A Witness to the Wreckage and Rage, Talking to Alien 3 Screenwriter Rex Pickett - AvP Galaxy Podcast #146

Started by Corporal Hicks, Jun 11, 2022, 03:04:59 PM

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A Witness to the Wreckage and Rage, Talking to Alien 3 Screenwriter Rex Pickett - AvP Galaxy Podcast #146 (Read 8,320 times)

BlueMarsalis79

I do think Love Death and Robots very recently suggests he has if not mellowed out, some desire to revisit the ideas, but not necessarily the project itself.

T-850

Thanks for the upload Hicks! This should be interesting.

skhellter

skhellter

#17
Interesting interview.

The main takeaways (outside of the behind the scenes drama) to me:

- Giler was just a name added to the script due to his friendship with Hill. He didn't really contribute to the writing in any form.

- Hill's first draft of the film didn't have any of the character relations and conflict that we love in the finished film. It was a bare bones, super simple "Ripley crash lands, the alien gets out, people die" draft.

- Rex Pickett and Fincher created most of the characters and their conflict (including bringing in the Clemens romance, fleshing out Ripley's arc, the prisoners and Dillon's religion and persona).

- and then Hill wrote his following drafts based on Rex's, because even if he shredded that draft he still incorporated a bunch of Rex's characterizations and conflicts.

- And Fincher's main source of contention with Hill seems to have been bringing in more of his and Rex's ideas into the final film. 

did i get that right?


Rex's memory of events seems a bit hazy:
Fincher read the script to Se7en roughly a year and a half after Alien3. He wasn't sent to hollywood hell or anything. Was he depressed after this film and didn't really have an interest in directing until he read Se7en? Yes.

BlueMarsalis79

I honestly think I prefer Clemens losing his license because of the unfortunate circumstances stated in the film, Rex Pickett's version sounds a little melodramatic for Alien for my tastes.

oduodu

oduodu

#19
wow this really explains fincher's attitude. 

Love to hear Cdl's reaction to this.

why did hill and giler have so much clout with weaver?

this is one of the 5 best podcasts for me

excellent

where was mr picket when they wanted to rewrite Spaihts draft. he seems like a briliant writer
 

Kradan

Kradan

#20
Finally got around to listening this one. I'm 30 minutes in and WOW, just WOW.

As soon as he mentioned that letter I knew it was going to come back to bite him in the ass


Alright, I am not familiar with Rex's work so I can't really comment on it but I'm halfway through the podcast and it feels like he said how much better the movie would've been with his script like a dozen times at least I begin to think he's a bit up his own ass

Xiggz456

Well that was a wild interview! Certainly can see why Fincher hasn't wanted anything to do with the film since. Gonna have to give Rex's draft a read now!

T Dog

Quote from: Kradan on Jun 15, 2022, 10:47:34 PMFinally got around to listening this one. I'm 30 minutes in and WOW, just WOW.

As soon as he mentioned that letter I knew it was going to come back to bite him in the ass


Alright, I am not familiar with Rex's work so I can't really comment on it but I'm halfway through the podcast and it feels like he said how much better the movie would've been with his script like a dozen times at least I begin to think he's a bit up his own ass

In fairness to him he does EVENTUALLY say his work might not have made a better movie but at least a more interesting one (which is debatable going off the change in Clemance's backstory); BUT yeah he repeats himself a lot by saying that the one he wrote in 9 days was great and also mentions a million times how everyone passed on Sideways, which in itself is inspiring to any creative that's listening, but when you mention it as often as he does it comes across like he may have an axe to grind.

Highland

Tried to get through this one but seemed to be going in circles and always back to " did I mention sideways".

Stuck it an hour but couldn't finish. Glad there was someone who put the important bits down  :laugh:

Always appreciated non the less!

KiramidHead

Finally listened to this one, great interview. Usually when I see writers interviewed on podcasts, they talk forever about their careers in general but barely speak about the actual topic, but Pickett went into great detail. And some of those stories were quite eye opening.


BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#25
After ruminating on it I think he's entitled to his views but I don't agree with them all things considered.

Especially after actually looking at his script in the downloads section and... that being pretty much the film that we ultimately got.

OpenMaw

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Aug 23, 2022, 11:56:48 PMAfter ruminating on it I think he's entitled to his views but I don't agree with them all things considered.

Especially after actually looking at his script in the downloads section and... that being pretty much the film that we ultimately got.


"Pretty much" but there is quite a bit of nuance that is different. Hill did the same crap here that he did on Alien. If you compare Giler/Hill's ALien drafts to the original O'bannon script they were lifting dialogue out of O'Bannon's script whole cloth and changing a few bits of context. IE: It wasn't really an Alien/Ash the secret robot spy.

I do have to say I think this interview is a bit of a missed opportunity. I don't besmirch Hicks or Ridgetop for being as passive as they were, but I can't help but feel this needed some more reigning in. Rex repeats himself a dozen times on the same topic. I get that it was 30 years ago, but the man knew he was being asked on to talk about his time on Alien 3... I really think he should have taken, even just an hour or two, to refresh his memory on his own work there. There really isn't anything particularly new or revealing here. We've known for decades now just how absolutely messed up the production on Alien 3 was. The fact that Alien 3 has more drafts than Alien, Aliens, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant combined tells us that.

oduodu

that's actually an interesting point.  alien 3 had 13 scripts?

KiramidHead

There were ten writers over the years: William Gibson, Eric Red, David Twohy, Vincent Ward, John Fasano, Greg Pruss, Larry Ferguson, David Giler, Walter Hill, and Rex Pickett.

Kradan

Quote from: KiramidHead on Oct 02, 2022, 06:36:34 PMGreg Pruss

That's a name I'm not familiar with. What draft(s) was he responsible for ?

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