QuoteLots of people created the alien. O'Bannon only started it.
O'Bannon created it: Everyone else just expanded on it.
QuoteThey've been developed in a completely different direction from O'Bannon's original idea so it's silly to bring it back unless he plans to create an Alien remake.
Wasn't saying we should go back. However, I think you could easily give the Aliens human-level intelligence in a film and still have them as the same old nasty space monster. It'd just make them even more dangerous.
Think about it - All the Aliens we've ever seen have been young, and all of them act purely based on the situation they're born into. So, if we had a hive which was older, and had time to learn and grow and adapt and think up all kinds of new strategies for dealing in their environment and the things within it, I don't see it as too much of a stretch that Aliens could become really quite intelligent.
It's just that everyone automatically thinks '8 foot ants!', ignorant of the fact ants have pretty damned complex social systems and, in a lot of cases, surprisingly 'human' characteristics.