Neill Blomkamp’s Alien sequel

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Since I couldn't find the movie thread for some reason and we don't have a dedicated Alien thread other than Prometheus I just start one instead.

https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/03/michael-biehn-confirms-that-hes-returning-as-hicks-in-neill-blomkamps-alien-sequel.html

Corporal Dwayne Hicks is back!

[Zydar]

The reason you couldn't find it is because we have a subforum for it now.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?board=46.0

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Oh! Missed that. Mods would you be so kind? 

Thx mods I owe you one or two....

[Nekov]

I'm not into Hollywood trying to make money on movies that were successful because they can't come up with any good ideas anymore but I like Neil Blomkamp so this Alien movie might be worth it.

[Kotowboy]

I like the fact that it's an Aliens sequel not an Alien Resurrection sequel.

If Blomkamp is an alien fan - he'll no doubt know what to avoid with all the criticism Alien³, Alien Resurrection and Prometheus got.

We could finally have the third great Alien film.

[Chino]

I have only seen AVP and Prometheus (in that order). If I wanted to get into the franchise, how should I go about watching the movies? Is it like Star Wars in the sense that some people say you should start with the originals and others say you should start with 4,5, and 6?

[Zantera]

I'd say just watch them in order. Alien and then Aliens. If you really want to, you could watch Alien 3 after that. I like Alien 3 myself, but considering the fact that the fanbase is very split on the movie, and that Alien 5 seems to disregard both Alien 3 and Resurrection completely, I think watching the first two would be enough.

[Kotowboy]

I'd say just watch them in order. Alien and then Aliens. If you really want to, you could watch Alien 3 after that. I like Alien 3 myself, but considering the fact that the fanbase is very split on the movie, and that Alien 5 seems to disregard both Alien 3 and Resurrection completely, I think watching the first two would be enough.

Yeah Just the first 3 really. Alien Resurrection isn't even Ripley. And it has Wynona Ryder as a tough talking foul mouthed robot.

Avoid.

[Mister Gold]

I have only seen AVP and Prometheus (in that order). If I wanted to get into the franchise, how should I go about watching the movies? Is it like Star Wars in the sense that some people say you should start with the originals and others say you should start with 4,5, and 6?

Watch the first two at least. If you especially like Aliens, I'd suggest waiting on checking out Alien 3, or at least try to associate A3 more with the first film than as a continuation from Aliens.

Also, avoid Alien: Resurrection like the plague.

[Kotowboy]

Also, avoid Alien: Resurrection like the plague.

This cannot be overstated.  Even Alien Vs Predator is better.


I've never seen Alien Vs. Predator : Requiem and i've no intention of seeing it either.

[Orbert]

The reason you couldn't find it is because we have a subforum for it now.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?board=46.0

Whoa!  When did that happen?

[BlackInk]

I don't think Alien: Resurrection should be avoided. It's a really bad movie, but still part of the Alien saga, and should be seen by someone wanting to see the 'complete story', whether or not the new movie ignores it.

[Nekov]

I'm gonna jump in the bandwagon and say that you should watch the first 3 in order and totally avoid the 4th one cause it's a really bad movie

[Orbert]

I don't think Alien: Resurrection is that bad.  Yeah, it's bad, but it's not that bad.

[Zook]

Alien 3 isn't that bad. I don't think they needed to kill off Hicks though. He and Ripley could have made an awesome team against both the prisoners and the Xenomorph.

[gmillerdrake]

I have only seen AVP and Prometheus (in that order). If I wanted to get into the franchise, how should I go about watching the movies? Is it like Star Wars in the sense that some people say you should start with the originals and others say you should start with 4,5, and 6?

Watch the first two at least. If you especially like Aliens, I'd suggest waiting on checking out Alien 3, or at least try to associate A3 more with the first film than as a continuation from Aliens.

Also, avoid Alien: Resurrection like the plague.

Definately the first two....Such great movies.

[ariich]

I thought Alien: Resurrection was fine. Not amazing, but decent enough.

Blomkamp has said that his film won't be ignoring 3 or A:R or over-writing them, more that it's following more directly on from Aliens and sort of by-passing them.

[Orbert]

Yeah, we're kinda getting mixed signals on that, but I think he's deliberately trying not to give too much away right now.  I mean, if Hicks is in it, how can it not ignore the events of 3 and A:R?  And "sort of by-passing" them pretty much means ignoring them, right?

[Zook]

I wonder how they're going to address their age difference. You think they're gonna CG them up? They don't look too bad for their age, but it is very noticeable. I'm sure Steven Spielberg would say they look the same though.

[Kotowboy]

^ Ignore Alien3 & Res and set it 30 years later.

[Zook]

Yeah obviously, but if he's not going to ignore Alien 3?

[Kotowboy]

Not sure how that would work. Alternate timeline ?

[Zantera]

"It was all a dream" 

If I had to guess, I'd say <insert plotdevice> that the Ripley of Alien 3 was actually a clone, and that the real emergency pod is still out there somewhere.

[Zook]

I love time travel, but would it be too silly for a true sequel to Aliens?

[BlackInk]

And after the new Star Trek movies and the new Terminator movie, using time travel to 'undo' previous movies seems a bit used already.

[gmillerdrake]

Please......NO time travel. It's such a lazy concept.

I think he could mask the aging with some sleep chamber malfunction or just don't hide it and it's set 30 years later?

If I had to guess, I'd say <insert plotdevice> that the Ripley of Alien 3 was actually a clone, and that the real emergency pod is still out there somewhere.

Could be a viable avenue.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

So there's an Alien TV show in the works by Noah Hawley (Fargo and Legion).

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/10/22168623/alien-tv-show-noah-hawley-legion-fargo-fx-disney

Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley is stepping into the world of Alien with a new show at FX.

This marks the first TV series based on the popular movie franchise, according to FX chairman John Landgraf, who announced the show at Disney’s investor event today. Disney acquired the rights to the franchise when it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. Not much is known about the show, except for a brief description that referred to it as a “scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth.” Hawley spoke briefly about it in an interview with Deadline at the end of Fargo’s fourth season this year.

“I know that there’s an effort to reshuffle a lot of things post-Disney takeover and it was a conversation that I had a couple years back,” he said to Deadline. “But I know that like any studio that there’s a great desire to make the most of one’s library so I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like that.”

I'm all for some new Alien content but not much to go on at this point so we'll see.

[Kotowboy]

I wanted the sequel to Covenant - just to finish that story. The films weren't the BEST - but they were enjoyable and Fassbender was awesome.

And they LOOKED great. Ridley Scott is only as good as his scripts ( see the Martian ) - but his films always look fantastic.

I went to see Prometheus in 3D IMAX and it was *amazing*. Such a visual spectacle.

[gmillerdrake]

If you guys have not seen or heard of this, AMAZON has Neill Bomkamp's 'OATS STUDIO' short stories and it's pretty awesome. There are a host of short stories....sci fi style, that are really neat.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K0RogrIXno

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

So we're getting a tv-show and now also a movie apperently called Alien: Romulus that's in the works and is being directed by Fede Álvarez.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

https://m.imdb.com/news/ni64421091/?ref_=tt_nwr_2

Alien: Romulus will be set on a distant planet, avoiding the mistake of bringing the Xenomorph to Earth like in previous unsuccessful films. Both Alien vs. Predator movies showed that an Earth setting did not work well for the franchise, resulting in critically abhorred movies. Alien: Romulus's setting will bring the franchise back to its roots by focusing on claustrophobic and unfamiliar locations, where the Xenomorph can thrive against unprepared heroes.

The tagline from imdb: "Young people from a distant world must face the most terrifying life form in the universe."

Just feels like a teen drama but hopefully it's more than that.

[hefdaddy42]

https://m.imdb.com/news/ni64421091/?ref_=tt_nwr_2

Alien: Romulus will be set on a distant planet, avoiding the mistake of bringing the Xenomorph to Earth like in previous unsuccessful films. Both Alien vs. Predator movies showed that an Earth setting did not work well for the franchise, resulting in critically abhorred movies. Alien: Romulus's setting will bring the franchise back to its roots by focusing on claustrophobic and unfamiliar locations, where the Xenomorph can thrive against unprepared heroes.

The tagline from imdb: "Young people from a distant world must face the most terrifying life form in the universe."

Just feels like a teen drama but hopefully it's more than that.

I will just say that the main problems for the AVP films were not that the Xenomorphs were brought to earth.

[Orbert]

It was not the main problem, possibly not in the top three, but the basic idea that humans "must" be in the film was definitely a factor.  The studio felt that audiences needed humans to connect to the film on a personal level, or some shit.

I would have loved a flick with the Xenomorphs (Aliens) and the Predators running into each other on some far-off planet somewhere, no humans in sight.  A well-written screenplay would've given us ways to identify the various players and get to know them as individuals, and it should not be hard to come up with a plausible reason for both species to be there, and a resulting conflict.  Aliens vs Predators, just like it says.  But it would have been without any dialogue, or at least nothing we would recognize.  I think observing and learning how they communicate within their own species would have been cool.  No need for subtitles.  But I can understand studio suits being scared to effin death by something like that.  Way too cerebral, way too "hard sci-fi".


To your point, though, I'm guessing you're thinking that the weak scripts, weak acting, and overall poor writing is was torpedoed the AvP movies.  The second one was a bit better, but it had a pretty low bar to clear.  I like that they tried, and there might have been one or two interesting ideas there, but both movies were pretty disappointing.

[hefdaddy42]

To your point, though, I'm guessing you're thinking that the weak scripts, weak acting, and overall poor writing is was torpedoed the AvP movies. 

Well, yes, that's what I was thinking.

I would have liked a movie like you describe as well, but I'm not sure it would have been any more financially successful than the dreck that we got.  Of course, I would like a King Kong vs. Godzilla film that was just King Kong and Godzilla, but I won't get that either lol

Another thing is that there were WAY too many human people in virtually every one of the Transformers movies.  I wanted to see giant Autobots vs. giant Decepticons.  Not what I got.

[The Letter M]

To your point, though, I'm guessing you're thinking that the weak scripts, weak acting, and overall poor writing is was torpedoed the AvP movies. 

Well, yes, that's what I was thinking.

I would have liked a movie like you describe as well, but I'm not sure it would have been any more financially successful than the dreck that we got.  Of course, I would like a King Kong vs. Godzilla film that was just King Kong and Godzilla, but I won't get that either lol

Another thing is that there were WAY too many human people in virtually every one of the Transformers movies.  I wanted to see giant Autobots vs. giant Decepticons.  Not what I got.

Resident life-long Transformers fan here - I totally agree. It was fine at the start in TF07 but it just got worse and worse. The Bumblebee movie found a great balance, IMO, but was a different kind of film. Rise Of The Beasts gave us more bot-on-bot action, but it still felt not-quite-there. This year's animated film Transformers One seems to be set entirely on Cybertron, so we won't be seeing any humans in that.

Sadly, these kinds of big blockbuster battle-action films will always need the human element to "sell it" to the general audience, and to have someone provide exposition and the layman POV. The big studios don't think they can't sell films that only appeal to certain parts of a fandom.

-Marc.