Peter Briggs Responds To Sigourney Weaver's Alien vs. Predator Comments

[RagingDragon]

Eh, who said what first. Alien vs. Predator is still a dumb idea.

Well the first film was made by a pretty terrible director who's gone on to become one of the biggest hacks in Hollywood. I think it screamed 'B-grade cash grab' to just about every former fan of both series. Even then, there are some parts in AvP that are surprisingly decent despite it being a huge failure overall. You can see how it could've worked.

The original comic, however, was and still is very excellent. If it was adapted directly to film by a competent hand and the subject matter treated with more respect, it would've been very good.

Iirc, the comics introduced the idea that the Predators spread the Alien across the universe via their hunting. Maybe that's what he was thinking of?

[Corporal Hicks]

The concept is the only crossover I actually believe in. And it works in near enough every form of media other than film and that's because we've only see inept people try to do them on film and do them in the completely opposite way of the media that works.

[viendammage]

I would rather watch AVP than Alien 3 or Resurrection. The less said about Requiem though the better!

[THE CITY HUNTER]

Why? They're a great match for one another.

All about execution.

[skull-splitter]

I think you give them far too much credit. If you watch the making-of docs most of the design ideas are their own. The director might ask for a certain look or colour scheme and to tweak small individual features, but the bulk of the alien designs are ADI's own and they're awful. Gillis has even said they purposefully make changes to put their own spin on the creature. Alien 3 looked okay. But Resurrection was horrible, and that was not using re-used moulds. The necks of the creatures in that one are just one big congealed mess which were eventually fixed in AVP Requiem and still looked poor.

And look what they did to the Predator. Granted Anderson wanted them bulkier and with more armour, but ADI did the faces and of course decided that Scar needed to be more heroic and look how that turned out. I won't even go into the rubber dreadlocks and plastic wrist blades.

I've seen their work on other projects and it's fine, but they cannot do justice to the Alien and they have had enough attempts at trying now. People defend them seemingly because there's nothing else to compare them to when it comes to Alien, minus Giger. It's time someone else was given a chance.

Most of the design choices were Anderson's, believe it or not. The conceptual stage had a lot more tribal influences and unique looking designs.
The final design are fairly close to what was established in the comic anyway, but I personally prefer the designs in later comics that support the more individualistic designs that were indicated in P1 and P2.

That being said, the predators looking pretty much identical had probably to do with logistics and budget, as the ever increasing tight schedules and preptime do not allow for too much variation without spending time and money on it.

I hope Fox just holds of and perhaps reboot in a few years time, fitting it in new Alien and Predator movies while trying to copy Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

[System Apollo]

I am disappointed with Weaver's sentiments. Briggs' script isn't that bad after having a long look at it, however this is coming from a fan of the comics and most of the merits I give it is due to the homages to the comics.

[HuDaFuK]

Briggs' script is OK but it kinda falls apart by the end. You can tell it was a rush job. I wish we could get a hold of his second draft one day.

[System Apollo]

Briggs' script is OK but it kinda falls apart by the end. You can tell it was a rush job. I wish we could get a hold of his second draft one day.

lol. That seems to be a very ubiquitous trait in any AvP related plot. I always felt that Aliens vs Predator is a very strenuous concept to pull off.

[-pekr-]

Well, what I do remember from the interviews running right after the Alien 3 was released, the reasoning to let Ripley go, had nothing in common with AVP. I remember Weaver stating something like being influenced by bad mood (namely US entering the First Gulf War), plus many plans and rumours floating around about next alien movies. She simply put her money into the Alien 3, becoming one of the producers, in order to being able to influence the script, and hence let Ripley die.

[Inverse Effect]

The Alien vs Predator concept isn't bad. Fact the Comics and games prove it can work together. But they all have one thing in common. It's Sci-fi. Adding the elements onto modern day earth just turns it into a crap fest. The games and comics show it can work if the narrative and visual design remains Sci-fi. I'm still waiting for that AVP movie that is in the vain of Aliens but has the AVP narrative of the comics and games. It can be done to a good effect like seen in the games. But the movies have made it into a terrible concept.

http://youtu.be/QYHR8VhbpxU?t=6s

[HuDaFuK]

Setting the films on present-day Earth was probably the biggest fundamental mistake the movies made.

[Xenomorphine]

A modern-day setting could work, but it really has to look cinematic. The two efforts, so far, both have an unfortunate way of feeling like TV movies.

[System Apollo]

The Alien vs Predator concept isn't bad. Fact the Comics and games prove it can work together. But they all have one thing in common. It's Sci-fi. Adding the elements onto modern day earth just turns it into a crap fest. The games and comics show it can work if the narrative and visual design remains Sci-fi. I'm still waiting for that AVP movie that is in the vain of Aliens but has the AVP narrative of the comics and games. It can be done to a good effect like seen in the games. But the movies have made it into a terrible concept.

http://youtu.be/QYHR8VhbpxU?t=6s

I didn't say it was bad, hell, most crossover concepts never struck me as bad. They just require a lot of strategic planning to make sure it delivers a good and long lasting impression. In the case of AvP it's just not practical yet. There's a difference between the expectations in the presentation of a comic, game or movie so this shouldn't be an excuse to conclude the theory. Besides, not all of the comics were good outside of artwork and not all of the games were good outside of their mechanics.

I wrote an expository essay about what are some things that make the AvP concept not ready for cinema (if I ever muster the courage to put it on here one day I will). But some of the points were relevant to this statement here:

I'm still waiting for that AVP movie that is in the vain of Aliens but has the AVP narrative of the comics and games.

You have two different contenders competing to win and you want to make the arena something only one of them are familiar with? I could just as easily say:
I'm still waiting for that AVP movie that is in the vain of Predator but has the AVP narrative of the comics and games.

But that wouldn't be fair to the potential of the film. This is a big reason why the two films were criticized; the feeling that the circumstances were going in the favor of only one of the monsters.

Regardless; my opinion on a new AvP title: Wait until we have enough resources from upcoming standalone titles so that we could develop a strong enough universe for these two creatures to fight it out on the big screen.

[SiL]

A modern-day setting could work, but it really has to look cinematic. The two efforts, so far, both have an unfortunate way of feeling like TV movies

Hell no AvP didn't look like a TV movie. Those sets alone gave it an incredible sense of scale. Of all the problems it had, feeling like a TV movie was not one of them.

[OmegaZilla]

Given all the tight schedules it had, AvP was incredibly competently made and it really showed how well-packed a budget can be if you know how to use it. Photography, effects, and sets were excellent.

...If they had polished the script as much as everything else, we'd have had a winner.