Alien Prequel 'Stalled'

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

I flat-out do not know what you are trying to say.

Well, it just seems to me as if $250 million sounds like a pretty normal amount of money to pay out for a film that's supposed to rebirth a franchise such as this.

[Hunter]

Well, it just seems to me as if $250 million sounds like a pretty normal amount of money to pay out for a film that's supposed to rebirth a franchise such as this.

Yeah but you don't put that sum of money into a franchise that has stuttered ever since 1992 with Alien 3. $250 million is ridiculous. I actually think half of that is adequate to deliver an Alien film in line with the predecessors.

[SiL]

Avatar didn't even cost 250 million. There's no way in hell that kind of a budget is necessary for an Alien movie. I'm with the studio on this one.

[Dutch90]

$ 250 million is basically the budget of all preceding films combined...

I remember Cameron pitching an idea like this in the late 90s, it resulted in Alien 5 not happening. 

[LargeLeader]

Thank fuck. I imagine it would've been retcons all round with him involved.

[Tryfan915]

Maybe now Scott will turn his attention to The Forever War or The Man In The High Castle.

[Dan]

That's a shame, does seem alot of money but what do I know. I'm with Ridders on the 18 cert though

[Jon Sorensen]

You'll all recall a similar scenario with Ridley Scott's involvement on the movie I AM LEGEND. Same deal. Budget was'nt "high enough" to suit and he walked.

I recently caught up with the Will Smith version. The book by Richard Matheson is one of my real favourites. I bought a paperback of it when I was 12 years old and still have it, having read it countless times.

I preferred THE OMEGA MAN.

The point is that the book is a chamber piece and should be made on a modest budget. That's all it needs. The book still has'nt been done. And it is truly chilling exactly as Matheson wrote it.

Deals are being shot. Not films. But mainstream Hollywood was ever thus.

By the way, it ocurred to me to wonder if this 250 million dollars was for both prequel films shot back-to-back. Of course, guys, if you suddenly decide you don't after all want to make a movie, the first thing you do at a stroke is to price it out of bounds and that will always get you Scott Free.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

You'll all recall a similar scenario with Ridley Scott's involvement on the movie I AM LEGEND. Same deal. Budget was'nt "high enough" to suit and he walked.

I recently caught up with the Will Smith version. The book by Richard Matheson is one of my real favourites. I bought a paperback of it when I was 12 years old and still have it, having read it countless times.

I preferred THE OMEGA MAN.

The point is that the book is a chamber piece and should be made on a modest budget. That's all it needs. The book still has'nt been done. And it is truly chilling exactly as Matheson wrote it.

Deals are being shot. Not films.

I keep forgetting that the Will Smith movie has anything to do with Legend. It's a hard connection to keep making. I loved the vampire makeup design that I saw from the pre-production work for his version of movie. I wonder about this Alien prequel because it has been much more of a personal interest of Ridley's over the decades. Time will see if it is dropped or not.

Yeah but you don't put that sum of money into a franchise that has stuttered ever since 1992 with Alien 3. $250 million is ridiculous. I actually think half of that is adequate to deliver an Alien film in line with the predecessors.

Making a movie in line with it's predecessors , looking at the budget problems that hit Alien Resurrection forcing it to have endlessly reused sets and rubbishy monsters, it sounds dreadful. I suppose the next thing that we'll find out is that the studio bosses wont make the movie without Sigourney Weaver. Well, I suppose a number of people here might be satisfied with a handful of aliens running around to be killed and nothing about the space jockey

And if official budget of Avatar was $237 million, with an additional $150 million built in for promotional activities, it doesn't surprise me in today's Hollywood

[Jon Sorensen]

I wonder about this Alien prequel because it has been much more of a personal interest of Ridley's over the decades. Time will see if it is dropped or not.

It has been a personal interest of his inasmuch as Fox flatly refused to have him back for any of the sequels. And judging by these antics he's proving them right.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

It has been a personal interest of his inasmuch as Fox flatly refused to have him back for any of the sequels. And judging by these antics he's proving them right.

Well he's talked about his plans for a sequel for a number of years about the Space Jockey race in an interesting way and what the Alien was supposed to be, especially in the interview with Don Shay for the Alien laserdisc.  It seemed to be like some running discussion that the interviewers never bothered to pick up upon properly.  So I think there has been an interest because of a set of ideas that he's had that he wanted to attach to the right script.

[Jon Sorensen]

Which ideas are those? He has'nt uttered a single original concept yet. Perhaps I missed something.

[dude]

I don't believe this for a second. Either Scott has gone insane or this is bullshit.

If anyone is going to make a $250 million dollar R rated film, it's going to be me.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

Which ideas are those? He has'nt uttered a single original concept yet. Perhaps I missed something.

What he has talked about was a little bit vague but inspired the imagination for a good many.
Basically it's about the space jockey being a race of beings who had come to Earth a long long time ago and left themselves in our memories as the Gods of War, and the alien biomechanoids had become infused with our idea of what a Demon is, Ridley saw a similarity in the drawings of demons over the ages so decided they were perhaps some creature. So that was the Don Shay interview that's also somewhere in the extras of the Alien Quadrilogy set. It sounded almost quite Von Daniken-esque and Quatermass And The Pit-esque and I suppose not forgetting Childhood's end-esque

 And so there in other interviews he has suggested that there has had been some ancient war in which the space jockey's ship was a kind of a battlewagon, and here we have the space jockey with his arsenal of biological weapons unleashed on its victims but the space jockey had become a victim to his own weaponry. His idea was to make a sequel that delved into anthropology.

[nchurch81]

Do we know if the 250mil is for just one film or is it the combined budget of the two films he's planning on making? Still alot for each film (125mil) but a little more reasonable.

Also ScriptFlag has set up a facebook group for people interested in donating money to Ridley so that he'll have the budget he's asking for.  I don't know if this is something that can actually be done, but it's an interesting idea.

Check it out: http://www.scriptflags.com/2010/10/support-ridley-scotts-alien-prequel.html