "counting" towards the franchise.

I really hope not. That would be such a lame story angle to take. Why the hell would anyone even want to clone them and send them to Fury 161? What would that conceivably achieve?

Clones would be equally as bas as the "it was all a dream" idea.

I'm hoping if they're going down the alternate sequel thing, it just ignores 3 and Resurrection and goes off to do its own thing.

I think so as well. Based on her comment about those films 'not being wiped out but running parallel' that was kinda the end all of that for me. There can always be something we don't know, that they don't WANT us to know, and I think how or whether it connects can also be used for marketing. Fox learned that well with PROMETHEUS.

[THE CITY HUNTER]

Shes just saying that so the Alien 3 fans dont get upset.

[CainsSon]

They're just going to start another timeline from the end of Aliens. Simply put they'll be two parallel line of events after Aliens. The one where Alien³ and A|R happened and the one with the new Alien 5 movie heading off into another direction from the same starting point. Like one, like neither or love both; It's all up to you.

I really like the part about picking up Jonsey. Cat's probably live to 150 in they're time. Not counting hyper sleep time.

About that 4th human, maybe they find Shaw out in the void somewhere... this movie does take place after the Prometheus|A:C events.

Wait. Hold on. Rumor control. She didn't say they pick up Jonesy. She said she imagines that after all is said and done the three, or MAYBE four of them now... Go back and get Jonesy... Heh.

Bishop is not a human. Fourth human - Hudson! He's alive! I always knew it!

Given the context perhaps Ripley is pregnant (with child, not alien). A family of four.

Its funny that you say this, because despite not having any real context apart from her talk about Ripley's daughter and her elevated relations with Hicks, I did get the idea somehow that she meant either another person we haven't met or a child. My gut has been wrong before.

Both of which I really do not want. The scary thing is the nightmare thing would work - it's been a thing in Alien since the first film and ADF had professional "dreamers" whose dreams are recorded for entertainment.

I'm fairly certain Halloween was a continuous series until they did the remake/reboot. And the Godzilla restarts have been just that - restarts. In fact they're a pretty relevant example - the 1984 film was an alternative sequel to the 1954 original. The '84 film then spawned its own line of sequels, none of which had any relation to the many sequels made between '54 and '84. The original series was essentially moved aside and left.

Fair enough. I didn't really know.

Are you familiar with the Enhancement Pod on the FURIOUS GODS Documentary where Ridley Scott explains that, in order to keep the brain functioning during hypersleep, they actually implant dreams of your choosing. I liked this. But what I can't stand about the dream thing (the alien franchise is not the only culprit) is that dreams do not occur in the 3rd person. You would not see yourself in the dream! Heh.  That's kinda a pet-peeve that drives me up the wall. Haha.

Depends on how you look at it. He's getting paid to do it for Fox so it's not really fanfiction. People might use the term fanwank but I don't want to judge yet. It's just...an alternate sequel with a new continuity, I guess. Hard to be sure of the implications at this point.

Weaver seemed to make the point - and I think she said this before as well - that it's a proper ending and I suppose, I want that for the character. I think it would be best for everyone, if they come up with some POTENTIAL way to include ALIEN 3 and 4, if you want to.
Similar to the way PROMETHEUS kinda explains the DERELICT in ALIEN without explicitly saying what happened. An answer is there if you want to find it.
At the end of the day - I think saying "Wouldnt you want a proper ending?" is a valid point. The trouble is - in this case, I like Alien 3, but hate where A:R left off. So it's tricky for me. I have no problem with forgetting part 4, cause its a big mess.

This made me think of something else she said, last night.

She said (to paraphrase): "Scripts are always better when the director is the writer. And that writer has to take inspiration where it comes from for them." This was sorta more confirmation for me to think both, that the script is very good, and that she was making a plea for why the ending for Ripley and fans in this script is much better. She drew comparisons to ALIENS and ALIEN by stating it was very similar to those scripts, because both had (for the most part) been written on spec, and not by the studio, deliberately producing a script.
She seems very confident in it and sort of as if she already considers it the character's ultimate fate, in her mind. 

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

One question I have is, wondering how much Fox has it's hands in things like this. For instance, I'm wondering if this event was produced entirely by Mondo and Alamo Drafthouse, or if say, Fox corresponded with Weaver about it. It would make more sense to me if this stuff was all subcontracted, but you'd think maybe Fox would touch base...I just don't know.   

Most likely it was entirely a Mondo and Alamo Drafthouse thing. There's probably some kind of complot between her and Blomkamp though, I doubt Fox had anything to do with Weaver's recent statements or Blomkamp's picture of Newt. It's as if they're deliberately stoking people up again.

Wonder what this "something else" was that she just wrapped with Blomkamp? Can't be Chappie, that was ages ago. Maybe a short film or some kind of promotional clip for Alien 5? Blomkamp is well known for his virals.

[CainsSon]

Its not hard to find a way to do this story wise. Have a Company ship dock with the Sulaco - they were always on their way, to bring the species back but kept it hush-hush because of the colony being MIA - they impregnate and clone Ripley to harvest more than one specimen - just as the rescue team arrives, and to cover up that they have the crew they put the clones in the hypersleep chambers and mayhem ensues, and the Clones are jettisoned, then the shady company people leave with the actual Ripley and Hicks in stasis, to bring them to Weyland Headquarters, without the rescue team knowing. Once they get there, more mayhem happens...

And where did they get these clones that are already exactly the same age as the survivors (not that they would've had any idea who'd actually survived until they got back onto the Sulaco at the end of the previous movie) on such short notice?

It makes no logical sense.

Well, this is a very, very SCI-FI scenario. I don't especially like that CLONES would grow faster than normal, but I think A:R sorta makes that assumption, already. Are we to believe those clones grew at the same rate as normal humans? I don't think so? Because then the events in A:R would have taken 30+ years to transpire. I didn't get that idea.
So the idea would have to exploit the amount of time between Aliens and Alien 3. They said 17 days for rescue team, but the team would have, arguably gone to LV426 first... I dunno dude. It's just an idea. Im not attached to it, whatsoever.

The fact is: this seems like the direction. I doubt there will be any 'hammy' cloning stuff - as CORPORAL HICKS put it. There will likely just be a retcon.

One question I have is, wondering how much Fox has it's hands in things like this. For instance, I'm wondering if this event was produced entirely by Mondo and Alamo Drafthouse, or if say, Fox corresponded with Weaver about it. It would make more sense to me if this stuff was all subcontracted, but you'd think maybe Fox would touch base...I just don't know.   

Most likely it was entirely a Mondo and Alamo Drafthouse thing. There's probably some kind of complot between her and Blomkamp though, I doubt Fox had anything to do with Weaver's recent statements or Blomkamp's picture of Newt. It's as if they're deliberately stoking people up again.

Wonder what this "something else" was that she just wrapped with Blomkamp? Can't be Chappie, that was ages ago. Maybe a short film or some kind of promotional clip for Alien 5? Blomkamp is well known for his virals.

Yes. There is nothing on imdb.com about anything he is, or was shooting in South Africa. But whatever it is Weaver says, "...is AWESOME!" But she can't talk about it.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Yes. There is nothing on imdb.com about anything he is, or was shooting in South Africa. But whatever it is Weaver says, "...is AWESOME!" But she can't talk about it.

I see he posted some pictures of Johannesburg on his Instagram about 3 or 4 weeks ago, including a landfill site, a building from Chappie and this  (https://www.instagram.com/p/BDZnOlqqhEs/?taken-by=neillblomkamp) which is apparently the airport train station and not a set from Aliens according to the comments.

What could he be cooking up?

[HuDaFuK]

He's meant to be working on something else in the interim, so there's a good chance it's for that.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Yeah well, it has to be something small because as CainsSon said, it's completely below the radar.

Don't think it's Gone World or District 10 or anything like that.