You kinda had to feel for 20th Century Fox and their 30th anniversary celebration of “Aliens” at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. On the same afternoon as Warner Bros. unleashed a tornado of trailers, with Marvel not far behind with their own goodies, no one had much time for reflection.
However, the panel for the film was nonetheless interesting, but not because of what was said about “Aliens” (it’s a great sequel, we’ve known that for three decades). Rather, it was James Cameron’s honest assessment of “Alien 3” that raised some eyebrows.
“I thought [the decision to eliminate Newt, Hicks, and Bishop] was dumb,” he said (via io9). “I thought it was a huge slap in the face to the fans. [‘Alien 3’ director] David Fincher is a friend of mine, and he’s an amazing filmmaker, unquestionably. That was kind of his first big gig, and he was getting vectored around by the studio, and he dropped into the production late, and they had a horrible script, and they were re-writing it on the fly. It was just a mess. I think it was a big mistake. Certainly, had we been involved we would not have done that, because we felt we earned something with the audience for those characters.”
Damn. And of course, the natural followup query would be what Cameron thinks of Neill Blomkamp’s plans to make an “Alien” movie that is more of a direct sequel to “Aliens,” and steps around everything that happens after. Well, Cameron thinks the concept is a winner.
“I think it works gangbusters. He shared it with me, and I think it’s a very strong script and he could go make it tomorrow,” Cameron stated. “I don’t know anything about the production, and I don’t know what Ridley [Scott]’s doing. But hopefully there’ll be room for both of them. Like parallel universes.”
I don’t know about you, but between Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron’s excitement, I might be more eager for Blomkamp’s movie, than Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” which the filmmaker insisted on making first. But it’s a long way from a great idea to a great movie, and it seems Blomkamp’s picture is some time off from being made. Until then, you’ll have to stick with the other movies in the franchise, including “Aliens,” which arrives on Blu-ray in a new 30th anniversary package on September 13th.
Just watched (half of) Alien 1, so dumb I gave up on this “classic” (of what?) Breaking safety protocol by “disciplined” scientists bringing an “infected” person aboard ; when the alien escapes these idiots forget to close the infirmary door and just poke around after a creature whose “blood” is highly corrosive and, duh, obviously dangerous? The moronic greed of the hired hands…?
The blatant stupidity of the crew is sickening. I know that in real life Americans are dumb as rocks but this is fantasy – can’t you, for once, make Americans at least look smart? Or is it beyond you?
Ridley, stick to adverts.
You’ll hate Prometheus even more, trust me.
They aren’t scientists though. They are the futuristic equivalent of oil rig workers. The Nostromo was a mining vessel. They were on their way home from an excavation when the Nostromo picked up the acoustical beacon from the derelict on LV-426. The company they worked for had a clause in their contract that any distress beacon must solicit a response. failure to do so would be met with “total forfeiture of shares”. So if they didn’t respond to the beacon these miners would not have been paid for their haul.