What if James Cameron had stayed with the ‘Alien’ franchise?
Ridley Scott’s chief strength has always been as a visualist ... and a sublime one at that. He came from a background in advertising - making products look so good so that you would part with your money. He didn’t approach film projects for their intellectual content. On ‘Alien’ (1979), he was fortunate enough to work with collaborators of the highest quality (Dan O'Bannon, drawing upon previous works of science fiction and horror, wrote the screenplay from a story he co-authored with Ronald Shusett), and wise enough to get most of it on the screen (David Giler and Walter Hill revised and made additions to the script). Like getting a plain-looking car with a powerful motor, Ridley Scott waxed the machine until it gleamed. Any explanation of the titular creature’s origin was wisely dropped from the first film – it was unnecessary. None of the proposed ideas sound too thrilling anyway. Instead, it is left to the audience’s imagination – one factor in the film’s continuing cult appeal, along with the aforementioned design, and having a female lead. Then James Cameron came along with ‘Aliens’ (1986), terrific in its own right and, as an action film, an entirely different beast from it’s parent. After that, the franchise collapsed upon itself.
In 2012, Scott returned with ‘Prometheus’, a great film with the sound down, which crammed in ideas to it’s own detriment, none of which were taken to a logical conclusion. According to Scott, although the film shared “strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak”, and took place in the same universe, ‘Prometheus’ explored its own mythology and ideas. While the film received praise for the aesthetic design and the acting, especially Michael Fassbender's performance as the android David, a slew of plot elements that remained unresolved and predictable storyline beats drew large amounts of criticism.
Speaking with Moviefone in 2012, Cameron remarked: “I thought it was Ridley returning to science fiction with gusto, with great tactical performance, beautiful photography, great native 3D”. However, he didn’t think it added up logically. “There might have been a few things that I would have done differently, but that’s not the point, you could say that about any movie.”
A joint American and British production, a sequel to ‘Prometheus’, titled ‘Alien: Covenant’ (2017), would become the second installment in the Alien prequel series and the sixth installment overall in the Alien film series, as well as the third directed by Scott. It followed the crew of a colony ship that lands on an uncharted planet and makes a terrifying Fassbender-related discovery.
In an interview with Vulture, Cameron was asked about Scott's (at the time upcoming) ‘Alien: Covenant’, and had this to say:
"The franchise has kind of wandered all over the map. Ridley (Scott) did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own ‘Aliens’, which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film.
“I don’t think it’s worked out terribly well. I think we’ve moved on beyond it. It’s like, okay, we’ve got it, we’ve got the whole Freudian biomechanoid meme. I’ve seen it in 100 horror films since. I think both of those films stand at a certain point in time, as a reference point. But is there any validity to doing another one now? I don’t know. Maybe. Let’s see, jury’s out. Let’s see what Ridley comes up with. Let me just add to that — and don’t cut this part off, please — I will stand in line for any Ridley Scott movie, even a not-so-great one, because he is such an artist, he’s such a filmmaker. I always learn from him. And what he does with going back to his own franchise would be fascinating.”
Trace Thurman, from the site Bloody Disgusting, gave the film a mediocre review, noting that although watching ‘Alien: Covenant’ will make viewers appreciate ‘Prometheus’ more "…this is a film that was made as a response to ‘Prometheus’ critics but tries to appease fans of that film as well and it doesn’t fully work." He also criticized the over-familiarity of the climax and underwritten characters.
I wrote a review of ‘Alien: Covenant’ that can be viewed HERE.
In the audio commentary for ‘Alien: Covenant’, Scott confirmed that a sequel to the film, tentatively referred to as ‘Alien: Covenant 2’, is being written by John Logan, with Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, and Danny McBride reprising their roles. Scott also confirmed that the film will cap his prequel series, leading directly into the events of the original ‘Alien’. Michael Nordine, writing for Indiewire in October 2017, quoted Scott stating that ‘Alien: Covenant 2’ will focus more on the androids and A.I.'s as opposed to the Xenomorphs. Scott said "I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.'s. The world that the A.I. might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one.”
This is hardly surprising. As a bonus feature on the Steelbook Blu-ray edition of ‘Prometheus’ confirmed, there is a shared universe between the Weyland Corporation of ‘Alien’ and Tyrell Corporation from Scott’s other ground-breaking sci-fi film, ‘Blade Runner’. His son, director Luke Scott, also touched on similar themes with his film, ‘Morgan’ (2016).
The future of the ‘Alien’ franchise, it seems, lies with the robots.
What would James Cameron have done differently if he had controlled the franchise?
“I’m wondering if ‘Alien 3′ is in the typewriter?” NBC’s entertainment correspondent Bobby Wygant asked James Cameron upon the release of ‘Aliens’ in 1986. “Not for me it’s not,” he answered.
“I think Fox will want to see how this film does,” Cameron continued, “and if they’re still enthusiastic about, or if they become enthusiastic about a continuation beyond the film that Gale and I made then they’ll have to pursue that in their way. I mean find a writer, find a director, because we’ll be on to something else, I think. Some new territory.”
“But if the money were right?” Wygan teased. “No, I don’t think so,” he answered. “At this point, y’know, the way I work on films and the way my wife -who produced this film- works, is we throw ourselves into the picture right from pre-production through the end of post-production. It takes us a year or two, year and a half to do a film, and that means maybe my career will only be ten or twelve films – you can’t stay doing the same things over and over again.”
Cameron later went on to say he would have directed ‘Alien 4’ if Ridley Scott had returned for ‘Alien 3’. In 2017, he announced he would make four ‘Avatar’ sequels, promising that the films will start hitting theaters in 2018. It’s fair to say that Cameron would have been open to returning to the ‘Alien’ franchise eventually and certain franchise missteps would never have occurred…
• Aliens would never have wrestled Predators
Before 20th Century Fox gave ‘Alien vs. Predator’ the greenlight, Cameron had been working on a story for a fifth Alien film. Alien director Ridley Scott had talked with Cameron, stating "I think it would be a lot of fun, but the most important thing is to get the story right." In a 2002 interview, Scott's concept for a story was "to go back to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created"; this project eventually became Scott's 2012 film ‘Prometheus’.
On learning that Fox intended to pursue ‘Alien vs. Predator’, Cameron believed the film would "kill the validity of the franchise" and ceased work on his story, "To me, that was ‘Frankenstein Meets Werewolf’. It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other … milking it." After viewing ‘Alien vs. Predator’, however, Cameron remarked that "it was actually pretty good. I think of the five Alien films, I'd rate it third. I actually liked it. I actually liked it a lot." Conversely, Ridley Scott had no interest in the ‘Alien vs. Predator’ films. When asked in May 2012 if he had watched them, Scott laughed, "No. I couldn't do that. I couldn't quite take that step." The storyline for Scott’s film ‘Alien: Covenant’ essentially wiped the Predators from the larger continuity of the film universe.
• Cameron would have kept core characters alive
"I thought [the decision to eliminate Newt, Hicks and Bishop] was dumb," says Cameron, who was at Comic-Con in 2016 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Aliens’. "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."
In 1995 Carrie Henn briefly mentioned James’ ideas, or framework, for an ‘Aliens’ sequel: “I know that James Cameron had planned to have Hicks, Ripley and me in ‘Alien 3’, to have a family-type thing.”
Lance Henriksen also revealed that Cameron had discussed some character beats for Bishop in a potential third movie: “I also remember Jim saying to me [that] if we ever did another one that what he would have done is probably had that character realize that somebody had fooled around with his brain and make him constantly worried that he was going to do something dangerous. And so I thought, ‘Well, what a nice piece of conflict that is.'” Earlier in 2004 he had said: “Jim Cameron […] was talking about doing another Alien movie. He often pondered about what he might do with Bishop, saying that somehow they messed with his brain to make him dangerous.”
Cameron had been privy to Neill Blomkamp's script for a hypothetical ‘Aliens’ sequel, which would ignore and replace the events of ‘Alien 3’, and he approved. Strongly. "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. 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."
• Cameron may have drawn on material from the Dark Horse comics
‘Aliens’ is a non-canonical comic book series set in the fictional universe of the ‘Alien’ films. It was first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1988. The stories often feature the company Weyland-Yutani and the United States Colonial Marines. Originally intended as a sequel to James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens, the first mini-series features the characters of Rebecca "Newt" Jorden and Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Later series also included the further adventures of Ellen Ripley.
The comic starts 10 years after the events of the ‘Aliens’ film. Ripley's fate is not revealed to the reader, but Hicks and Newt have been struggling with the aftermath of their encounter with the Xenomorphs. Newt is in a mental institution suffering horrible reoccurring nightmares, and when nothing seems to help her, the doctors decide to wipe her memory. The badly-scarred Hicks (not dissimilar to the art for Blomkamp's aborted ‘Alien 5’), facing constant fears from his fellow Marines that he is somehow contaminated by the Xenomorphs, has never gotten over the annihilation of his squad, and so agrees to go on a mission to the alien homeworld to recover some eggs and to destroy one of the hives.
‘Aliens: Hive’ (‘Aliens: Harvest’ in reprints), published in 1992, bears some similarities to Cameron’s film ‘Avatar’ (an artificial alien is used to sneak into a tribe and obtain a rare substance) as well as concept art for Blomkamp's aborted sequel. A scientific genius, Stanislaw Mayakovsky, and a thief named Gill have designed a synthetic Xenomorph, “Norbert”, equipped with pheromone generators that would disguise its scent, to infiltrate a Hive and steal the Alien Queen’s royal jelly, the galaxy's most valuable commodity.
Then again, perhaps its for the best that the ‘Alien’ franchise never went as far as robotic Xenomorphs...
