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The overall plot of Paul WS Anderson's AvP remained largely unchanged through the course of its journey from script to screen. The heat bloom, the pyramid, the hunt, Lex and Scar are all present, as are most of the major cast in one way or another. But how many of these concepts were changed quite a lot on the way.

Part pointless trivia, part search for insight, this article will go over those changes and see how the story developed — for better or worse — until it hit the silver screen.

Sources: AvP Novel by Marc Cerasini; AICN script review dated October 29th, 2003; September 26th 2003 draft by Paul WS Anderson; Production Draft.

Note: I'm hesitant to use the novel for anything other than broad strokes, as without the source draft Cerasini was working from, it's often impossible to tell what's embellishment and what's from the script. It's also clear that many changes were made to coincide with the script as it developed, which further clouds what was in the original draft.

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I'd just like to thank SiL for taking the time to write this up and send it across to us.  :)

Thanks for uploading it!

At some point I'll even finish AvPR.

Quote from: SiL on Aug 30, 2017, 11:09:32 AM
Thanks for uploading it!

At some point I'll even finish AvPR.

I think your page to page reading you did some years back will suffice

You missed out a key point that there were actually five Predators in one of the early scripts and somewhere along the way it was reduced to three. That would have changed the entire movie or at least added some more fights.

He mentions it during the Predators in orbit section.

Yeah, it's there. Because the only information of those scenes we have is from the novel, and the novel is unreliable, I only mentioned it in passing.

Really liked this article, AvP was a little treasure box in some cases.

Quote from: SiL on Aug 30, 2017, 10:05:31 PM
Yeah, it's there. Because the only information of those scenes we have is from the novel, and the novel is unreliable, I only mentioned it in passing.

I think it gets brought up in some of the pre-production featurettes too?

That they were supposed to be there, yes, but everything else we don't know. That's why I only included the information supported by other sources (that there were five) but left out the scenes from the novel that describe what happens to them.

Quote from: SiL on Aug 31, 2017, 07:35:07 AM
That they were supposed to be there, yes, but everything else we don't know. That's why I only included the information supported by other sources (that there were five) but left out the scenes from the novel that describe what happens to them.

That's fair enough. Cerasini did accept my friend request so I'll give him a bump, see if I can get him to chat about the specific - if he remembers.

I was thinking about it this morning and realised it was 14 years ago, so my hopes aren't high :P

It'd be nice to find out what the process was for him, because his novel is a strange mixture of ideas that were abandoned early -- the Cambodia opening -- and things that weren't even changed until casting was complete -- like Sebastian's nationality. And then there are weird things in the middle where the concept was abandoned (Lex romance subplot) but it's still been maintained in the novel and just shifted to characters who survived to the production drafts.

Would love to get some clarity on the five Predators, because the novel just has the other two dying immediately after Celtic.

The novel also had Miller being American - which he was until they started shooting until Anderson found out Bremner wasn't very funny as a Yank and had him use his normal accent instead.

I forgot about that. I don't think his nationality is actually given in the scripts I've read.

(Also there's a typo in Lo Lha Ice Fall.  It should be Lho La.  Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho La.)

Quote from: SM on Aug 31, 2017, 08:49:08 AM
(Also there's a typo in Lo Lha Ice Fall.  It should be Lho La.  Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho La.)

Thanks, I've amended that. Also messaged Marc. Will see if we can get anywhere with that.

Quote from: SM on Aug 31, 2017, 08:49:08 AM
(Also there's a typo in Lo Lha Ice Fall.  It should be Lho La.  Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho, Lho La.)

::)

Good work once again sil, it was a really fantastic read. It's such a shame that AvP couldn't be what it should have been.

Marc has agreed to answer some questions after he's finished the project he's currently on (end of September) so any specifics we wanna know about, send 'em over!

Finally getting around to reading this. Nice to see someone doing some detailed work on one of the films that typically gets overlooked in that regard!

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/marc-cerasini/

Turned it into a bit of a bigger Q&A but Marc did provide some great detail.

https://www.avpgalaxy.net/avp-movies/avp-movie/from-script-to-screen/

The article has been updated as of April 15th 2020 with further details following an interview with the novelization author and the posting of script breakdown.

Thanks as always to SiL for his hard work on this one.

It was great getting to confirm some of the stuff from the novel as well as uncover the Verheiden subplot, which wasn't even in the book. The only existing mention was the AICN article from 2003.

All of the five Predator stuff is in there now it's been substantiated by the script breakdown.

I'll have to give that another read.

Let me know what you think! I also changed the tone to be a bit more impartial. It's about 50% longer than it was.

Interesting about Miller's abduction(s).  Even in the film it's confused - he sees an Alien, it runs at him then the next shot all we see are his legs kicking as he's taken from above.  ???

Quote from: SiL on Apr 15, 2020, 08:42:18 AMLet me know what you think! I also changed the tone to be a bit more impartial. It's about 50% longer than it was.

Will do! Love stuff like this.

Quote from: SM on Apr 15, 2020, 08:53:51 AM
Interesting about Miller's abduction(s).  Even in the film it's confused - he sees an Alien, it runs at him then the next shot all we see are his legs kicking as he's taken from above.  ???

The legs kicking are from I think Conner or Verheiden, and just thrown in to have him get abducted there and then rather than later. The invisible power of editing! :D

I did wonder if it was from another character, but they all wear the same pants.  It helps that everything happens in that triangular corridor though.  Paulie pulled a Ridley with Lambert/ Brett.

Almost all of the Alien face closeups are just shot against a black screen to boot.

Read though it again. Good piece! Although if I'm honest, it was so long ago that I last read it I really couldn't tell what had been changed :P

Basically the entire second half has been filled out with scenes from the novel that the script breakdown verified - details of the lost Predators in particular. There's also an entire subplot of a character named Verheiden that was only ever referenced in an AICN article that finally got fleshed out by the breakdown.

Gotcha. Now that you mention it I did feel like maybe some of the Verheiden details were new, although I knew about the archaeologist version of the character.