Quote from: SM on Sep 20, 2017, 11:39:08 AM
Nah, no one in mind. Someone with a death wish most likely. It'd be like trying to remake Jaws and they haven't done that yet either.
I think the problem is the two key sequences of Kane getting facehugged and the chestburster have been done over in the sequels, that they no longer pack a punch. They've tried to rework the chestburster each time to do something different, but I think the Neomorph probably the only one that's been approaching the original for shock value and brutality. Wren's head burster was a good try but a little comical in execution.
You can't rely on those two scenes again. You can't rely on the evil secret robot. The Alien will likely fail because it'll be either too much like the original, or too little. It's quite the recipe for disaster, but there's always that tiny chance it'll surprise.
* Ridley Scott (in comments/interviews) was well aware of this problem of the Alien franchise tropes losing their horror punch. In "Prometheus" he tried to go in a different direction but while that film was a box office success, the hate for "Prometheus" by some was very loud and persistent.
- As I've written before, the Alien fan base is deeply split and Scott was caught in the middle of that.
* But your topic imo touches on a greater issue; that in general science fiction horror films are no longer very scary.
- Every alien / genetically engineered movie creature has been done so much that this entire SF horror genre has lost its impact.
- A second problem with SF horror is that it requires explanation sequences, which with much of today's mass audience, gets in the way of the horror.
* The horror genre (for instance "IT" / "Annabelle: Creation" / "Get Out" / "Paranormal Activity") now focuses on villains who are deranged humans, ghosts or small toys/dolls often with loud jump scares.
- These kinds of horror movies are cheap which SF cannot compete with in terms of cost.
And cheap horror films can make hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Also, SF horror is not only more expensive but if its story is serious science fiction, it will be more complicated which is turning off much of today's audience.
* The studio / Ridley turned to the most persistent / often emotional fans who had campaigned to bring back the xenomorph hunt, a standard Alien franchise trope.
- Unfortunately, following the advice of emotional SF fans is often a recipe for lower performance. This happened with "Star Trek: Beyond". "Beyond" made McCoy the 3rd main character demanded by some fans. That movie was a flop in terms of box office / production budget.
- Emotional fans cannot help in guiding a SF franchise towards financial success imo.
* What can the studio do?
- Science fiction which has horror can go in the direction of adventure.
Rampaging monsters / dinosaurs in an adventure are continuing as a genre with tiny bits of SF which have no importance to the story.
- But in the Alien franchise, it's important to realize that action is difficult in terms of bringing in good box office.
Only Cameron was very successful doing this money wise in the franchise with "Aliens". David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (with help from Joss Whedon) and Ridley (with "Covenant") put in some adventure/chase sequences but they could not in terms of box office match what Cameron did.
- The closest thing to Cameron's "Aliens" (a bug battle adventure) imo was "Starship Troopers" and that flopped at the box office.
- Conclusion? Imo doing some kind of reboot/repeat of "Aliens" is in no way a guarantee of box office success.
* Some clamor for finding a new director.
- Blomkamp? His career is stalled and with comparing box office/production budget; "Elysium" barely did better than "Covenant" and "Chappie" did worse.
- Cameron? He's busy.
- Abrams? Lots of the emotional fans don't like him.
- Imo Fox sees the challenges with continuing the Alien franchise;
And it seems that instead of risking putting another director in charge, the studio is leaning towards letting Ridley do another one;
As noted in this linked article already posted in this thread.
http://www.alien-covenant.com/news/fox-trust-ridley-scott-break-new-ground-with-alien-covenant-sequelWe'll see.