It all started on July 18, 1986, when "Alien 2" was released in North America. This sequel swept the country, with a $10 million premiere weekend revenue and wide-ranging reviews that blew the box office charts. At the 20th Century Fox headquarters, almost everyone fell into ecstasy. Roger Birnbaum, the then global production director of Fox, proudly declared "Alien" as a great "series" (The Franchise) and emphasized the capital letter "F". Sigourney Weaver later told the writer Douglas Perry, “Obviously, the audience wants to see more.”
So after the great success of "Alien 2", Fox quickly approached the long-term production company Brandywine Productions, hoping to create a sequel to the series. Producers David Giller and Walter Hill were not enthusiastic at first. Hill recalled in 2004 that he and David Giller were getting tired of it, but decided to join the project. Put an end to "Alien". However, the two of them still held the position of series producers with disbelief and integrity, until "Alien: Contract" could still see their names in the executive producer column. "Alien" is a typical claustrophobic story, but the background is changed to the space pioneering era; "Alien 2" introduces settings such as extraterrestrial colonies and marines in interstellar warfare, although the "monster in the corridor" is still no way. Change, but Cameron succeeded in expanding the world view, leaving a valuable asset for the creation of countless space military science fiction for future generations. Therefore, Giller’s initial thoughts focused on how to further break the old into the new: "What can be done to make the third part completely different?"
In the early brainstorming, the ideas they came up with included plots that were quite characteristic of monster movies: aliens invaded the earth, merged and evolved into huge monsters that destroyed New York; another idea proposed at the same time was the arrival of Ripley and Newt. A "Blade Runner" style metropolis, hunting down a swift and ferocious variant of alien creatures in the depths of the steel jungle. In the end, Giller and Hill decided to shoot two movies as the ending, ending the legend of "Alien". The background of the story is the confrontation between the declining evil WY and a human military regime. In this plan, Sigourney Weaver will only make a cameo appearance in the third film. The protagonist is Michael Bean ( Michael Biehn) played Corporal Hicks; Ripley will return in the fourth part, and the story ends with an epic battle between humans and aliens. Sigourney Weaver particularly liked the metaphor of the Cold War in this version, and agreed to the treatment of her role.
I feel that Ripley is about to become a burden to the story. The role of this character in many levels is actually something other people can do. ——Sigourney Weaver
Although Fox was skeptical of the concept put forward by the two producers, he agreed to provide initial funding, provided that Ridley Scott was appointed to be the director of Alien 3. They also requested that the two films be shot together in order to reduce production costs. Ridley was interested in returning to directing, but other projects on hand made him give up his plan. Looking back now, Ridley, who was busy with films such as "Battle of Britain", obviously has no time to take into account the plight of the "Alien" prequel, not to mention his uncompromising attitude towards Fox. Let us wish the old man a long life. The famous horror writer and director Clive Barker was also invited to write and direct "Alien 3", but he had no interest in Alien and rejected the project. In September 1987, Giller and Hill took a fancy to "Nervous Wanderer" after a lot of material selection and brainstorming. The two immediately called William Gibson and asked him to fly to Los Angeles to discuss cooperation matters. . Out of love for "Alien", Gibson readily agreed. He initially hoped to write a "Blade Runner" style story, but the two producers boasted that this ambitious project budget would be quite high, and instructed Gibson to let go and write casually.
William Gibson’s decadent aesthetics in his cyberpunk works coincides with the gloomy worldview of Alien. He believes that the artistic style of the first part of Alien fits the direction of the story: "I think It affected my sci-fi creation. After all, it was the first dirty spaceship that spread panic. It left a deep impression on me.” Obviously, Gibson is more than the glamorous and beautiful vehicles in many previous works. I like the rugged second-hand futuristic space truck like Nosto Romo. In an interview with Cinescape in 1997, William Gibson recalled:
Brandiwan came up with the idea of a Marxist-Leninist space empire. Although it looks a bit dated, I am still happy to accept it, after all, it sounds quite interesting. I can't think of any space operas with a Cold War background that anyone has filmed before. This version of the story is like the Cold War that took place in the age of the universe, where the competition for genetic manipulation of alien creatures replaced the nuclear weapons race.
With this idea, Gibson completed the first draft of the script in the second half of 1987. The story immediately follows "Alien 2". Due to navigation errors, the Suraco drifted into a star field where the Union of Progressive Peoples claimed territorial rights. UPP is a totalitarian socialist regime and represented by WY. The major monopolies are hostile. A UPP commando team intercepted and successfully boarded the ship. The captain, Kurtz, was accidentally attacked by a worm hidden in the bishop's upper body. The other two members were forced to abandon him and take the bishop's body and evacuate. The Surak arrived at the Anchorpoint Station and was immediately quarantined. The biotech team searched the Sulaco and found the remaining survivors on board, although Ripley fell into a coma due to damage to the dormant cabin. The bishop’s lower body and Kelz’s body after the birth of the Breastbreaker were brought back. The company executives listened to Hicks and Newt’s report, demanding that they keep the incident at the Anchor Space Station confidential, and ordered their men to start inspections. A biological sample collected from the protagonist.
At the same time, on the Rodina Station, where UPP belongs, scientists are studying the remains of alien creatures recovered from the other half of the bishop's body. As a result, a battle for biological weapons surrounding alien dominance kicked off in the vast deep sky. In the ending of the story, the bishop proposes that the two sides of the Cold War abandon their differences and unite in the face of alien threats. The strong Cold War color in the script is obvious, referring to the ongoing arms race between UPP and its rival factions. Although none of these stories were adopted by the final version of Alien 3, the updated board game Alien RPG introduced the UPP setting last year and confirmed that the other side of the Cold War was the American Federation and the Three Realms led by Britain and Japan. Empire (3WE). Most UPP members in the script come from Eastern camp countries such as Russia and Vietnam. For example, Kelz is set as an East German. Gibson's philosophy of cessation of confrontation and harmony in the world conveyed at the end of the script is also in line with the wave of times in the mid to late 1980s.
What’s interesting is that this version of the script clearly pointed out for the first time that aliens were born from an artificially engineered organism; a line directly called aliens "gene structure is designed for ease of operation", and then speculated that they were created by an unknown alien civilization. As a biological weapon. Gibson later recalled, “I had this feeling a long time ago. Ever since I saw the aliens for the first time, I thought they were a kind of biological weapons.” This concept has always been a popular speculation among fans, Ridley I am also quite favored. Today's prequel series, the stories of "Prometheus" and "The Contract" obviously tend to agree with this theory. Gibson also changed the characteristics of aliens, giving them quite terrifying new abilities. The alien creatures written in his script can reproduce through close air infection. The infected person will undergo a process of mutation after a period of incubation period, and eventually transform into an adult alien. The transformation process that Gibson envisioned is a rapid change in the structure of bones and muscles from the inside to the outside, and the newly formed aliens will be born in a way that seems to tear apart the human skin.
Perhaps due to the instructions of the two producers, the first draft of this version of the script is very action-oriented, including eight colonial marines and alien battle scenes, as well as an alien duel on the background of the space station shell; James Came Long's "Alien 2" pales in popularity. At the end of 1987, the script was sent to the film crew. Brandiwan and Fox's attitudes can be said to be lukewarm. Gibson received the first payment and was asked to continue to improve the script. As a result, Gibson's second script completed in January 1988, while retaining the original plot, deleted most of the action scenes, and finally replaced it with a thriller story closer to the first part of "Alien". Compared with the famous first draft that was regarded as a cult god by fans, the second draft has been unknown for many years. However, the idea of promoting the plot with character dialogue rather than bloody fights established the tone of "Alien 3", and the subsequent versions of the script and even the film continued this style.
Gibson recalled in 1994 that the script of "Alien 3" was almost a Tarkovskian story. Comparing his play with this famous science fiction master is a bit of suspicion, but it is obvious that Gibson pays more attention to the ideological nature of science fiction creation than the big scenes and clever gimmicks purely to attract attention.
A considerable number of fans who hated the plot of "Space Robinson" thought that the plot of the "Alien" series would evolve into the adventure story of Ripley and Newt, but the worries were obviously nonsense. Gibson’s handling of the characters is not as cruel as the "Alien 2" sequel published by Dark Horse. In the comics of "Outbreak", "Nightmare Refuge" and "Earth War", Hicks is reduced to a drunkard, and the adult Newt is sent off. Into a mental hospital. But the tone of the story in Gibson's entire script is still very gloomy, and Newt is arranged to return to the earth to be reunited with her grandparents. This is the only plot that makes people feel gratifying. Reminiscent of Fox's crime of murdering a little girl in the movie "Alien 3", it is worthy to bear the infamy of fans for many years. It is worth mentioning that in a sense, the trilogy comics that also have the status of a sequel to "Aliens 2" have been released in the official Chinese version. The third one was originally called "Aliens: Earth War" (Aliens: Earth War), in Chinese The new version was named "Aliens: Female War" (Aliens: Female War) when it was published.
In March 1988, the Writers Guild of America (Writers Guild of America) demanded higher supplementary remuneration from program replays, foreign TV broadcasts, and video tape rentals, and required further creative autonomy; and the Producers Guild and Hollywood refused to give in. Subsequently, the famous screenwriter strike swept the entire industry. Neither Brandiwan nor Fox had contact with Gibson during the five-month-long wave of protests, although Gibson did not join the strike. It wasn't until Renny Harlin, the director of "Most Ghost Street 4", that the situation changed. Giller and Hill suggested that Gibson and Harlem continue to improve the details of the script, but Gibson's contract has expired, and he himself is quite dissatisfied with Fox and Brandiwan's attitude. After that, considering cost constraints and many other factors, the plan to shoot two films was completely abandoned, and Fox began to work on the development of a single "Alien 3" movie.
It was not until March 2013 that Gibson once again talked about his past with "Alien" on Twitter. He recalled: "Behind the scenes of "Alien 3" was born a draft script piled up almost a foot high, and then there was a movie." Gibson also believed that the details from that version of the script did survive in the final film. In his script, there is a barcode on the back of a female character's hand. In the production of the script and the film, the prisoner shaved his head and had a barcode on the back of his head. "In private, I always feel that this should belong to my "Alien 3". Maybe Gibson himself feels quite regretful.
After Gibson’s efforts to write the script for "Alien 3" failed, the next version of the script was drafted in February 1989 by Eric, the writer of the Cult classics "The Hitcher" and "Near Dark." · Eric Red is done. Reid’s script is also called "Alien World" and has little to do with the first two films of "Alien"; before the start of the story, all the survivors of "Alien 2" were killed by the alien , The only direct connection with the previous game is that the opening scene consists of a nightmare by the protagonist Sam Smith. The special forces officer who had participated in the rescue team dreamed that he found a bloody nameplate inside the Suraco. Ripley's name is written on it.
The story takes place in an orbiting colony named North Star. The settlement under the dome is an American Old West style town, even including open wheat fields and farms. Reid described it as "Kansas style", and the young residents inside the station would call it "Shitsville" (Shitsville). In the underground of the residential area, there is actually a research facility hidden inside the space station. Biological weapons experts are secretly breeding and studying alien creatures. After the leak, military and scientific research personnel were massacred, and the residents of the town had to stand up to the threat of alien raging. At the end of the story, the entire space station is infected and assimilated into a super huge biomechanical style alien.
This version of the story uses a rather rigid character. The Asian scientist in the script is named "Dr. Chung", but Reid said that he is not sure whether to write a Chinese or a Japanese; Sam is even written as having a machine The Cyborg of the arm, Reid set him to undergo a transformation after being injured after the rescue of the Suraco. It is even more weird to deliberately add "American Native Elements". There is a line of the old man in the small town shouting at the neighbors in the cornfield: "Harrison, if your cows run around again, don't blame me!" Dangyi When a couple was attacked by aliens in a convenience store, Reid specially arranged a foul language emphasizing the southern accent: "Let's fucking get out of here!" It is conceivable that the whole movie will almost spread a weird comedy atmosphere. .
It may be to create an atmosphere that fits the style of a small town. The weapons mentioned in the script all come from the 20th century. The military settings of "Alien 2" are actually quite retro. The famous M41A props are just the shells of Thomson and SPAS12. The M56 smart machine gun is essentially MG42, not to mention the obvious Vietnam War US military paintings of the colonial Marines. wind. But Cameron’s creativity lies in expounding these elements in a more futuristic way. Reid did not add any sci-fi elements to the outdated weapons. In addition to "Colt .45", "M16" and "Browning Machine Gun", the protagonist Sam's mother will also pick up a Winchester lever shotgun that has more than 260 years of history at the time of the story. .
From this point of view, it is not surprising that Reid's script is full of violent scenes of blood flying across. Obviously, this version of the script completely applied the extremely cheap action thriller template. After reading Reid’s script, the original director Renee Haring, who had only joined the project for less than a year, quit directly. Reid was also caught shortly afterwards. Fired. In an interview in 2001, Reid himself said that the script for "Alien 3" he wrote that year was rubbish: "That thing is that the producer forced me to rectify after a few weeks of hysterical story seminars. It came out just to put the movie into shooting as soon as possible, and the result was completely terrible.” Eric Reid also explained the tricky situation encountered when writing a sequel to "Alien 2". Since the film crew didn't want Sigourney Weaver to return, he could only create new characters as much as possible, and abandoned the story line of the previous game with the purpose of "breaking the old and making the new." According to him, the situation of the two producers, Giller and Hill, is "no story, no opinion, and no actual filming plan." The chaos behind the scenes of "Alien 3" can be seen. Although Fox has the desire to open up the universe of "Alien", his planning and execution ability and ambition are completely out of proportion.
David Twohy is the next hapless man. In October 1989, he submitted the completed new script to the producers of Brandiwan. This version of the script is more decisive than Reid on the theme of "breaking the old and making the new," and only uses the Ripley's death message that appears on the terminal screen to undertake the plot of "Alien 2". Dussy’s story is based on a prison space station in the orbit of the earth, and finally a key element in the film "Alien 3" is born. The space station is named Moloch Island (Moloch Island), Dusi quoted the allusion of Vulcan in Semitic culture. The prisoners acted as coolies in the huge ore refinery in the station, and Moloch Island was actually used secretly by WY as an alien biological experiment site. The condemned prisoners would be directly used as live baits or experimental samples, but the company claimed that they had died of poisonous gas. Execution in the room.
Although the prison space station has formed the prototype of the C-level labor camp located in Fiorina-161 in "Alien 3", the plot and characters in this version of the script have basically been deleted. However, many details can appear in the fourth part of the series "Alien: Resurrection". For example, some people inside the station were alive sucked into outer space by the damage on the outer shell of Moloch Island. The ending of "Resurrection" is very similar; and this extreme The visually striking way of death was first designed for Lambert in "Alien" and had to be abandoned due to technical limitations at the time. The scene of using glass column cabins to preserve biological samples is also realized in "Resurrection".
Perhaps due to the time limit of the production, Fox has been tired of trying to find new scripts repeatedly; coupled with the fact that Dussy's story does not seem to be an exaggerated investment in a large-scale production, this version of the script has been temporarily given the green light. Vincent Ward was hired to direct the film, but it was at this time that a new twist appeared. Ward was very interested in the "Alien 3" project, so he took the initiative to ask Ying to write a story of his own instead of using Dusi's script. Fox's decision was quite stupid. Giller and Hill obviously did not completely give up their efforts to find a new story, so they agreed to Ward's request and informed Dussy to continue to improve the script. When Dusi learned of the act of stepping on two boats, he was also mad, and the story of Moloch Island was put on hold.
The time came to 1990, four years have passed since "Alien 2" became popular, more than half the time between the release of the first two works. The producers were in a state of desperation. After watching the Australian fantasy action film "Navigator: An Odyssey Over Time" (Navigator: An Odyssey Over Time), Giller found inspiration and immediately found the film’s screenwriter and director— -New Zealander Vincent Ward (Vincent Ward), hired him to save a muddy "Alien 3".
Ward recalled to a reporter from The Independent in 1993: “I was penniless, and spent a lot of money to get to the North Pole to collect materials, interviewing anthropologists and World War II pilots who participated in the bombing of the Ruhr Dam. It turned out to be unhappy. After returning to Australia, I curled up in the basement all day, but Giller’s call came and I refused. But then they called me back and said they would send me the script anyway." . In fact, the version of the script that was to be given to Ward at the time was exactly what Dussy conceived, and he was shot after Ward joined the project and began to conceive his own story. In an interview with Empire magazine in 2009, Ward said that he was obsessed with medieval culture during that period, so he thought of many ideas around the concept of religious monks and aliens, Ripley. Ward’s story will take place in an orbital colony called Arceon. The core of the spherical structure is the mechanical facilities that control gravity and the atmosphere, but the ground has been covered by pure wooden buildings, a group of ascetic The monks live here. Ward set them up as extreme sects that did not want to accept advanced technology, so they were exiled to Ession.
We have been playing with absolute concepts-good and evil. If the alien does exist, what will it be? Is it a devil who is like a fake? You look at historical manuscripts and ancient prints, no matter where they come from; whether it is Chinese or European culture, no matter which ethnic group they are, they have their own ideas about demons and dragons. -Vincent Ward
To Ward's surprise, the producers of Fox and Brandywan liked his weird ideas. "I fell in love with him immediately," the film's artistic director Norman Reynolds (Norman Reynolds) recalled later. "He was very enthusiastic and ingenious. We worked on some concept paintings that made him very excited: Hell Something like fire. This seems to be a very interesting new way to show the universe of "Alien"." The story begins when a monk witnesses the "Oriental Meteor", that is, Ripley’s rescue capsule falls on the surface of Ession. At first everyone thought this was a good sign. However, with the threat of Ripley and the alien creatures that followed, the monks turned to regard everything as a harbinger of some kind of divine condemnation. In order to avoid the potential "temptation" brought by Ripley as a woman, they locked Ripley in the dungeon, ignoring her suggestions for eliminating aliens. However, one of the monks quickly believed in Ripley and released her, and they began their journey to escape Ession.
But the biggest impact of the Vincent Ward version of the script on the production of "Alien 3" is that it finally determines the treatment of the characters in the previous game. Ward decided to invite Sigourney Weaver back and send all the supporting characters of "Alien 2" a lunch box, which was completely accepted by the film party. For him, this is an emotional logic that runs through the entire movie. Although he likes Cameron’s suggestion of the image of "mother", he wants to interpret it in another way, that is, using a The alien in Ripley's body replaces Newt's role. Ward explained that his motive for killing Newt was to explore the situation of the traumatized person and his pursuit of personal salvation-which is no different from Ripley's performance in Alien 2. As a result, Ward contributed a classic shot for "Alien 3" in his script. Alien stared at Ripley almost to kiss, and at the same time it contained distorted communication and sexual cues. It not only represents the patriarchal violence symbolized by the alien, but also has the identity of "Ripley's offspring". Although the setting of this alien in the film has been adjusted, this scene has become one of the symbols of "Alien 3" and even the entire "Alien" series.
The script written by Ward and John Fasano is as complete as the Gibson version, and in terms of spread, it is even more famous than the Cold War Rhapsody. "The Times" former reporter David Hughes (David Hughes) listed Vincent Ward's "Alien 3" as "the greatest aborted science fiction film in history." Although this version of the script is very exciting, there are not many serious loopholes in it, and it has even been continued in the film. For example, the alien egg on the Suraco has not been explained, and despite Ward’s explanation It is reasonable, but the plot of giving lunch to Newt, Hicks, and the bishop is still unconvincing; the new alien creatures born without parasitic humans are basically messy in setting. As for why this version of "Alien 3" did not enter the filming stage, it can only be said that Fox did it himself. Although Giller promised to give him creative leadership, the fingertips from Fox kept increasing as the progress progressed. When Ward was invited to a meeting with company executives, he was temporarily asked to sit on a bench outside the conference room. Join the discussion when the bosses need him. After that, Vincent Ward and John Fasano both withdrew from the project. The advent of "Alien 3" is still far away.
It is conceivable that Ward's grievance has never diminished. His evaluation of "Alien 3" is quite mean: "The story is basically a copy of myself. But my idea is to spend 40 million US dollars to rebuild a medieval monastery in space, and then scare everyone away with wonderful horror elements; they eventually All that was done was to create a big prison full of bald thugs. I thought it was really boring and badly written."
The universe of "Alien" is a world full of dirty oil refineries and industrial and technological creations. Why do we have to come out a whole wooden-style thing? --David Fincher
1991 was a very special point in time, and William Gibson probably never thought that his Cold War fable would soon lose its timeliness. Giller and Hill had no time to think about this. The long development cycle made "Alien 3" almost a bottomless pit, and the investment of tens of millions of dollars was completely wiped out. Fox anxiously asked the producers to quickly come up with a reliable plan and start shooting. The newcomer David Fincher, who had only shot a few music videos and commercials, was driven off the shelves and became a scapegoat. Walter Hill and David Giller took over the script personally and began to clean up the mess. They integrated Ward's script with Dusi's concept of a space prison and formed the prototype of the final script. Even so, the script of "Alien 3" has undergone many post-modifications. David Fincher collaborated with Rex Pickett to improve this version of the script, and Dan Obannon, the original script author of "Alien" was even moved to the rescue, with David Giller And Larry Ferguson (Larry Ferguson) co-finished the script.
On January 14, 1991, "Alien 3" finally started shooting at Pinewood Studios in London. The last budget of up to 13 million U.S. dollars gave Fox executives and shareholders a pain. So far, the cumulative investment has reached a staggering 50 million U.S. dollars.
The unsatisfactory response of "Alien 3" made the series development seriously frustrated, and David Fincher refused to accept any interviews until Fox released the special edition of the "Alien" quadruple in 2003. To be fair, Vinci's unconventionalism is not useless, but the awkwardness of untimely birth runs through the inside and outside of "Alien 3". Looking back on the bumpy birth process of this sequel, and then looking at the prequel project that is currently in trouble, one can't help but sigh: the times may always be the endless Mobius ring.
Ripley: No matter whether Mother Earth is still safe and sound, no matter whether the end of our journey is in heaven or hell, even if we disappear in a cold vacuum, I believe she will always exist. The escape capsule flew into the dark universe, leaving behind the burning Ession, like a dying ember in the vast deep sky. - Excerpt from Vincent Ward's "Alien 3"
But Gibson's story of the Cold War in space has not been forgotten in the pile of old papers. For more than 30 years, Gibson's "Alien 3" script has been widely circulated among fans, and its popularity has further increased after entering the Internet era. Many of the original new settings, such as the UPP that laid the foundation for the human society in the "Alien" universe, have been repeatedly mentioned in various works in the future, and finally have the honor to enter the official history. "Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay" (Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay), based on the second-draft script, was also published, and it was published in five issues from November 2018 to March 2019 by Dark Horse. This is the first time that William Gibson's "Alien 3" script has appeared as an official work after years of word of mouth.
On May 30 last year, Audible Studios and Fox also launched a radio drama "Alien III" (Alien III), the text of which is based on William Gibson's second draft script for "Alien III". It is worth mentioning that the main readers of this audio series are Michael Bean and Lance Henriksen, who played Hicks and the Bishop in "Alien 2". Recently, "Alien 3: Unfilmed Script Adapted Comics" was also introduced in China, and the Chinese version was published under the title "Alien: Cold War". Although Gibson's "Alien 3" is recognized as the most exciting one among the many abandoned scripts, it is a long-standing grievance of him and his fans, and the reappearance of the dusty story is also a good thing to congratulate. As for the very creative settings of the year, it is a kind of resurrection that can once again inject fresh blood into the update of the world view of "Alien".
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