Scott: We are going to make another Alien movie

[chris_bert]

Is he kidding? Didn't he have that right there in front of him with the Engineers in the Prometheus film before he decided to turn them into just bigger and meaner versions of humans? We could have had a new foe (sp.) for mankind with the Engineers when they discovered that they hadn't wiped out us puny humans after all and decided to complete their mission and finish us off. I'm guessing he didn't go in that direction because...I don't really know...maybe these movies wouldn't make any money because there was no alien like fans had seen in the 1979 movie and that was the reason we got the Deacon in Prometheus (just my wild guess at this point)? Sounds like he's gotten himself into a tight spot with this and I guess we'll see how creative he is with what happens in the third film. Just feel David as an antagonist in the films can't hold a candle to the original alien, so I'm not really interested in seeing more of David as the bad guy/baddie. He's just not bad enough. If Riddles feels he doesn't want to re-introduce the original alien, and he's killed of the idea of any further discovery with the Engineers as antagonists, I'm not sure what he's got left unless it's something entirely new he pulls out of his hat and how well will that work if he's surrounded by yes people who are scared to tell him his idea might just be a bad one. Who knows...guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Brand new interview with Ridley Scott in which he talks about how hard it is "coming up with an idea as unique as the xenomorph":

[NetworkATTH]

Brand new interview with Ridley Scott in which he talks about how hard it is "coming up with an idea as unique as the xenomorph":

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/ridley-scott-terror-rebooting-thelma-louise-whats-happening-alien-exclusive-140743735.html

I'm torn between if it's broke don't fix it and if the best we can get is a 20 minute scene with a xenomorph, please mercy please just go out there a little

I am torn 50/50 on this.. But....that's what these prequels do best. Might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts.

[Scorpio]

Dan O' Bannon's script for Alien was for a b movie.  It was Scott that had the vision to make it an A picture.  People forget this.  I'm not worshipping R.S. but that's how it is.

For over 30 years the Space Jockey was just some weird looking elephant thing.  Then it was changed to a giant humanoid wearing a spacesuit and everybody loses their minds.

B movie idea VS A+ execution

An elephant monster is a b movie idea.  There are tons of b movies with weird rubber creatures in them.  Galaxy of Terror, for example:



I love b movies but they're a dime a dozen.  Particularly in the 80s, there were lots of them.

Alien has always been an A concept.  Because of Ridley Scott.

[NetworkATTH]

Dan O' Bannon's script for Alien was for a b movie.  It was Scott that had the vision to make it an A picture.  People forget this.  I'm not worshipping R.S. but that's how it is.

For over 30 years the Space Jockey was just some weird looking elephant thing.  Then it was changed to a giant humanoid wearing a spacesuit and everybody loses their minds.

B movie idea VS A+ execution

An elephant monster is a b movie idea.  There are tons of b movies with weird rubber creatures in them.  Galaxy of Terror, for example:



I love b movies but they're a dime a dozen.  Particularly in the 80s, there were lots of them.

Alien has always been an A concept.  Because of Ridley Scott.

If David and Walter and the crew (for as equally bad a movie they would have made), they introduced the whole grimy working class truckers elements into the mix. Ridley just sort of morphed them all together. Beyond that artists like Ron Cobb had a huge influence into the style and look of the film, and let's not forget HR Giger. So many people had input into how minor beats of the film went, particularly the actors. It wasn't all Scott's doing,

it was just a one in a million chance that too many cooks in the kitchen didn't rip the film apart with infighting, but ended up on the silver screen as a great movie with great ideas. If we removed O'Bannon, there would be no Giger. If we remove the David and Walter rewrites, we get a clean room 2001-esque movie that's probably insulting to Kubrick. Everyone had a creative soup to start from, and they made a buffet of the various ideas in all of the drafts going further. It was just one of those times where everything basically worked out in the end despite so many voices having input (that includes O'Bannon)

[Scorpio]

O Bannon was introduced to Giger by Jodorowsky, O Bannon didn't seek out Giger on his own, so if you're going to give O Bannon credit for bringing in Giger, may as well credit Jodorowsky as well.

[NetworkATTH]

O Bannon was introduced to Giger by Jodorowsky, O Bannon didn't seek out Giger on his own, so if you're going to give O Bannon credit for bringing in Giger, may as well credit Jodorowsky as well.

That's Hollywood baby. Doesn't matter who networked who, who in turn, networked who. That's just the way it is. Jordo had nothing to do with the project, but O'Bannon did, and he was aware of Giger. Were it not for the fates meeting perfectly, we probably would have one goofy ass alien. Also even if his drafts were flawed, I'm not doubting they were very bad, you have to understand they were writing under the pretext this was a Roger Corman flick. It wasn't until big studio people got involved that his Roger Corman script quickly began attracting big names, so it has to be said that while the script itself wasn't that great, the soul of the script is pretty f**king good.

Clunky dialogue sure (nothing rewrites couldn't fix), but the skeleton of what Alien is, was still there. It's a beacon, they land and investigate the beacon. They see a crashed derelict ship, and then find a pyramid, yada yada. Giler and his crew came along and said "This isn't an Alien movie, this is about a biological weapon made by the government, there's an Android ob board"

Scott comes on board and decides to look at each competing take on the story and have a buffet of it all. Picking and choosing what works, what doesn't etc. At the point Ridley got involved, O'Bannon felt he had the clout to express his wishes for what the alien should look like, O'Bannon giddily gave him HR Giger's Necrom IV. Ridley concludes this is the beast..

And from there they began to understand a solid idea of what the film was. I also hardly believe in auteur theory (with few exceptions).

I'm not saying one person gets credit in a film, that's stupid. I'm saying it is the movie we're obsessing over because it involved the entire crew. You take an O'Bannon out of the equation of production, you lose quite a lot. Even if his drafts were pretty hokey, the ominous story beats are still there.

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm not saying one person gets credit in a film, that's stupid. I'm saying it is the movie we're obsessing over because it involved the entire crew. You take an O'Bannon out of the equation of production, you lose quite a lot. Even if his drafts were pretty hokey, the ominous story beats are still there.

Damn right. And that is something that is forgotten too often in my opinion.

[bb-15]

I'm not saying one person gets credit in a film, that's stupid. I'm saying it is the movie we're obsessing over because it involved the entire crew. You take an O'Bannon out of the equation of production, you lose quite a lot. Even if his drafts were pretty hokey, the ominous story beats are still there.

I think we're all pretty much on the same page here.
"Alien" clearly was a team effort where there were several people who were essential to its creation.
- O'Bannon is certainly crucial. But so are Ronald Shusett, Scott, Giger, David Giler, Walter Hill, Ron Cobb as well as the top notch cast.

* Now, what I think got this part of the debate going was the Ridley Scott interview where he describes meeting Giger and Ridley doesn't tell the full story. Result; irritation by some.
- My view is that filmmakers/creators, in telling history, exaggerate their role in the process.
One example is O'Bannon. I've heard multiple commentaries by him and he repeatedly dismisses or trashes the imo important additions to the script done by Giler and Hill.
- Creators have big egos. They often see themselves as bigger than life (from Steve Jobs to Elon Musk).
The fictional Peter Weyland is a caricature of that kind of personality.
- So Scott only focuses on his role in meeting Giger and getting the xenomorph into "Alien".
We all see his exaggeration.
But to me it's not a big deal. He's like a grandfather telling stories. People I meet do that kind of thing. We fans can sort out the historical details. 

[Ingwar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqa-mt9rgA

[PsyKore]

Ridley already has great stuff to work with, it just has to be executed well. I don't know why he wants something new on par with the Xenomorph. I wonder if it's something to do with Daniels and what David will spawn from her. Whatever the case, I think he's just gotta keep it simple, have a good script that's cohesive and ties the prequels together well. I honestly just want Ridley to not care about it so much and have fun with it. Ignore the fans and studio and just do what you want. I loved Covenant, warts and all, and I'm happy with him concluding the prequels.

[0321recon]

Ridley already has great stuff to work with, it just has to be executed well. I don't know why he wants something new on par with the Xenomorph. I wonder if it's something to do with Daniels and what David will spawn from her. Whatever the case, I think he's just gotta keep it simple, have a good script that's cohesive and ties the prequels together well. I honestly just want Ridley to not care about it so much and have fun with it. Ignore the fans and studio and just do what you want. I loved Covenant, warts and all, and I'm happy with him concluding the prequels.

Thank you! I want Riddles to go buck wild, pardon the pun.

I'd just bring in Hampton Fancher from BR 2049 to help out Michael Green with the script to nicely tie all the loose ends from Covenant and Prometheus. I know Scott was outspoken regarding BR 2049 length, though that helped create a cohesive story that Awakening will need to close the trilogy. Let's see what happens.

[SM]

I don't know why he wants something new on par with the Xenomorph.

Because he's a filmmaker.  I suspect he wants to do new stuff rather than repeating himself.

[Scorpio]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqa-mt9rgA

People taking Scott's words out of context, again.  Any excuse to bash him.

And O Bannon didn't bring in Giger, he suggested him to Scott because Jodorowsky had recruited them both for his Dune project.  The story goes that Giger showed O Bannon his artwork.  But it was Scott who chose Giger, as he has said in a 1979 interview, he knew immediately as soon as he saw Giger's art.

[TC]

...
I don't know why he wants something new on par with the Xenomorph.
...

The biggest change that occurred with the xenomorph was when Cameron got hold of it. Suddenly it became a savage, animalistic beast, an interpretation quite different from Scott's original concept:

You can't tell me this is the same xeno (in terms of behaviour) that we see in Aliens, or any of the subsequent stories. Alien 3, Alien:Res, AvP, even Alien Isolation, followed Cameron's lead on xeno behaviour. i.e. Physically dynamic sprinting and leaping acrobatics, crawling on vertical surfaces, snarling, slashing, etc.

Of course, this is a deleted scene so Cameron has the excuse (just as with the deletion of egg-morphing) that anything not used in the theatrical release is fair game for a re-write.

But I find it interesting that in Covenant even Scott followed suit. Apparently, contrary to what he has said on the matter, in making the prequels he really was influenced by all the other entries in the franchise.

Don't you wonder what the hell Scott would have come up with if he had made the Alien '79 sequel, not Cameron? Something that respected the original O'Bannon/Shusett concept of an alien whose lethality is due to its rampant sex drive and (literally) bestial urge to mate.

TC

***EDIT: I just re-read this and it sounds like I'm dissing Cameron and Aliens. This is not my intention. I love Alien. I love Aliens. But because of this disparity in the two concepts of the xeno (in behaviour, I stress), I've always thought of Aliens as a kind of reboot.

[NetworkATTH]

...
I don't know why he wants something new on par with the Xenomorph.
...

The biggest change that occurred with the xenomorph was when Cameron got hold of it. Suddenly it became a savage, animalistic beast, an interpretation quite different from Scott's original concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmGzYjJYvU4

You can't tell me this is the same xeno (in terms of behaviour) that we see in Aliens, or any of the subsequent stories. Alien 3, Alien:Res, AvP, even Alien Isolation, followed Cameron's lead on xeno behaviour. i.e. Physically dynamic sprinting and leaping acrobatics, crawling on vertical surfaces, snarling, slashing, etc.

Of course, this is a deleted scene so Cameron has the excuse (just as with the deletion of egg-morphing) that anything not used in the theatrical release is fair game for a re-write.

But I find it interesting that in Covenant even Scott followed suit. Apparently, contrary to what he has said on the matter, in making the prequels he really was influenced by all the other entries in the franchise.

Don't you wonder what the hell Scott would have come up with if he had made the Alien '79 sequel, not Cameron? Something that respected the original O'Bannon/Shusett concept of an alien whose lethality is due to its rampant sex drive and (literally) bestial urge to mate.

TC

***EDIT: I just re-read this and it sounds like I'm dissing Cameron and Aliens. This is not my intention. I love Alien. I love Aliens. But because of this disparity in the two concepts of the xeno (in behaviour, I stress), I've always thought of Aliens as a kind of reboot.

My man, Ridley wanted to do what Cameron did from the beginning. The Alien would have been clinging to walls, running at probably at least Mach 5 down a shaft..Just a generally deadly angry wolverine who happens to want to f**k everything in its path. And worse yet, you think it's some stupid animal from some other world. That was Ridley's intention, to do Cameron's Aliens. But without a budget, and a suit that could hardly run; they opted for a different approach. Whichever you like, Ridley still wanted the Alien to move around, at a probably faster velocity than even the ones in Cameron's Aliens.






Cameron expanded on Scott's Ridleygrams to add to his own fiilm.