Weyland-Yutani Archives

Update...

2011-10-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Howdy. Corrections and alterations are still going on. I've started work on the Alien 3 cut scenes articles as they both need work before i continue with parts 3 & 4. In Part one I've added a couple of video clips of scenes from the Alien 3 workprint. This is so you, the reader, can see and compare the workprint footage with both the theatrical and assembly cuts of Alien 3.

http://weyland-yutaniarchives.blogspot.com/2010/06/alien-3-cut-scenes-part-one.html

I've still got to add at least two to three clips yet. One being the opening sequence from the workprint and the list of differences. The workprint clips have bad audio and picture quality due to being a multi generation copy of the workprint. Lower generation copies do exist but are extremely rare to find. Trust me I've been looking for years and I've only managed to find two people with better quality VHS tapes but neither would convert the workprint to DVD-R, make a VHS copy or wanted to trade as i didn't have anything they didn't already have.

Anyways, I'll slowly but surely keep at the alterations etc to each article. Take care everyone and thanks for dropping by.

Adam.

2011-09-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd of September my Dad passed away. I know it's not something i should be sharing publicly but i don't care right now. I've re-published the articles again and will continue the blog when i feel up to it. Hope your all well and hope to catch up with most of you soon.

Take care,

Adam.

Blog on Hold

2011-06-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

I know I've been making promises to finish particular articles and not doing all i can do is apologise. At the moment i rarely get chance to sit down and add updates to this blog due to other commitments mainly my father and other family affairs. Family comes first. Sorry everyone. I was planning on quitting this blog all together so i asked my good friend Vulaha what i should do and he suggested putting it on hold for the time being so that's what I'm doing. Don't know how long it will be on hold for.

Thinking about it Vuls right. Thanks to all those who have been e-mailing me and for the kind comments from readers over the months.

Good bye, thank you & take care everyone. Will be back here again one day.

Kind Regards.

Adam

Alien II: September 21, 1983 Treatment

2011-02-03T08:47:00.000-08:00

You've heard about the Alien II treatment. However, how many of you have read it? To learn of this Treatments history, I recommend reading Aliens: The Illustrated Screenplay by Paul M. Sammon and visiting Valaquen's article: Making Aliens: Script

Instead of delving into the history of the Alien II treatment we're going to have a look at some of the things featured in it, which differ from the final draft of the Aliens script and other general little differences.

"First of all, we thought that Alien II sounded as if there was going to be 35 Alien movies, and that it's just going to go on and on and on until people are tired of it. That's not what the film is about -- just as Star Wars trilogy was not Star Wars 1,2 and 3. On the other hand, we didn't want to call it Ripley's adventure: ALIEN II, the way Rambo was first blood part II. We thought ALIENS would signify that this picture goes beyond ALIEN, but is related to it. I think it says it all."

- Gale Anne Hurd, Producer Aliens

Like in the final film Ripley is found by a salvage team in deep space. In the treatment, after she is rescued, there is a nightmare sequence in which Ripley is on-board the Nostromo running down corridors.

After awaking from her nightmare Ripley asks for Doctor O' Niel. There is no Carter Burke in the treatment and O' Niel has most of Burke's dialogue during most of the opening scenes. The other interesting thing is Gateway Station is called 'Earth Satellite Station Beta'.

In the Aliens Special edition, you learn about Ripley's daughter and how she had passed away two years prior to Ripley being found. This scene is also in the treatment but is completely different. In this version, Ripley's daughter is still alive and is around 70 years old. Because of her age and ill health, Ripley's daughter cannot visit her and has to contact her via a vid-phone Ripley's daughter is not happy to see her.

In the Aliens Special Edition Ripley is sat in an artificial park. Here, Ripley learns of her daughter's death from Carter Burke. In the treatment, Ripley is taken to a man made 'Landscaped Atrium' by Dr O' Niel. She sits under a tree watching Jones the cat and starts to cry. Ripley then watches a Commercial Shuttle launch and just stares at it. Like in the final film this takes place before the board of inquiry.

Before a decision is made about Ripley and her case, she is asked to wait outside. There, she talks to O'Niel and reviews her situation as years has passed, technologies have changed and her skills are outdated.

In the treatment, there are more atmosphere processors than in the final film, at least 10, which are dotted around the planet.

In the Aliens Special Edition, Newt and her family come across the Derelict craft. Anne and Russ, Newts mum and dad, go and investigate inside. Time passes when Anne suddenly returns to their tractor with Russ, who has a facehugger on him. That is where the scene ends in the film, with Newt screaming, but in the treatment, it continues a little further. For starters when Anne returns to the tractor Russ isn't with her as she makes the mayday call to the colony He's slipped into a hole inside the derelict and soon afterwards more members of the colony arrive to help search for Russ. Anne shows the rescue team where her husband had fallen. Peering inside they see the egg chamber. The rescue team rappel down inside and soon discover Russ lying on the chamber floor with a facehugger attached to him. One by one the eggs inside the chamber begin to hatch.

In the final film when Ripley is informed about the loss of contact with the colony it's both Burke and Gorman. In the treatment, it's Dr O' Niel and Gorman. When Ripley is asked to go back to the planet, it's Gorman, who pleads his case to her not Burke.

In the final film after Ripley awakens from her nightmare, she then contacts Burke. In the treatment, it's Lt Gorman.

Some of the marines names and ranks are different in the treatment. Spunkmeyer is called PFC Hay, Dietrich's character, the med-tech, is known as Corporal Lydecker. Dietrichs' character is in the treatment but as a regular private making that four women on board. There is no Private Crow.

In Aliens, Ripley wears a pair of Reebok hi-tops known as 'Bug-Stomers', Bishop is also wearing a pair. In the treatment, Ripley wears a pair of hi tops but these are salvaged from the shuttle Narcissus.

During Ripley's briefing to the Marines, she is interrupted by Vazquez, who "...only needs to know one thing, where they are." In the treatment Ripley is in the mess hall when she is stopped by Vazquez and asked what her name is and what she is doing there. Before Ripley can answer Vazquez cuts her off saying she only needs to know where the Alien is, so she can 'blow it away'. The gun gesture comes later in the treatment.

In the Aliens Special edition during the Colony arrival, Hudson goes into a brag about how he's the ultimate bad ass and the Marines hardware. In the treatment, this takes place before the Marines are briefed about their mission by Gorman and Ripley.

In the final film, Ripley discovers Bishop is an android after he's cut himself doing "the thing with the knife" with Hudson. Ripley is not happy that no one told her about an android being on board. In the final film, Ripley discovers Bishop is an android after he's cut himself doing "the thing with the knife" with Hudson. Ripley is not happy that no one told her about an android being on board.

In the treatment Ripley catches up to Bishop and asks him why he was sent. Bishop explains but Ripley won't have it. She then goes off to find Gorman asking Bishop to be replaced by a human and explains about Ash. Gorman says it's corporate policy to have an android on board.

In the treatment, Vazquez and Drake are stripping weapons. Ripley is watching them when Vazquez notices and cocks her thumb blowing away an imaginary Alien. Ripley isn't impressed.

While the Marines are preparing for the mission, Ripley's beginning to feel like a fifth wheel and approaches Apone and Hicks asking if there is anything she can do to help. Telling them she can drive the power loader behind her Apone tells her to "be my guest" and she mounts the loader. Both Apone and Hicks look skeptical, which is soon changed when she shows her skills with the loader.

In the treatment, it's Hicks, who is inside the power loader loading heavy equipment onto the dropship. He's having problems and so Ripley asks to step in and help.

In the film, some of the marines have Flame Throwers. In the treatment, it's at Ripley's suggestion the marines carry them. This is due to her experiences on the Nostromo.

In the final film, The marines are observed from inside the APC. In the treatment, both Ripley and Gorman are observing from inside the Dropship. From there Ripley sees all the acid holes and signs of struggle inside the colony Ripley becomes uneasy and tells Gorman to pull his team out. Gorman refuses as there might be survivors so Ripley suggests taking off and nuking the site from orbit.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Alien 3: Why did the EEV Crash Land? & Other Questions

2011-01-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

Alien 3 has so many inconsistencies and plot holes that it leaves not just the casual viewer asking question after question but for the hardcore fan too. Most questions asked have sparked debates that have lasted years, either in Internet forums or general chat among fans. Some questions asked do have an answer, which isn't either [fully] explained or explored within the film itself but rather through early drafts, storyboards, cast and crew interviews and the Alan Dean Foster Novel (also based on an early draft). Some, but not all, of the questions I'm asked I'm going to explore a little to, hopefully, give some insight on why the EEV crashed and so on. To answer some questions I've turned to the Aliens Colonial Marines Manual, and other sources, which are listed above.

If the Sulaco's sensors picked up the fire why didn't the ship's sprinkler system not kick in?

Well, from what we see in the opening sequence is that the Facehugger's body acid spills onto the floor and eats its way through causing the electrical fire. The smoke from this reaches the sensors which activate the Ships evacuation protocols. You'd expect the ships sprinklers or other fire prevention systems to kick in right? Well, they did or were. They malfunctioned due to the fire spreading quickly throughout the cryo-chambers sub-flooring before reaching the chamber itself. Electrical fires spread very quickly and can spread within walls way before you know what’s happening. It was planned at one stage to show the ship's fire prevention systems malfunctioning before the cryo-tubes begin to be loaded into the EEV. Of course, none of this was ever filmed and was only featured in an early Hill and Giler draft and the Alan Dean Foster Novel.

Novel Excerpt:

Flush-mounted fans began to hum within the ceiling, inhaling the swirling, thickning gas...Beneath the floor something exploded. Bright, atinic light flared, to be followed by a spirt of sharp yellow flame. Darker smoke began to mix with the thinner gases that now filled the chamber. The overhead lights flickered uncertainly. The exhaust fans stopped. A nozzle emerged from the ceiling, rotating like a minature cannon. It halted, focusing on the flames and gas emerging fro the hole in the floor. Liquid bubbled at it's tip, gushed in the direction of the blaze. For an instant the flames were subdued. Sparks erupted from the base of the nozzle. The burgeoning stream died, dribbing ineffectivley from the powerheard. "Fire suppresion system inactivated. Exhaust system inactivated. Fire and explosive gases in cryogenic chamber."

There was other fire prevention systems on the Sulaco, but some of these had to be activated by a Senior Officer, for example, according to the technical manual the entire hull of the Sulaco is compartmentalized so any areas on fire could be opened to space. You are probably thinking, 'Hang on, why didn't the ship's computer do this in the first place???' again the Technical manual states that the system is ordered not to do this if that particular section is occupied by personnel and can only be over ridden by a senior officer. With no one on board awake to override the command the ship's 'Automatic Crisis System' continued as normal with the Evacuation procedures.

Why did the EEV crash land instead of landing?

This is one element (besides the deaths of Hicks and Newt) that has really played on a lot of peoples minds. Just why the hell did it crash? The EEV experienced malfunctions due to numerous factors. Factors again not explored [in detail] in the film itself. You know the fire on board the Sulaco had something to do with the EEV's malfunction but one or two of you have asked me for further explanations or theories. Again, I’m turning to the Alan Dean Foster novel and the Aliens Technical Manual to help you get a better insight as to why and what malfunctions were caused. Besides the question of why did it crash land other questions have included things such as why didn't the EEV have landing procedures and what’s the point of a life-support craft is it doesn't land and why did the EEV land on Fury 161...you get the picture...The Aliens technical manual tells us that once the EEV is separated and cleared from the mother ship, the EEV's on-board computer initiates the search and rescue procedures. It switches on a distress and location beacon while scanning the surrounding sectors of space for any vessel near by for rescue and a suitable landing site. The EEV can also home in on navigation beacons from near by colonies or space stations, in this case the EEV picked up Fury 161's beacon and began to set course.

The EEV is designed to free fall from orbit until it reaches the lower atmosphere of a planet where it activates its thrusters to break the verticals fall before activating landing struts. There is only enough fuel on the EEV for one re-entry. Another thing the Technical manual states is that even with advances in technology life is still lost during an evacuation procedure and that even if one component isn't functioning properly it can jeopardize the entire evacuation process. In the film, this would be attributed to the fire on board the Sulaco once again.

It was originally planned to show the Sulacos destruction as the EEV's are being jettisoned. This whole sequence was scrapped even though the exterior models where built.

Novel excerpt:

At zero two things happened with inimical simultaneity: ten EEV's, nine of them empty, were ejected from the ship, and the proportion of escaping gases within the damaged cryogenic chamber interacted critically with the flames that were emerging from the acid-leached hole in the floor. For a brief eruptive instant the entire fore port side of the Sulaco blazed in fiery imitation of the distant stars.

Half the fleeing EEV's were severely jolted by the explosion. Two began tumbling, completely out of control. One embarked upon a short, curving path which brought it back in a wide arc to the ship from, which it had been ejected. It did not slow as it neared it's storage pod. Instead it slammed at full acceleration into the side of the transport.

Further in the novel it tells of how the concussion from the blast caused damage to most of the EEV's sensitive instrumentation, this included the EEV's navigational and guiding system. Once the EEV reached Fury 161's atmosphere most of it's systems had failed and so the EEV's thrusters and landing gear failed. The novel also says the EEV was supposed to land on the beach but due to the ever failing systems it instead crashed into the sea at an acute angle. This is what caused the safety support to buckle and impale Hick's.

Why was the EEV floating?

You'll notice when Clemens looks out onto the sea the EEV is floating on the surface [The Assembly Cut]. As the EEV hit the water it deployed air bags so it would float to the surface. This sequence wasn't filmed but you can see the air bags themselves in the movie. The ariel shots of the EEV on the beach, which the Oxen pulled ashore, you get a good look at them.

No weapons on the EEV?

I've been asked about this a few times and have had debates about it with a friend of mine countless times. Firstly, it was Sigourney Weaver, who didn't want weapons in Alien 3. It was part of her agreement to do Alien 3 as she is against guns and didn't like the 'over-use' [her words] of weapons in Cameron's Aliens. So, as said in another topic on this blog, if there were no weapons on the prison planet that means the EEV wouldn't feature any. If there were weapons on board the EEV, then the prisoners would have had access to them and with a weapon they could have or would have used it on the Alien, etc., etc....

However, with that said who's to say there wasn't any on board to start with. The Technical manual states that the EEV has storage lockers, which contain survival rations and first aid supplies in case the survivors are in for a prolonged wait for rescue. Who's to say there was no weapons? Yes, it doesn’t say anything about weapons in the technical manual but to me, it's a possibility it did. The lockers, from what I’ve read, are located in the larger section of the EEV, the section which is damaged. This, in my opinion, backs up a fan theory that the supplies and any weapons, if on board, would have been lost at the bottom of the sea during the EEV's impact with the surface.

Well, that's it, for the moment, on this one. I do hope that this little article helps someone in some shape or form, and I'll probably add more to this sometime.

Alien III Primordial Soup: Development Hell

2011-01-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

After the instant success of Aliens in 1986 Fox executives, as well as the fans, immediately wanted to do another sequel. Walter Hill and David Giler, however, were not so sure. How do you make another sequel that would not only topple both Alien and Aliens but develop something fresh and new to the series?

Hill and Giler began working on several concepts before reaching the idea of making Alien 3 into a two-part story. Both planned to have Alien 3 and 4 written and filmed back-to-back with the third film focused on Hicks as the main character and Ripley, in a coma throughout the third film, being the main character of Alien 4. No one was certain whether Sigourney Weaver would return to do a third film, but regardless of this, Hill and Giler continued to work on the idea for a back-to-back two-part sequel. Once the basis of the story was complete Hill, and Giler went to Fox with their idea and a development proposal. Fox was uncertain about having the Ripley character only having such an incredibly small part in Alien 3 but decided to give Hill and Giler development money, but not without a few conditions from Fox. Fox wanted to get Ridley Scott to direct Alien 3, and wanted both sequels filmed concurrently as it would lesson production costs. Hill and Giler agreed, and development began. Hill and Giler contacted Ridley, who was enthusiastic about the idea of directing but was swamped with other projects preventing him from being involved.

We talked to Ridley briefly, but we could never get it together. The director had just completed Someone to Watch Over Me and was preparing Black Rain. He was also scheduled to shoot Thelma and Louise, the feminist road picture for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Though interested in returning to the franchise, he was woefully over commited.

Sigourney Weaver, Cinescape © 1997 -- Dougleas Perry

This was the first blow for Alien 3, with no director the project drifted...

Yes i did write that [Alien 3], albeit a 'story' by Hill and Giler, and the other guy, whose name momentarily escapes me. They suggested the Marxist space empire, and i happily elaborated on that. In spite of it's almost instant archaism, I found it fun. I couldn't recall a single piece of cold war space opera in which the other guys were commies. At that time, Ms Weaver seemed doggedly unwilling to participate, so i was instructed to keep Ripley in stasis throughout. This was the first screenplay I'd written, and so far as i know the only one on the net today, or otherwise in circulation. Any others you might encounter are almost certainly not by me but have had my name on it. The Alien 3 script as it turns up on the net is about thirty pages shorter than the version i turned in. It became the first of some thirty drafts, by a great many screenwriters, and none of mine was used, (except for the idea, perhaps, of a barcode tattoo).

- William Gibson

William Gibson

While on Holiday in Thailand David Giler was reading a book titled Neuromancer written by none other than William Gibson, the acclaimed king of Cyberpunk. Impressed by this book Giler contacted Walter Hill and told him about the book and how the author would make a good choice screenwriter for Alien 3. Giler firmly believed that Gibson's cyberpunk sensibility was just what was needed for Alien 3, and the kind of touch that would resolve the problem of the third sequel not being a rehash of its two predecessors, a constant problem which was plaguing the two producers. Hill and Giler met with the Vancouver - based author and began to pitch their own concepts of Alien 3 and while talking, Gibson told the two producers that he was heavily influenced by Alien, this pleased Hill and Giler and the three made an agreement.

I found a lot of things in the original that I found interesting even when it first came out. I thought there were germs of stories implicit in the art direction. I always wanted to know more about these guys. Why they were wearing dirty sneakers in this funky spaceship? I think it unfluenced my prose SF writing because it was the first, funked up, dirty kitchen sink space ship and it made a big impression on me. When I started writing SF I went for that.

- William Gibson, Cinefantastique -- © 1992 Sheldon Teitlbaum

Hill and Giler gave Gibson scripts from the previous two movie's along with a 12 page story treatment both of them had written. However, Gibson was under pressure as the Writer's Guild was due to go on strike, so he had to complete his draft as soon as possible. Just before the Writers Guild strike Gibson managed to hand in a completed draft in December of 1987.

Taken from Wikipedia:

In copies of Gibson's treatment, "chestbursters" erupt out of human hosts as in previous installments, and turn into "bigger, meaner, faster" Alien Warriors. However due to initial genetic modification experiments undertaken by the Biological Warfare division on the space station (Anchorpoint), the Aliens additionally exhibit a close proximity airborne virulent contagion. When exposed at close range, the victim, after a variable amount of time goes through "the Change" as Gibson calls it, and becomes a form of alien warrior. The suspense here being that the team does not know if anyone is infected until they find out when it is least expected.

The process imagined by Gibson can be summarized as an involuntary change in the human's skeletal and muscular makeup below the skin, concluding with the newly formed Alien graphically tearing the flesh husk off of its body. The storyline for the film picked up after Aliens, as the Sulaco drifts into an area of space claimed by the "Union of Progressive People", due to a navigational error. The ship is boarded by people from the U.P.P, who are attacked by a facehugger, hiding in the entrails of Bishop's mangled body. The soldiers blast the facehugger into space and take Bishop with them for further study.

The Sulaco then arrives at Anchorpoint, which is a Company run space station/mall. A fire on the ship caused by remaining Aliens puts Ripley into a coma and Hicks is left to investigate if the rumors are true that Weyland-Yutani are developing alien warriors (which they are). The U.P.P. is also doing their own research, due to custody of Bishop. After they have finished with Bishop, they repair him (albeit with cheap parts) and return him to Anchorpoint in a show of good will.

Eventually Anchorpoint and the U.P.P stations are overrun with the parasite and Hicks must team up with the survivors to destroy the aliens. The film ends with a teaser for Alien 4 in which Bishop suggest to Hicks that humans are united against a common enemy and they must track the aliens to their source and destroy them.

Heres a scan of William Gibson's first draft in pdf format: Download

During the entire Writer's Guild strike, Gibson didn't hear from Hill or Giler. Then, out of the blue Giler contacted Gibson who was informed they didn't like his script.

We got the opposite of what we expected. We figured we'd get a script that was all over the place, but with good ideas we could mine. It turned out to be a competently written screenplay but not as inventive as we wanted it to be. That was probably our fault, though, because it was our story. We had hoped he'd open up the story and don't know why it didn't happen.

During the entirPruss came up with the idea of killing off Ripley, which didn't go down well with the Producers. Pruss was let go and Hill and Giler then once again asked John Fasano to return and make another attempt at his original script.e Writer's Guild strike, Gibson didn't hear from Hill or Giler. Then, out of the blue Giler contacted Gibson and informed him that they didn't like his script.

- David Giler, Cinefantastique -- © 1992 Sheldon Teitlbaum

Gibson was asked to attend another lunch meeting which he was introduced to Alien 3's first director Renny Harlin. Giler suggested that Gibson take another shot at writing the screenplay but this time with Harlin, Gibson declined as he had been asked to adapt two of his stories as screenplays by another studio.

Gibson was Gone.

Renny Harlin

With Ridley Scott unavailable Hill, Giler and Fox now had the task to find a suitable replacement director. At that time, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master had hit the theatres, directed by none other than the Finish director Renny Harlin, which the studio was impressed with. Harlin was looking for his next project when Alien 3 cropped up, he agreed to do it which he was excited about and so was hired by Fox as Alien 3's official director. Harlin didn't want Alien 3 to feature the same premise of Guns and Flame throwers in the usual environments as seen in the two previous movies and wanted to add something of his own.

My take on Alien 3 was that I wanted to go to the planet where they come from. I said, We can have another movie where you have more machine guns and more flame-throwers and again the aliens are attacking a place. I want to go to the original planet and find out, What are they? Why did nature create these things? Are they really bad? Do we just view them as something bad because of the environment that we've experienced them in?

- Renny Harlin, IGN FilmForce © 2001 – Kenneth Plume

Another concept Harlin wanted to explore was having Alien set on Earth. His ad campaign poster had the tag line 'This time it's Earth'. Harlin even worked with Giger at some point designing concepts for Harlin's earth infestation idea. One idea Harlin had was having alien human hybrids, which were nicknamed 'b-mutes'. Fox didn't like any of these ideas and simply said no.

I said “aliens come to Earth”. I pitched this idea where we are in a Kansas cornfield, and you just see these things going through the cornfield and you just realise the aliens have come to Earth. I said “just show the poster to the audience – it’s the biggest movie ever”. And they were like, “nah we don’t think so, it should just be outer space”.

- Renny Harlin, Den of Geek © Luke Savage

The teaser trailer that lead people to believe that Alien 3 would take place on Earth.

Another concept pitched to Harlin featured a Prison ship. Again, Harlin was not impressed with this idea.

And they, for some reason, had this idea that they wanted it to take place on a big prison ship. And I didn’t get it. I said, “who cares about a prison ship?”. The whole basic idea of the Alien movies is that in the first one, it is a bunch of blue collar guys and women who could be truck drivers. It’s totally relatable. And in the second one, it’s a war movie, and it’s these soldiers with Ripley going to battle these aliens, and there’s this little girl who represents humanity there. So again, very relatable. But if you do Aliens in prison, it’s like “who cares about the prisoners, let them die”.

- Renny Harlin, Den of Geek © Luke Savage

After Gibson turned down the opportunity to rewrite his draft with the Finnish director, Harlin hired, with Hill and Giler's permission, Eric Red, who he had met at a film festival. With Red hired, the studio began pitching ideas at him. It was clear to Red, they had no idea just what it was they wanted exactly. Even though it was Harlin, who had hired him, Hill and Giler wanted Red to write a draft with their own treatment, as well as Gibson's draft, as a guideline. This was the first and last time Red would meet Hill and Giler.

Eric Red

The basic problem when I was involved, for five weeks, was they didn't know what they wanted. They went through a real waste of talent because of that...As for the producers [Hill and Giler], they simply weren't involved. I think it's the responsibility of the producer or creative entity to have a creative concept or to make sure it's moving forward efficiently. But these guys were aloof. I only met once with each of them

- Eric Red, Cinefantastique -- © 1992 Sheldon Teitlbaum

Red had his own ideas for Alien 3 and felt that the third film needed a new breed of Alien.

Taken from Wikipedia:

The next draft was done by Eric Red, writer of the cult horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark, and opened with a team of Special Forces marines boarding the Sulaco unarmed and finding that all the survivors of the LV-426 mission had fallen victim to the aliens. After Gibson turned down the opportunity to rewrite his draft with the Finnish director, Harlin hired, with Hill and Giler's permission, Eric Red, who he had met at a film festival. When Red was hired the studio began pitching ideas at him, it was clear to Red, they had no idea just what it was exactly they wanted. Even though it was Harlin, who had hired him Hill and Giler wanted him to write a draft with their own treatment and Gibson's draft as a guideline. This was the first and last time Red would meet Hill and Giler.The only reference to the first two films being a torn spacesuit nametag that is found bearing the name "Ripley".

The screenplay in a sense was even bolder than the Gibson script, in that it took place in an entire small-town USA city in a type of bio-dome in space. Red's screenplay resurrected the idea of aliens transforming humans into cocoons that was deleted from the original film. The screenplay's brash storyline culminates in an all out battle with the townsfolk facing hordes of Alien Warriors, yet it also contains an arguably higher level of horror than the previous films and screenplays. It is also the first screenplay in the Aliens genre to feature a genetically mixed Alien-Human creature in antibiosis (foreshadowing the "newborn" in Alien Resurrection).

The screenplay also re-uses the "alien virus" idea from Gibson's draft, which this time gives rise to Alien mosquitoes, cattle, dogs and chickens and has even gained the ability to infect matter and technology as well, resulting in the space station itself being transformed into a giant alien-like creature.

Here a scan of Eric Red's draft in pdf format: Download

Red Finished his draft and handed it in on February 7 1989. Hill, Giler and Fox read the script and instantly disliked it feeling it completely strayed from the original story. Harlin to was unimpressed with the scrpt. Red's draft was rejected, Once again Alien 3 had no script, no budget estimate and no start date. All this up to this point had taken over two years. After a year working on Alien 3 Renny Harlin lost interest in the project and with Eric Red's draft rejected, by Harlin also, wanted to be relieved of his contract. After his departure, Harlin was offered two other Fox productions.

I thought that would ruin my career just when I was about to get somewhere. The same day I quit Alien 3 and I thought that everybody would be really pissed off at me I was offered Ford Fairlane by Fox. I was so tired of the dark, dark creepy world of Aliens by that moment, that a rock & roll detective seemed heaven sent so I jumped right into that. While I was shooting that, Fox liked the dailies so much that they offered me Die Hard 2. I said, How can I do these movies back-to-back like that They said, We'll make it all happen. I ended up shooting them back-to-back, editing them simultaneously, and they actually came out one week apart.

David Twohy

With Red's disastrous script and Harlins departure, Hill and Giller decided to scrap the two part back-to-back sequel idea and reverted back to Gibsons first draft for a storyline basis. The main reason Fox rejected Red's draft because it excluded the Ripley character. The studio had begun to like the idea of the two-part sequel and wanted the Ripley character regardless. However, at that time it was still was unclear whether Sigourney Weaver wanted to do a third film. Sigourney, Hill and Giler were in a process of suing Fox for unpaid profits from Aliens. Harlin and Red gone, Hill and Giler were once again back to square one and turned back to Gibson's draft. This time they turned to David Twohy. Twohy was asked to write a draft based on Gibson's first script adding scope, dialogue changes and characterization. However, before this draft could be started further funding was needed. Hill, and Giler once more turned to Fox. In March of 1989 Fox agreed to shell out more money for the rewrite and writing began. David Twohy's first draft took over six months to complete maintaining most of Gibson's original material from the raid on the Sulaco, the development of the Alien as a weapon, the Alien infestation of Gateway station, with action scenes either tightened, shortened and generally tweaked. Some action scenes were written from scratch adding his own element to the script along with tightened dialogue, but, during near completion of this draft problems began to arise. The story's political allegory took a fatal blow with the collapse of the Communist Block and the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. This made the scripts cold war in space sci-fi movie an anachronism. David Twohy began to start over leaving out the Cold War/Political allegory and changing the setting to a penal colony.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Writer (and future director) David Twohy was next to work on the project. His version featured a prison planet, which was being used for illegal experiments on the aliens for a Biological Warfare division. The screenplay details how inmates on death row were mock executed in a gas chamber, while actually being kept alive and being used as bait in experiments with the Alien.

Examples included breach testing, where the Alien would be videotaped using scientific high speed cameras as it searched for - and found - the weakest part of a structure with a human bait inside, broke through and attacked the victim. This screenplay was also the first to propose a failed clones scenario, describing large jars of Alien test clones, some fused together as Siamese twins, possibly as a forerunner to the "clones of Ripley" scene in Alien Resurrection.

It was also the first script to feature a high number of different Alien types (Rogue Alien, Spike Alien, Alien chameleon, etc.), and was the first screenplay to flesh out the idea of the "newborn" (used later in Alien Resurrection), called the "newbreed" here.

Here a scan of David Twohy's draft in pdf format: Download

Giler liked the script, but it had one problem. It didn't include the Ripley character (even though Hill and Giler had her left out of Alien 3 only to be brought back for the fourth) which Joe Roth, who was president of Fox at that time, refused to make and rejected Twohy's draft regardless on how much he liked it himself.

This is a great script, but I won't make this film without Sigourney. She is the centerpiece of the series. She's really the only female warrior we have in our movie mythology. In successful sequels you have a fine line between old and new ingredients. But we feel it would be cataclysmic to proceed without her.

- Joe Roth, Cinescape © 1997 -- Douglas Perry

Once again, Twohy was asked to rewrite the draft for a third time with a little help from Sigourney Weaver herself adding some small plot and dialogue changes. Sigourney would only agree to make Alien 3 if the story was original, not dependent on Guns, like Cameron's Aliens, and that she approved of the director. As Twohy began work on the third draft, Hill and Giler set out to find a new director to replace Renny Harlin. While in New York, Walter Hill attended an art-house showing of a film called "The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey" which was directed by a New Zealand director. Vincent Ward.

Vincent Ward

From IMDB:

A young boy in 14th century Cumbria (north of England) keeps getting visions he cannot explain. His village has so far been spared from the black death, but the villagers fear its imminent arrival. With the boy as their guide, a group set out to dig a hole to the other side of the world, so as to fulfil the visions and save the village. At the 'other side' is 20th century New Zealand

Walter Hill was so blown away by the film that he called Joe Roth and told him who it was he wanted to direct Alien 3, Joe Roth agreed to contact Ward, who at the time was in London on a production called "Map of the Human Heart." Ward was surprised to receive a phone call from the President of Fox and was asked if he would take a took at David Twohy's work-in-progress script and some of the previous rejected drafts already written for the production. Ward hated all of them.

I hated them, I thought,'This is just more of the same.'

-Vincent Ward, Empire Magazine 1998

During a flight to Los Angeles Ward began to envision some medieval images which he had seen during the writing of his book Edge Of The Earth. One of the images had someone casting out the Devil through someone's mouth, with these images in mind by the time Ward reached Los Angeles, he already had the storyline for his vision of Alien 3.

During my flight While on a flight to Los Angeles Ward began to envision some medieval images which he had seen during the writing of his book Edge Of The Earth.  One of these images was someone casting out the Devil through someone's mouth, with these images in mind by the time Ward reached Los Angeles, he already had the storyline for his vision of Alien 3.[from London to Los Angeles] I had an idea that was totally different: Sigourney would land in a community of monks in outer space and not be accepted by them.

-Vincent Ward, Cinescape © 1997 -- Douglas Perry

Ward attended a meeting with Hill, Giler and Joe Roth and pitched his ideas for the story he had envisioned on the flight over. What they heard was something completely different and were astounded. Ward had given them a vision for Alien 3, which had been missing and lacking from the very beginning. They had found their director and was hired immediately.

It was a little far out, but that's what we wanted: to push this thing a little bit.

-David Giler, Empire Magazine 1998

Ward's pitch to Hill, Giler and Joe Roth:

"What if this Alien had been encountered somewhere in the distant past on Earth? People would have thought of it as some kind of devil. Then, what if you had like a sort of powerful sect on Earth (in the future of the Alien movies) who reject all technology beyond a certain date. So the ruling forces say to the sect, 'Okay, you wanna live this way? We have an old satellite - huge thing. We'll tow it into outer space and you can just live there on your own.' They just give them a place to live where they know inevitably they're gonna die.

"The sect agree, but they believe in having an environment that looks archaic. Within that environment - a huge, round satellite about a mile in diameter - you have maybe 16 floors, each one about 100 metres high. It's layered like an ant's nest, or bee's nest, and each layer has been largely clad with huge areas of sculpted wood. They can grow wheat there, and even have windmills and orchards. In a way it's like a monastery. The satellite [named 'Arceon'] has a range of technologies that allow it to survive in outer space: it has a means of dealing with gravity, and a means of dealing with air, and it has a low surface atmosphere. It looks like a meteorite on the outer surface."

John Fasano

After being hired Ward began to find someone to craft his story into a script. Ward originally wanted Blade Runner's David Webb Peoples and Robert Bolt, but was instead paired with John Fasano. John Fasano was hired mainly because of his fast writting and did what he was told. No one had told David Twohy about any of this and was still writing his third draft for Alien 3. It wasn't until an LA Time's reporter contacted Twohy and asked about the "competing drafts" for Alien 3 did Twohy find out about another writiereing brought on board. Twohy, at first, dismissed what he had heard and put it down to a rumor. Twohy eventually contacted Fox about what he had heard and was told: "You got it all wrong. [Ward is] not writing Alien III, he's writing Alien 4..." Not convinced, Twohy contacted the Brandywine production office which gave him the run around. It was then that Twohy learned that the idea of having both sequels filmed back-to-back was a smokescreen, and so he quickly finished his script and left.

At that point I just slapped my script together and went off to make my own film [Warlock], and that was the last i ever heard from them [Hill and Giler]. The old adage is true: Hollywood pays it's writers well but treats them like shit to make up for it.

We were supposedly writing Alien 4, but if ours came in first it would be Alien 3.

Taken from Wikipedia:

The story begins with a monk who sees a "star in the East” (Ripley's escape pod) and at first believes this to be a good sign. Upon arrival of Ripley, and with increasing suggestions of the Alien presence, the monk inhabitants believe it to be some sort of religious trial for their misdemeanors, punishable by the creature that haunts them. By having a woman in their monastery, they wonder if their trial is partially caused by sexual temptation, as Ripley is the only woman to be amongst an all male community in ten years. To avoid this and (hopefully) the much grimmer reality of what she has brought with her, the Monks of the "wooden satellite" lock Ripley into a dungeon-like sewer and ignore her advice on the true nature of the beast.The monks believe that the Alien is in fact the Devil.

Primarily though, this story was about Ripley's own soul searching complicated by the seeding of the Alien within her and further hampered her largely solo attempts to defeat it. The Alien Quadrilogy DVD set features scenes and illustrations that show this ‘Wooden Planet’.

Aspects of the monastery and monks of these drafts were later utilised in the final production of the film by having the male inmates participating in an apocalyptic religion that forbade sexual relations. Primarily it was the plot of Alien 3 that was borrowed from this story but little of this world remained in the film. Despite his credit, Ward noted that the things he liked best about the story and those that he believed would have made it work were not used. The screenplay featured scenes set in different locations on the one-mile (1.6 km) wide wooden planetoid, ranging from wheat fields, through a grisly but darkly comic scene in the monks’ communal toilets, to furnaces and a glass works (also used in the finished film).

Here a scan of John Fasano's draft in pdf format: Download

Tension grew between Ward and Fasano, so Fasano left the production. The next writer hired was Gregory pruss who re-wrote five arduous drafts of Fasano's script. Ward rejected each one as Pruss was writing drafts, which resembled and more in-tune to an 'Alien' film. Ward seemed more interested in his vision of the Monks and the world they lived in.

[Ward]...who was less interested in Ripley or the alien than in his monks. 'The movie's called ALIEN because it's about the alien. I couldn't get that across to Vincent.

-Greg Pruss, 1992

Sigourney Weaver also began to express her concerns about Ward.

Frankly, I think he never wanted to make an Alien picture in the first place, the elements were there but there was no story involving Ripley. He really did not know what to do with my character.

-Sigourney Weaver.

In retrospect it would have been smarter to outline more horror beats and Ripley-character beats straight up, even if it wasn't the best way to nail a realistic world for her to move through.

-Vincent Ward.

Pruss came up with the idea of killing off Ripley, which didn't go down well with the Producers. Pruss was let go and Hill and Giler then once again asked John Fasano to return and make another attempt at his original script.

To be continued...