I’ve yet to sign up for “Disney+,” so I’ve been avoiding discussions of The Mandalorian and the like, but reading about a series based on Alien that is produced by Ridley Scott, a creative genius I’m acquainted with, has me excited. I think this really good back and forth is the tipping point. I’ve put it off (we have a huge amount of stuff coming in from Google Fiber, but far from everything - we also stream Netflix and Amazon Prime), as my significant other, bless her, has the audacity to claim “we have enough already!” About this series and Ridley’s involvement? The great contrast between Alien and Aliens has always bugged me, but I’ve never sat down and really thought about it. So here goes. Ridley Scott makes all the difference, at least to me. The first film, Alien, was superb. I think we would all agree about that. But the second? Highly entertaining and an edge of your seat thriller of science fiction. Extremely well done. Great acting by Sigourney Weaver and some of the best work by Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen. However, Aliens is also not as creative, and more than a bit “over the top,” in my opinion. The milieu certainly that of Alien, but sadly littered with tropes we’ve seen in dozens of films by directors far from being as talented as James Cameron. I’ll give an example that I hope illustrates what I mean. Imagine a sequel to Shane with Alan Ladd as the lead, but produced and directed by Anthony Mann. A terrific director of westerns in the 1950’s, to be sure, but he would have created a sequel to Shane vastly different from the original, which was produced and directed by the equally terrific, if not more so, George Stevens, who spent months meticulously creating Shane. Two outstanding directors, one who gave us a western classic, the other who would have delivered a highly entertaining and, very likely, excellent western immediately recognizable as the work of Mann and, more to the point, a much different film. I’ll add that the way Shane ended could have set up a sequel beautifully. Films of science fiction often seem to draw comparisons to westerns, so I hope I’m not seen as wildly off base with my take. One more thing I want to mention, something I like about James Cameron. He has actors he particularly likes and they tend to turn up in his films. John Ford and Hitchcock were the same way, as are the Coen brothers. Just something I enjoy.
This is crazy talk. I mean, you used "milieu" and "tropes" in the same sentence, you should have at least tried to shoehorn in a "zeitgeist" Alien is, right there with The Thing, the best sci-fi-thriller-horror movie ever. Aliens is the hands-down best sci-fi-action movie ever. These opinions are not debatable.
“Right there with The Thing?” You undercut your argument! I enjoyed The Thing, but it doesn’t begin to approach the greatness that is Alien. I didn’t have room for zeitgeist.
Not the tremendous original, with became a cult classic and has been enormously influential, and not only in the SF genre, but I really liked it. However, the film was "left hanging" at the end. The intent was to make a sequel, at least one. If that hadn't been the plan, I think it would have ended a bit differently. While "2049" wasn't a hit financially, the critics loved it and it has around 88% with Rotten Tomatoes. It was considered a flop in the States, pulling in only $92 million, but garnered $168.4 million internationally, meaning it did slightly better than breaking even. I've read that it needed as much as $400 million to break even, so I could be wrong about that. Promotion costs can be enormous, evidently. Not what you want if you hope to make a sequel and the budget was between $150-185 million. Ridley Scott, who didn't direct it, said he would have cut half an hour from it's 2:44 minute running time. My impression is that he liked what Denis Villeneuve did with it, however.
Not sure how I missed that this was happening. As much as I appreciate Ridleys contribution to film history, I’m glad to see he’s allowing other filmmakers in their prime to helm it. But I don’t really know how Alien exists in a tv series over 8 hours. The entire reason Alien and Aliens works so well is the stress that is induced with the rush to get our protagonists to safety. James Cameron literally made us go through every second of those 12 minutes Ripley had to get Newt out of there and that experience is what makes Aliens Aliens. Not the Xenomorphs backstory or the characters family life. There’s a reason why Cameron cut out the scene where Ripley finds out about her daughter. It’s a very in the moment type of film and franchise. So not sure how they’ll write this out and make it work but I am happy to see the guy that makes Fargo at the helm. The guy obviously cares about the legacy films and has some talent.
Read some of the longer Alien comic runs from Dark Horse comics. They’re true to the source material while adding to the mythos and you can see them being series.
https://sffgazette.com/sci-fi/telev...from-movies-as-much-as-aliens-a1922#gs.7rwp67 No mention of Ridley Scott, but here’s some news: ALIEN: FX Boss Says TV Show Differs From Movies As Much As ALIENS To ALIEN; Reveals Key New Story Details FX Chairman John Landgraf has revealed some intriguing new details about Noah Hawley's upcoming AlienTV series, confirming that it will move on from familiar characters and corporations. Check it out... JoshWilding | 8/4/2022 Filed Under: "Television"Source: The Hollywood Reporter Disney is now in charge of the Alien franchise, and after successfully rebooting the Predator in Prey, there's a lot of excitement to see what the studio has in store for the equally iconic Xenomorphs. We know a TV series is in the works from Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley, of course, and FX Chairman John Landgraf has now shared some exciting new details. Confirming that all scripts have been turned in before shooting begins next year, the executive revealed that the show will move away from familiar settings...and corporations. Asked if the Weylan-Yutani corporation is a big part of the show, Landgraf said, "The Alien cinematic universe is that it’s a world where that’s sort of dominated by large corporate entities, and Weylan-Yutani has been in an important component of the movies." RELATED: ALIEN FX Series Scripts Are Complete, But Filming Won't Begin Until Next Year "There are references to that corporation in this show. But it actually takes place in the territory of a different corporation that Noah invented." It sounds like we're getting a completely fresh start, and the FX boss would go on to say the network's approach to this Alien TV series compared to the previous movies is as different as James Cameron's Aliens was to Sir Ridley Scott's Alien. "I’m a big fan of Alien and Aliens and I remember watching both of them in the theater and how how shockingly original and surprising each of them was in its own way," Landgraf explained. "And so, similar to his approach to Fargo, Noah decided to not to take Ripley or any character from Alien – except perhaps the xenomorph itself – but go back and figure out what made the franchise so great and so durable in the first place and see if he could find an experience that felt like walking into a theater and seeing one of those first two movies, where you get caught off guard." We're excited to see what direction the show heads in, and while some fans might be disappointed that we won't focus on familiar locations and characters, an argument could be made that it's about time to move on (that was evident from what we saw in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant
I love Aliens, but would be happy if they veered towards Alien as well. Just stay away from Alien 3's trash please.
The whole show should be done strictly from the aliens' perspective. All their talking to each other will have subtitles. And, we'll get to know each one quite well and they will have their own unique personalities. The human side has been done ad nauseum and is boring! Aliens are smart creatures. They have lives. Aliens' lives matter!
Man I held off watching S2 Raised by Wolves because I had a hunch there'd be brain melting cliffhangers and now I see it's canceled. I'm betting there'll be Promoetheus vibes where all these shitbird JJ Abrams "teaser mysteries" will be sprinked around without reason/rhyme and no push/desire to solve them until a lame lobotomized S4. Hopefully this show won't have the "made for streaming" format where a 3 hour treatment is stretched into 6-8 episodes and lame time wasting dead ends are features not bugs.
