Alien Prequel No Longer An Alien Film

[Sharp Sticks]

Its greatest power, its greatest weakness.

[Xhan]

Ridley is from America right? so you can sue him right you can sue anybody there.

He's English, and I'm sure he lives there.

It's funny. If they're filming so soon, they would have planned Prometheus a while back, but they kept on the Alien ruse for a while, very close to actual filming in fact [apparently, pre-production started not too long ago, right?]. There's maybe a slim chance that it's a Jockey movie that's distanced from Alien, and a title without 'Alien' in it would be the best move - and would FOX really ditch Alien after trying to get Scott on the project and even paying to have scripts written?
But I wouldn't say that for sure.

Scott was coming back to scifi, he's never been married to the Alien and he won't be tomorrow either. There are people who have decent ideas for re-evangelizing the Alien property, but FOX isn't interested, period. The ceiling on any AP project is about 40 million, and FOX doesn't have the inclination or balls to put any more in. As far as their current management is concerned AP is a least common denominator DVD project at best, and it will be until the current zeitgeist is replaced.

Cameron has won a couple of Saturn awards for his work,

Of course he did, because it actually Harlan Ellison's work.

[Ogata881]

It'll be a similar film to Alien but it won't have any connections at all to the franchise.

For the people with false hopes.
There you go,they hyped the damned thing for like 2 years and then suddenly said:"we rather not".Very professional.

[Bishop2]

It'll be a similar film to Alien but it won't have any connections at all to the franchise.

For the people with false hopes.
There you go,they hyped the damned thing for like 2 years and then suddenly said:"we rather not".Very professional.

Who are you quoting?

[StrangeShape]

Cameron has won a couple of Saturn awards for his work,

Of course he did, because it actually Harlan Ellison's work.

Funny, because Ellison's stories didnt become classics and its funny because Ellsion's claim was the only the first 3 minutes were the same, which was 2 time travellers arriving from a future battliefield into modern day alleys. Thats all. Haters can be funny sometimes because they base their statements entirely on hearsay legends instead of actual facts and interviews

Cameron has won a couple of Saturn awards for his work, and has some nominations for writing Terminator and the like, but nothing that hints that he's actually a 'good' writer. He's a genius at knowing what works, but he doesn't have a subtle bone in his body.

Unsubtle or complex dont mean good or bad, Theyre just types of the stories. If non subtle would mean bad then no story would ever be like that and no one would ever attempt to write one. Such statement is surprising coming out of film student. The timeless classics, fairy tales, stories and movies were apparent in their writing. His visual filmmaking on the other hand is a different story, as it had many underlying themes and meaning showing from lightning to environment, as evidenced in the link I posted which Im sure you didnt read

And to straight things out, he was awarded for writing The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar. And again, Im not talking just Saturn Awards, Im talking people who are qualified, like the Writers Guild

And again, Syd Field . If some angry website fanboy thinks that he knows better than the screenwriting guru like Field, then that someone is just making a clown out of himself. Must really hurt to hear that this terrible monster that you hate so much actaully is a talented writer. I can feel that anger when some of you even read such statement


But Im wasting my time, The haters who claim to know more then legends like Field, then Writers Guild and all those high profile critics from Times and People made up their minds long before, and no facts, no information and no quotes will ever even make them think twice. Instead of anything substantial I get ignorant comments like the one with Ellison or the head scratching subtlety comment. Technical terms like Narrative Symmetry and all that aside, what makes a good story is heart, engaging characters and logical train of events and thats all there is to "good". But again, I unfortunately took the bait and got sucked into this close minded hate fest again.

Im done with taking this bait and this "debate"


Now going back to the topic at hand.

I read on another forum an interesting statement - since its doubtful that Scott just wanted to rpeat himself and more likely wanted to have a bgger creative freedom (he and Giger), its possible that they came up with so many changes that it just strayed too far away from alien, and thats why they eventually chose not to associate it with the alien

[RoaryUK]

Personally I think Scott has shot himself in the bo***ks this time.  Yes FOX wanted him to do it anyway, but wasn't it him and not them who started this Alien Prequel talk in the first place!!

[ThisBethesdaSea]

I just realized that you have a link for jamescamerononline in your signature.....so I get it  im talking wih a definite fan. You can think he's brilliant, that's fine.

I love a few of his films, and I believe he's one of the smartest big name directors working right now. I just am not captured by  his formulaic stories. I am captured  by the way he tells a story. titanic, avatar, terminator / 2 were big because they broke new ground in the effects department, not because they were written in a way that's particularly unique.

Live and let live!

[StrangeShape]

I just realized that you have a link for jamescamerononline in your signature.....so I get it  im talking wih a definite fan. You can think he's brilliant, that's fine.

Thats very unfair  - its like if someone on a movie forum would have a link to AVPgalaxy and someone would say that this person will depend every alien movie and everything alien related because of that signature and that he loves every alien movie and so on. No, Im not a fan of Jim Cameron, hes not a rockstar to have fans, no director is. I like him because I like his movies, not the other way around

youre basically telling me that everything I say doesnt count because Im biased, but Im used to it. Whenever I come up with some material, quotes and articles to support my statement, the haters always just turn around and jump at me instead completely ignoring what I brought up to the table and switch on focusing on whats wrong with me. And again, they will always know better then a screenwriting legend Field, Writers Guild of America, NATO and the high profile critics

[predxeno]

For people who are still upset about the Prequel being cancelled, you could try reading Aliens Original Sin.  Though, I agree the action may be lack-luster, the plot is...well, yeah you know what?  The entire book is lack-luster, it has its moments, but...meh.

[Valaquen]

Scott was coming back to scifi, he's never been married to the Alien and he won't be tomorrow either. There are people who have decent ideas for re-evangelizing the Alien property, but FOX isn't interested, period. The ceiling on any AP project is about 40 million, and FOX doesn't have the inclination or balls to put any more in. As far as their current management is concerned AP is a least common denominator DVD project at best, and it will be until the current zeitgeist is replaced.

Likely. It's the same attitude which hindered an Alien sequel after its '79 release.

Of course he did, because it actually Harlan Ellison's work.

Please.

For anyone interested, read this: http://jamescameron.blogspot.com/2010/12/harlan-ellisons-terminator-lawsuit.html

[David, who runs this blog, is one of the most honestly critical people I know. Just because 'James Cameron' is in the URL, doesn't mean he's in any way biased. In fact, he is vehemently critical of Cameron on many issues. The only parallels between Soldier and Terminator are time travel and the post-apocalyptic setting, [there's no bloody robot in Soldier, nor assasination mission, or war with machines, or love story, nor are there any analogous characters]. Ellison did not invent time travel stories, nor post-apocalyptic stories. The first literary examples of these go back to Mark Twain and Mary Shelley. Christ, even Shakespeare 'copied' the plots for King Lear and Romeo and Juliet from numerous prior sources. Sacrilege! Without film-makers being inspired by the fiction they read in their youth we wouldn't have the cinema of today or yesterday.]

[Bishop2]

For people who are still upset about the Prequel being cancelled, you could try reading Aliens Original Sin.  Though, I agree the action may be lack-luster, the plot is...well, yeah you know what?  The entire book is lack-luster, it has its moments, but...meh.

I actually liked the book overall, although the lamest thing in it was the fact that suddenly multiple aliens can burst out of one host...

Oh wait. That was in AVP:R, too. Nevermind.

Anyway, a really great Aliens book is DNA War. I should read that again.

[predxeno]

DNA War was good.  I just didn't like Original Sin's action sequences, and some of the plot points like why the Derelict crashed and of the Space Jockeys were a little too outside of what I wanted the franchise to go.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Yeah, DNA War was cool. Only Alien book that I read, other than the Earth Hive-Nightmare Asylum-Female War trilogy, and Prey, but thats AVP. There are some concepts from DNA War that I wouldn't mind seeing make it too a movie.

[Xhan]

Cameron has won a couple of Saturn awards for his work,

Of course he did, because it actually Harlan Ellison's work.

Funny, because Ellison's stories didnt become classics and its funny because Ellsion's claim was the only the first 3 minutes were the same, which was 2 time travellers arriving from a future battliefield into modern day alleys. Thats all. Haters can be funny sometimes because they base their statements entirely on hearsay legends instead of actual facts and interviews

Cameron has won a couple of Saturn awards for his work, and has some nominations for writing Terminator and the like, but nothing that hints that he's actually a 'good' writer. He's a genius at knowing what works, but he doesn't have a subtle bone in his body.

Unsubtle or complex dont mean good or bad, Theyre just types of the stories. If non subtle would mean bad then no story would ever be like that and no one would ever attempt to write one. Such statement is surprising coming out of film student. The timeless classics, fairy tales, stories and movies were apparent in their writing. His visual filmmaking on the other hand is a different story, as it had many underlying themes and meaning showing from lightning to environment, as evidenced in the link I posted which Im sure you didnt read

And to straight things out, he was awarded for writing The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar. And again, Im not talking just Saturn Awards, Im talking people who are qualified, like the Writers Guild

And again, Syd Field . If some angry website fanboy thinks that he knows better than the screenwriting guru like Field, then that someone is just making a clown out of himself. Must really hurt to hear that this terrible monster that you hate so much actaully is a talented writer. I can feel that anger when some of you even read such statement


But Im wasting my time, The haters who claim to know more then legends like Field, then Writers Guild and all those high profile critics from Times and People made up their minds long before, and no facts, no information and no quotes will ever even make them think twice. Instead of anything substantial I get ignorant comments like the one with Ellison or the head scratching subtlety comment. Technical terms like Narrative Symmetry and all that aside, what makes a good story is heart, engaging characters and logical train of events and thats all there is to "good". But again, I unfortunately took the bait and got sucked into this close minded hate fest again.

Im done with taking this bait and this "debate"


Now going back to the topic at hand.

I read on another forum an interesting statement - since its doubtful that Scott just wanted to rpeat himself and more likely wanted to have a bgger creative freedom (he and Giger), its possible that they came up with so many changes that it just strayed too far away from alien, and thats why they eventually chose not to associate it with the alien

That's awesome, except I actually talked to Ellison about it, so you can expost facto theorycraft all you'd like, but his personal take and what the courts found indemnity on are two very different things. The Writer's Guild also stood by the court's decision.

And while we're reassigning context contrary to what people actually said, we can also throw Hurd's comment about not getting sued by Heinlein's people being a "miracle." Her word, not mine.

[SiL]

That's great for you, but saying "Well I talked to him" doesn't really count for shit in the argument.