Work on the Sequels Stopped?

[dinosauriac]

Just let it die already. If there isn't even a major financial incentive anymore for Fox, and the brand has become so tarnished, why even bother? It's time they explored other avenues besides cobbling together frankenstein abominations of movies.

[SuicideDoors]

Anyway, it's all good - "The Alien franchises future is assured!" according to SciFied, because...

I'm not sure.

This 're-assess' news really shouldn't come as a surprise. 

"It got great reviews and was everything we set out for it to be, it just didn't hit the note at the box office," says Fred Baron, the 20th Century Fox executive on the movie: "It will be a profitable film for the studio but whether there's another one [is uncertain]."

From 2 weeks ago

There was concern about more instalments within a week of it coming out.

Verified source from 13 pages ago for anyone paying attention and not wallowing in denial.

Scified. Enough said. 

I'm not too surprised in regards to this. Also, thanks for posting that other link again, SM. I think it's clear Fox was expecting a bigger hit on their hands and I don't think they really know why it's failed. I know Fox has been talking to various fan outlets (myself, Xenopedia, Perfect Organism and probably even Scified, though I don't know about that) to try and gauge what happened.

But I think looking at fan reactions isn't going to help. They tried to with Covenant and that didn't work - though I still don't remember the lack of Aliens in Prometheus being a big issue. Seemed more likely it was due to the massive surge of positivity when Blomkamp's stuff was announced.

We're too different. The film's in the series are so different and people find differing things to like in them. I think that divide is pretty obvious with this disgusting Ridley vs. Blomkamp hate war thing that you see around at the minute.

I for one was disappointed there was no classic Alien in Prometheus - I've been fascinated by it since I was 7 years old. It's iconic and remains terrifying in the first film.

But I was a little bit disappointed in Covenant because of the classic Alien. It was quite clearly shoehorned in, like you said, because blomkamp set the internet on fire with his concept art.

Alien Covenant is decent, I'm glad we got it. But it's definitely 60% Prometheus/40% Alien and I have seen a lot of reviews that say the tonal shifts between the two are jarring.

I know one thing after Alien Covenant. I'm sick to f**king death of screeching Aliens. Does the idea of a Javier Botet-suited silent stalker in a hanuted house fill anyone with goosebumps? Cause it does me. It may have been done to death but effectively it has not.

[HuDaFuK]

She was cleaning her wounds, actually. You seem to invent reasons to dislike what is basically just a scene.

She spent more time washing her face. And even if she was cleaning her wounds, she couldn't do that with someone else standing guard because...? There are aliens running around slaughtering people. She's a soldier there to keep people safe. Having her wander off alone to have a wash in that scenario is daft. I have a hard time buying that a soldier would be so dumb, just like I had a hard time buying expert scientists being such morons in Prometheus.

ADF clearly felt the same because he struggled to come up with a good reason for her to just go for a walk in the novel, and even then it seemed silly.

It's called a screenplay and it dictates what happens, in any film. It happens in Alien, with the cat, and in Aliens, when Ripley falls asleep with Newt, after threatening to nail Burke to the wall.

Sure it dictates what happens, but it can do so logically or it can force the situation. Both of those examples have some logic to them. Brett is a dumb trucker, and thinks he's up against a small worm. If he'd already seen the adult Alien kill one of the crew, what he did would be dumb, but he hasn't, so it feels careless rather than stupid. Likewise, Ripley has good reason not to expect Burke to try and murder her under the watch of a bunch of soldiers - especially by letting some Aliens loose, which is pretty insane. Rosenthal has foreknowledge of the Neomorphs' capabilities, so having her wander off like it probably won't be an issue strikes me as unrealistically stupid.

[OmegaZilla]

wtf is this "team ridley" "team blomkamp" Twilight kinda bullshit?

Come on people

[Salt The Fries]

She was cleaning her wounds, actually. You seem to invent reasons to dislike what is basically just a scene.

She spent more time washing her face. And even if she was cleaning her wounds, she couldn't do that with someone else standing guard because...? There are aliens running around slaughtering people. She's a soldier there to keep people safe. Having her wander off alone to have a wash in that scenario is daft. I have a hard time buying that a soldier would be so dumb, just like I had a hard time buying expert scientists being such morons in Prometheus.

ADF clearly felt the same because he struggled to come up with a good reason for her to just go for a walk in the novel, and even then it seemed silly.

It's called a screenplay and it dictates what happens, in any film. It happens in Alien, with the cat, and in Aliens, when Ripley falls asleep with Newt, after threatening to nail Burke to the wall.

Sure it dictates what happens, but it can do so logically or it can force the situation. Both of those examples have some logic to them. Brett is a dumb trucker, and thinks he's up against a small worm. If he'd already seen the adult Alien kill one of the crew, what he did would be dumb, but he hasn't, so it feels careless rather than stupid. Likewise, Ripley has good reason not to expect Burke to try and murder her under the watch of a bunch of soldiers - especially by letting some Aliens loose, which is pretty insane. Rosenthal has foreknowledge of the Neomorphs' capabilities, so having her wander off like it probably won't be an issue strikes me as unrealistically stupid.

Please, no. She wandered there to have a poetically decapitated head idly spinning in a stylish, gothic fountain of blood.

But seriously, she went there to clean the wound, yes, plus at that point everybody bought David's assurance that it is safe in the citadel where they are in.

[Richman678]

lol don't look at me I just used the team thing to prove a point.

Blomkamp never really had a right to make his Alien Movie yet...Till Ridley was done with his Prequel Story. You cant put a movie out...then another movie except this one is "part 3" to a different movie universe.....it's why people are pissed at Marvel Comics at the moment. (comics...not the movies...but the comics)

If these movie studios would just stop setting everything up to have a sequel then maybe we could have stand alone movies again. Prometheus was obviously set up to have a sequel. They invented a lot of questions, and set it up for those questions to get answered in a sequel....Covenant did the same... and even ignored some of the Prometheus. They deserve a small budget movie to finish it and tie it in to Alien.

[tleilaxu]

I don't get the people who want a scary corridor-hiding-tension-filled Alien movie. It's been done already, 38 gosh darn years ago. Alien is probably my favorite movie, but nowadays I like the latter part the least. Lambert letting herself get raped during the "frozen in terror" trope just isn't scary anymore. Alien Covenant's corridor chase has a different purpose though. It's a set-up for the finale, and we see David gauging his creation.
There's a different kind of horror than monsters chasing you through dark corridors, a horror of ideas and themes. For example, when David puts his facehugger embryos among the human embryos, this is a horror of distorted birth and biology, a horror of something being wrong and twisted, which is something that Giger extensively utilized in his artworks.
Neill Blomkamp cannot make movies like this.

[Salt The Fries]

Watching them, Prometheus, Covenant, Alien and Aliens in one marathon made me realize that Alien isn't a film which aged perfectly in some regards, and I don't mean even the technical side of it, but acting, pacing and "feel" of some scenes. I also realized that some people who probably watched it for the first time and were sitting close to me questioned some of the scenes or thought they were kind of awkward.

FYI, I still think it is a masterpiece and my favourite one, and I kind of regret slightly dozing off for 10 seconds so I kind of missed the epicness of the Derelict money shot with Space Jockey, but couldn't help but point some things out.

[The Cruentus]

I'm neither "team Ridley" nor "team Blomkamp" (whatever the hell that stuff even means) but Ridley's proven to me now that he's made a bit of a hash (Prometheus admittedly more so than Covenant) of the last two entries he's attempted to make.

Same here buddy, I am team "awesome, lore abiding Alien movie that doesn't require stupid characters and slasher cliches to further the plot"

...sadly my team hasn't won in decades

These prequels have been fickle, first the prometheus sequel was going to continue the Engineer story and then it became focused on David and xeno origins, which would not have been so bad if they didn't kill off shaw and render her journey pointless. So who knows if these prequel/sequels will actually be what it is currently said to be about. Assuming they get made.

[Jonesy1974]

Watching them, Prometheus, Covenant, Alien and Aliens in one marathon made me realize that Alien isn't a film which aged perfectly in some regards, and I don't mean even the technical side of it, but acting, pacing and "feel" of some scenes. I also realized that some people who probably watched it for the first time and were sitting close to me questioned some of the scenes or thought they were kind of awkward.

FYI, I still think it is a masterpiece and my favourite one, and I kind of regret slightly dozing off for 10 seconds so I kind of missed the epicness of the Derelict money shot with Space Jockey, but couldn't help but point some things out.

Really? I still find it to be perfect. Obviously it has a couple of dodgy FX moments and the awful gratuitous shot of sigourneys pants but other than that, still perfect.

[Alionic]

wtf is this "team ridley" "team blomkamp" Twilight kinda bullshit?

Come on people

We must fight the Blomkamp fans and their army of pulse rifles and Alien queens. 

Spoiler

I'm joking.

[close]

[Richman678]

I don't get the people who want a scary corridor-hiding-tension-filled Alien movie. It's been done already, 38 gosh darn years ago. Alien is probably my favorite movie, but nowadays I like the latter part the least. Lambert letting herself get raped during the "frozen in terror" trope just isn't scary anymore. Alien Covenant's corridor chase has a different purpose though. It's a set-up for the finale, and we see David gauging his creation.
There's a different kind of horror than monsters chasing you through dark corridors, a horror of ideas and themes. For example, when David puts his facehugger embryos among the human embryos, this is a horror of distorted birth and biology, a horror of something being wrong and twisted, which is something that Giger extensively utilized in his artworks.
Neill Blomkamp cannot make movies like this.

I dont think it needs to focus on a horror element. More like a building tension of survival film??? I actually don't know to be honest. The Alien franchise has a serious issue. The first movie is a perfect horror movie...which means you wont be able to match it. The sequel is a perfect horror-action film...again no real way to top it.

LOL maybe they should make a Comedy film...or a Musical. I would like to see them make an Alien film as a spy thriller....however this franchise has the unfortunate problem of having two titles which are lightning in a bottle.

[The Cruentus]

LOL maybe they should make a Comedy film...or a Musical. I would like to see them make an Alien film as a spy thriller....however this franchise has the unfortunate problem of having two titles which are lightning in a bottle.

They have...its called Alien Covenant, just watch the multiple tripping on blood scene followed by the ankle crushing and you will laugh rather than be terrified 

[Mr. Xenomorph]

I dont think it needs to focus on a horror element. More like a building tension of survival film??? I actually don't know to be honest. The Alien franchise has a serious issue. The first movie is a perfect horror movie...which means you wont be able to match it. The sequel is a perfect horror-action film...again no real way to top it.

LOL maybe they should make a Comedy film...or a Musical. I would like to see them make an Alien film as a spy thriller....however this franchise has the unfortunate problem of having two titles which are lightning in a bottle.

One thing that I enjoy about this series is every film seems to have its own identity. Alien is a slasher movie with a Xeno. Aliens is a military action movie with Xenos. Alien 3 is a prison movie with a Xeno. Resurrection is a campy Joss Whedon sci-fi pic with Xenos. Prometheus and Covenant are both movies about explorers on undiscovered frontiers in space. "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

I would love to see a noir-ish detective movie with a Xenomorph. Something in the same vein as Blade Runner. People are getting kidnapped or brutally murdered on this colonized space station and the cops keep finding these Jack the Ripper-type murders and they think that they have a serial killer(s) on the station. Lo and behold the people are being turned into eggs or slaughtered and Xenos are popping up.

[The Cruentus]

That was pretty much the background for Alien:Isolation minus the egg morphing, the sevastopol citizens thought they had a simple killer on the station before they realized what it was. By the time Ripley arrived, they knew it wasn't human.