WAIT - Doesn't Sigourney want back in?

[Neon_Knight]

Enough with Ripley, can't we have a male protagonist, for once, just for once?

The irony!!!  It burns!!!!

As a reference to the Alien franchise, of course.

[SM]

The whole point of Alien (well one of them - and the reason Ripley is so iconic) was to go against the male action hero cliche.

Bu nah - let's ditch the chick and re-insert the hackneyed muscle dude.

[SiL]

Ripley being female was about going against expectations. These days the expectation for horror and sci-fi is either Milla Jovovich or some other hard ass sassy chick who kicks copious amounts of bad guy butt.

So either follow Alien and go against expectation, or follow Alien, going with expectation, but keeping a sticking-it-to-males lead.

[SM]

Either way you're knacked - so they should just put a Jockey in the lead role.

[Übermensch]

Ripley being female was about going against expectations. These days the expectation for horror and sci-fi is either Milla Jovovich or some other hard ass sassy chick who kicks copious amounts of bad guy butt.

So either follow Alien and go against expectation, or follow Alien, going with expectation, but keeping a sticking-it-to-males lead.

Scott's original vision was Ripley as a bi/lesbian (source:  commentary).  Now I think that could work.  Just get rid of the overt sexiness that has plagued female action heroes since the 90s.  If they go back to a serious female hero, then that would be different and against current expectation, as I think you're trying to say here.

[Johnny Handsome]

Scott's original vision was Ripley as a bi/lesbian (source:  commentary).  Now I think that could work.

Whats the difference if she is lesbian or not? The audience gives a shit about stuff like that.

[SM]

Weeellll, she did working in the loading dykes - oops I mean DOCKS.

There's nothing precluding Ripley being bi anyway.

Not that I actually remember anything like that in the commentary - just the casual approach to sex with the crew.

But like Johnny siad, it's not really relevant.

[Übermensch]

Scott's original vision was Ripley as a bi/lesbian (source:  commentary).  Now I think that could work.

Whats the difference if she is lesbian or not? The audience gives a shit about stuff like that.

It's something different.  Plus, it sells.

[SM]

It's cheap, gratuitous, and exploitative.

I'd expect it of the Staussii.  If Riddles went that way it'd be pretty disappointing.

[Übermensch]

It's cheap, gratuitous, and exploitative.

I'd expect it of the Staussii.  If Riddles went that way it'd be pretty disappointing.

It doesn't have to be.  I didn't mean it in an exploitative way.

[SM]

This is big budget Hollywood.  Of course it'd end up exploitative.

[Neon_Knight]

It must be said that you can have a male protagonist without following the standard cliché of "muscle man with guns".

Ever seen "Hills have eyes"? Fairly awful film, I know, bad example, but the "tough" guys are all killed off and instead it's the guy who works in an office and doesn't believe in guns is the one who survives to the end and ends up going mental and slaughtering the whole community of mutant weirdos. 

[SM]

Sounds like Braindead.  Which was a comedy.

[Awgustas]

Well, I don't think S. Weaver should be in an Alien prequel... That would be just BS.

[Xenomorphine]

Enough with Ripley, can't we have a male protagonist, for once, just for once?

One of the mainstays of the 'Alien' series (when done properly, anyway) is the psychosexual subtext. You wouldn't get that with a bloke being the lead.

Plus, the sight of a female in obvious trouble, on screen, brings out the psychological impulse, in a viewer, of protection. It's an easy way to get the audience more emotionally involved.