Alien prequel to be directed by Ridley Scott

[Temujin]

IIRC, a Thing sequel has been in consideration for over a decade.

[Srelex]

I heard it's going to be a prequel, focusing on what happened to the Norweigans. Which may be well-made by itself, but we all know what's going to happen, and it does have a high chance of being the original rehashed. Oh well. We already sorta had a sequel with a videogame a few years back.

As for this...erm...I'm not sure what to feel. Perhaps if he's smart, Ridley will deepen the mystery...or perhaps not. I'll wait for the trailer before I start moaning or cheering.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Carpenter has been mulling it over for years (all the years that he's been shit, sadly), and there is technically a sequel in the guise of the PC game, though I wouldn't consider it canon as I prefer the ambiguous ending of the original. A prequel would be awkward with those Swedes ("They're Norwegian, Macready") frankly.

But yeah, whatever. Let's remove all mystery and make horror totally known. We're scared of known things, right?

[Sarevok]

I was hoping for a AvP game to movie adaptation. This is just meh. Introducing Predators in the Colonial marines setting would been wicked.

[LopEaredGaloot]

The biggest problem with this is the Xenomorphs which are outrageously dumb looking.

I mean the mini-me second set of jaws for skull drilling? No. That should be what the pointy tail is for if you want to do the zombie-more-brains fantasy.

The elephantism skull effect of the Xeno's own elongated noggin? No. If there is that much brain matter involved it's not gonna be stupid. If it has to feed that big a brain, it's never gonna stop being hungry. If it's gotta pump blood to that brain, it's gonna forever be running around oxygen deprived (whatever they breath) and out of balance.

And how about that superheavy, almost shell like accreted chitin? How can the beasts not only run like a grey hound but /swim/ with all that crap? Isn't that why we don't have like giant ants or whatever those 1950s radiation horror films were about?

And what about that ossification process hmmm? How does that work in terms of 'shedding skins'? Humans have cracks in their bones which fill in as we grow. That's not gonna be possible if the shell here is hard to begin with. And have you seen any petrified trees cut loose and kill a guy lately?

If you have only trace residue (like a mummified corpse) of visible muscles and you're carrying half a ton of armored exo skeleton, how do you justify being so nimble as to tuck into tiny little corners?

Just watch the scene in 'Aliens' where the critters move through the drop ceiling (in a sealed habitat...) and Hicks lifts up the grid with the flashlight to see how stupid they look in small spaces.

Then there's the growth cycle itself. Originally they were supposed to have only a 24hr lifespan (or maybe it was 36, I forget but it's _short_) yet how do they get so big without any noteable change in mass?

If they come out that small, they aren't like a leopard, feeding on a tree-stored corpse big enough (man sized) to serve as the vector for the metamorphosis.

So...'a wizard did it'.

And we're not even gonna get into how selective the creature is, it takes on TWO people WITH a flame thrower. But lets the main character 'walk right on buy' without so much as giving chase. Why? Oh, that's right, so it can follow her onto the ship and get away where it will do a slooooow-motion kill that gives her plenty of time to suit up, grab a dart gun, drain away the air and then blast it out the hatch.

Ridley Scott talks about 'realism' but he fails to take into account his own film's absurd forcing conditions.

Predators are dumb because they never fail to lose. Serpents are dumb because they are biologically impossible and so never fail to win.

How about you get a xeno biologist that can design a monster that is balanced and logical in design tradeoffs of vulnerability and capability. And not completely super human whenever an IITSian moment requires it.

Speaking of which, I'm tired of seeing 'female action heroes' pretend they are all that simply to have the script give them kudos too. Let them guess wrong. Let their little ego trip get the crew to abandon their sorry asses when they get uppity. Then let them get eaten for being snide-stupid-weak like an 'equal' on film.

So that, you know, the poor dumb male with the muscles and testosterone and 25% bigger heart/lung complex and the cold logic and the hunter's killer instinct can slay the beast the old fashioned way, have his primal moment and, you know, make a change from the plot standard of all estrogen, all the time.

Just some thoughts...

[Anguirus]

Speaking of which, I'm tired of seeing 'female action heroes' pretend they are all that simply to have the script give them kudos too. Let them guess wrong. Let their little ego trip get the crew to abandon their sorry asses when they get uppity. Then let them get eaten for being snide-stupid-weak like an 'equal' on film.

So that, you know, the poor dumb male with the muscles and testosterone and 25% bigger heart/lung complex and the cold logic and the hunter's killer instinct can slay the beast the old fashioned way, have his primal moment and, you know, make a change from the plot standard of all estrogen, all the time.

You are engaging in pointless necromancy, you are objectively wrong (the number of female action stars is still relatively tiny compared to men), and you sound insanely sexist. Way to go, dude.

[Sarevok]

He is right about female action heroes. How many female action heroes DO NOT act like big, buff guys despite being less than half the size ? Its SoD breaking to see petite women kicking around enemies like as they were Van Damme or Stallone. They should be using ranged weapons and firepower instead of going berserker on anyone.

[Anguirus]

^ Ranged weapons and firepower? Sounds like every female action hero I can think of off the top of my head who doesn't explicitly have superpowers.

[Srelex]

Ironically, as far as I remember it's Ripley who was always using weapons or cunning as opposed to going all kung fu. Nor was she an arrogant bitch, as this guy seems to be making out.

[Stofsk]

Ironically, as far as I remember it's Ripley who was always using weapons or cunning as opposed to going all kung fu. Nor was she an arrogant bitch, as this guy seems to be making out.

Ripley is an amazing female character. Even before she picked up a rifle, she was second officer onboard a commercial freighter, so she wasn't doing too bad for herself, plus she was a qualified pilot. She was put in an unbelievably horrible situation and she was terrified, as any sane person would be. She doesn't win because she was tough or whatever, but because she was clever.

[Temujin]

I have to agree. While I hate the whole "Warrior Princess" meme that has infected Hollywood, Aliens predated it and Ripley was certainly a lot more and a lot different then the one dimensional character that meme usually portrays.

[NecronLord]

I closed a report on necromancy for this. It's not been a month, it's not necromancy.

The biggest problem with this is the Xenomorphs which are outrageously dumb looking.

There is no disputing taste. Lots of people thought they were horrible and threatening, partly because their design evokes sexual themes. More on that later.

I mean the mini-me second set of jaws for skull drilling? No. That should be what the pointy tail is for if you want to do the zombie-more-brains fantasy.

Most chewing insects have secondary and primary jaws or rather, mandibles and maxillae. The outer mouth on the alien presumably is a sort of mandible, to chomp and cut up the food, while the inner mouth swallows the pulverised result. The use of the inner mouth as a weapon is strange but not at all inconceivable compared to much of the bizzare stuff in nature in reality. To paraphrase Shakespere, There are far freakier things in nature than in your fiction, Horatio.

The elephantism skull effect of the Xeno's own elongated noggin? No. If there is that much brain matter involved it's not gonna be stupid.

You are aware that the alien's head is shaped that way out-of-universe to evoke the shape of a phallus, right? a previous Geiger drawing that inspired the alien, even more sexual [NSFW, Image Not Suitable for Minors]

If it has to feed that big a brain, it's never gonna stop being hungry. If it's gotta pump blood to that brain, it's gonna forever be running around oxygen deprived (whatever they breath) and out of balance.

Please prove this. I would like detailed breakdown of the oxygenation capacity of its acid blood, and the metabolic rate of the alien brain.

And how about that superheavy, almost shell like accreted chitin? How can the beasts not only run like a grey hound but /swim/ with all that crap? Isn't that why we don't have like giant ants or whatever those 1950s radiation horror films were about?

Simply, no. That's a function of the organ and mechanical efficiency of the beast inside. The density of the exoskeleton has nothing to do with it. If you're taking "Alien vs Predator" as an argument, the aliens have an endoskeleton as well as their exoskeleton. That is how they would be able to move. Their ability to swim is quite normal; assuming they're not ultra-dense.

And what about that ossification process hmmm? How does that work in terms of 'shedding skins'? Humans have cracks in their bones which fill in as we grow. That's not gonna be possible if the shell here is hard to begin with. And have you seen any petrified trees cut loose and kill a guy lately?

You are now applying the principles of terran invertebrates to an alien being with tedious lierality. How exactly do we know it can't grow its exoskeleton. Or that it is indeed a skeleton and not some kind of hide that is made of living matter? Because it's glossy and black?

If you have only trace residue (like a mummified corpse) of visible muscles and you're carrying half a ton of armored exo skeleton, how do you justify being so nimble as to tuck into tiny little corners?

Please provide data on the strength of the muscles of an alien with acid blood using example data gathered from similar life forms.

Just watch the scene in 'Aliens' where the critters move through the drop ceiling (in a sealed habitat...) and Hicks lifts up the grid with the flashlight to see how stupid they look in small spaces.

I thought they looked pretty awesome. If you think they look lame, that's fine. There's no disputing taste. But try not to present your opinion on a subjective topic as fact.

Then there's the growth cycle itself. Originally they were supposed to have only a 24hr lifespan (or maybe it was 36, I forget but it's _short_) yet how do they get so big without any noteable change in mass?

They do? Alan Dean Foster included a scene of the baby alien gorging on the Nostromo's food stores in his novellisation in order to explain its increased mass. It's still incredibly quick, of course. But it doesn't get its increased mass from nowhere.

If they come out that small, they aren't like a leopard, feeding on a tree-stored corpse big enough (man sized) to serve as the vector for the metamorphosis.

So...'a wizard did it'.

And we're not even gonna get into how selective the creature is, it takes on TWO people WITH a flame thrower. But lets the main character 'walk right on buy' without so much as giving chase. Why? Oh, that's right, so it can follow her onto the ship and get away where it will do a slooooow-motion kill that gives her plenty of time to suit up, grab a dart gun, drain away the air and then blast it out the hatch.

It's blindingly obvious that the alien understood the nature of the alarm warnings on the Nostromo. It abandons its nest and hides in the only escape location. The intent of the authors is that the aliens are supposed to be somewhat intelligent, albeit without a technological culture.

Ridley Scott talks about 'realism' but he fails to take into account his own film's absurd forcing conditions.

Predators are dumb because they never fail to lose. Serpents are dumb because they are biologically impossible and so never fail to win.

How about you get a xeno biologist that can design a monster that is balanced and logical in design tradeoffs of vulnerability and capability. And not completely super human whenever an IITSian moment requires it.

Speaking of which, I'm tired of seeing 'female action heroes' pretend they are all that simply to have the script give them kudos too. Let them guess wrong. Let their little ego trip get the crew to abandon their sorry asses when they get uppity. Then let them get eaten for being snide-stupid-weak like an 'equal' on film.

I don't even understand what it is you're saying. Are you saying that the aliens films are bad because they have a female protagonist? That women are inferior to men?

You seem to be suggesting that ripley thinks she's 'all that' aside from the clone in Alien Ressurection, who actually has some sort of superpowers, she never does that. She only goes back in Aliens because she wants to watch the marines wipe the things out.

So that, you know, the poor dumb male with the muscles and testosterone and 25% bigger heart/lung complex and the cold logic and the hunter's killer instinct can slay the beast the old fashioned way, have his primal moment and, you know, make a change from the plot standard of all estrogen, all the time.

I'm not sure which alien film made males out to be in any way dumber than females. Your idea that females can't have cold logic or 'hunter killer's' instinct is bizzare. I suggest you meet more women, because I've known plenty with every bit the killer instinct of men.

Also, slaying the beast the old fashioned way is stupid. I'd rather put my faith in a woman with a gun than a muscle man who's going to kill the beast with a sword.

Just some thoughts...

You seem to be missing the point of the alien's design is so I'm going to show you a little movie. This comes from the Alien DVD.

Alien design there's another part on there too.

The creature's point is to represent sexual predation. Its first stage in the life cycle grabs you, lines up its vaguely vaginal slit (this was originally much more so) and shoves something solid down your neck to impregnate you. When you give birth to it it looks like a stubby, toothed penis. The alien creature itself has a head shaped deliberately like a phallus to reinforce that. The scene where it slides its tail up between Lambert's legs and impales her with the spike is reminiscient of a rape. That is why it is shaped like it is; to be fundamentally un-sexy but also to be immensely sexual, rape personified as a lethal alien life form.

The Alien Queen, conversely, is the dramatic counterpoint to Ripley's maternal 'killer instinct' in Aliens, she represents different things, and ones that make her almost admirable. I always feel for her slightly when Ripley burns those eggs.

[Night_stalker]

I'll wait for the trailer before I start moaning or cheering.

Yeah, same here. I'll wait for a trailer to come out before I start bitching and moaning about how it's automatically going to suck. The premise though, does sound stupid. We don't care about the Space Jockey's origins, hell one of the Alien novels (yeah, I know their canon status is debatable, but it's the only really good reason that can be thought of and FYI the book is Steel Egg by John Shirley) stated that some other race used them as bioweapons, smuggling the eggs onboard Space Jockey ships, and leaving them there to hatch. That example is probably BS, but still it's better than nothing.

[andrewgpaul]

I don't even understand what it is you're saying. Are you saying that the aliens films are bad because they have a female protagonist? That women are inferior to men?

I think his point is that female action heroes are perfect. They don't fuck up halfway through the movie, they don't piss off the other characters and they can kick the ass of a man twice their weight.

I can see why it might be annoying. Compare Angelina Jolie's character in Mr & Mrs Smith to Brad Pitt's; she's got a better office, is a better shot, doesn't get accidentally beaten up an seems to be all-round better.

Of course, none of that really applies to the Alien films. In Alien, her sticking to the quarantine protocols is portrayed at first as contributing to Kane's predicament, and quite a few of the crew think she's a bitch. For the first half of Aiens, she's an outsider and everyone else thinks she's a loon.

[Swindle1984]

I think it's pretty obvious; the characters will find the aliens, die, and in the closing seconds send a message to the company about the location and value of the find, so that they can place Ash on the Nostromo and re-route it.

Yup. But he said it focuses on the Space Jockey; wouldn't it be more interesting to instead have events that were thousands or even millions of years in the past (hence the fossilization of the Space Jockey) than just "some guys find the aliens and set up the next movie before dying horribly"?

Especially if, somehow, they still manage to retain a lot of the mystery.

[Skylon]

I think his point is that female action heroes are perfect. They don't fuck up halfway through the movie, they don't piss off the other characters and they can kick the ass of a man twice their weight.

I can see why it might be annoying. Compare Angelina Jolie's character in Mr & Mrs Smith to Brad Pitt's; she's got a better office, is a better shot, doesn't get accidentally beaten up an seems to be all-round better.

Of course, none of that really applies to the Alien films. In Alien, her sticking to the quarantine protocols is portrayed at first as contributing to Kane's predicament, and quite a few of the crew think she's a bitch. For the first half of Aiens, she's an outsider and everyone else thinks she's a loon.

Sarah Connor also is a far more nuanced take on the female action hero, than most. She spends a good deal of the first Teminator scared shitless, and there isn't a hint of the Sarah from Terminator 2 until she has to coax a wounded Reece to keep moving by shouting "on your feet soldier!", and that's in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Even in Terminator 2 she at points seems outright nuts, complete with trying to murder a dude for something he hasn't done yet, at his home, with his family there.

Starbuck on BSG had the problem you describe initially. I utterly loathed the character in the mini-series, and early season 1, as she seemed to be "RAR! Badass, best shot, pilot and strategist!". However, by the end of season 1 and into season 2 she became more nuanced when it was shown she was deeply shaken by having to leave Sam Anders behind on Caprica, and not to mention having her totally fuck-up by shooting Lee.

[andrewgpaul]

I think it's pretty obvious; the characters will find the aliens, die, and in the closing seconds send a message to the company about the location and value of the find, so that they can place Ash on the Nostromo and re-route it.

Yup. But he said it focuses on the Space Jockey; wouldn't it be more interesting to instead have events that were thousands or even millions of years in the past (hence the fossilization of the Space Jockey) than just "some guys find the aliens and set up the next movie before dying horribly"?

Especially if, somehow, they still manage to retain a lot of the mystery.

Yeah, but who gives a shit about the Space Jockey? It's not even important; it's just a means to impress the audience with some wierd shit and introduce the eggs.

Sarah Connor also is a far more nuanced take on the female action hero, than most. She spends a good deal of the first Teminator scared shitless, and there isn't a hint of the Sarah from Terminator 2 until she has to coax a wounded Reece to keep moving by shouting "on your feet soldier!", and that's in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Even in Terminator 2 she at points seems outright nuts, complete with trying to murder a dude for something he hasn't done yet, at his home, with his family there.

Starbuck on BSG had the problem you describe initially. I utterly loathed the character in the mini-series, and early season 1, as she seemed to be "RAR! Badass, best shot, pilot and strategist!". However, by the end of season 1 and into season 2 she became more nuanced when it was shown she was deeply shaken by having to leave Sam Anders behind on Caprica, and not to mention having her totally fuck-up by shooting Lee.

Oh, I agree; I never said his was a good point.

[Shroom Man 777]

We don't need any shit about the Space Jockey or the Gigerian horrorstrosities and shit about their culture or some shit. A shitty space horror story plus a convoluted info-dump whatever? Meh.

If Ridley Scott makes this a sci-fi epic, sure, fine, whatever, cool. He's good, yeah. But it's not necessarily necessary or wanted or important at all.

He should go tread new ground. Bah.

[Elfdart]

I think it's pretty obvious; the characters will find the aliens, die, and in the closing seconds send a message to the company about the location and value of the find, so that they can place Ash on the Nostromo and re-route it.

Oh shit, so prior to the Nostromo, there was ALREADY another company ship that went over to LV-whatever, had its crewmember facehuggered and chestburstered, and had everyone else killed by the alienoids and shit, but not before sending a message so the Nostromo would go there, get a crewmember facehuggered and chestburstered, and had almost everyone else killed by the alienoids except Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo? Awesome!

That's what I was thinking.

I don't understand the fanboy obsession with wanting to uncover every single mystery in a background. Isn't it so much creepier to not know what the hell the space jockey is? It adds so much to the atmopshere of that movie. Invariably you will be disappointed when the mystery is revealed. X-Men Origins anyone?

Only two men should be involved in any Alien movie (whether it be a prequel, sequel, or whatever): Ridley Scott, and James Cameron. Everyone else has fucked it up. Personally I have confidence that Scott can do something interesting.

I'd rather watch one of Ridley Scott's "failures" than most other filmmakers' "successes". I like the way he's willing to chuck a script during production, like John Ford used to do.

What I think would make for a more interesting story would be a conflict between different powers on Earth trying to get their hands on alien species and their technology (if any). Finding the Spacejockey's ship would be one part of this larger struggle.