Fixing Hollywood: The Alien Franchise
One year short of its 45th anniversary, the Alien franchise remains virtually unkillable, much like its titular creature. But the franchise is far from an unstoppable juggernaut, as the most recent studio efforts, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, wasn’t particularly well-received by fans or critics. Despite this, the franchise continues to have a hold on pop culture, as franchise comics, books, and video and role-playing games continue to be popular.
But with two major efforts in the works, a TV show helmed by Noah Hawley, and a feature film directed by Fede Alvarez, the stakes are high. Little is known about these two entries at this time and fan sentiment ranges from skeptical to hopeful.
After the 1979 original classic, Alien, and its sequel, 1986’s Aliens, the track on the screen has been mediocre at best with Alien³ and Alien: Ressurection both seen as lesser efforts. The less said about the Alien v. Predator movies the better (and technically these are not part of the Alien franchise or canon within the Alien universe), while, as noted previously, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant divided the Alien fan community.
Outside of the films, here’s a brief rundown of where the franchise currently stands.
Comics and Books
After many successful years at Darkhorse, the Alien franchise shifted ownership to Marvel (whose parent company, Disney, bought Fox and with it the rights to the Alien franchise). While I’ve been a reader of comics on and off for more than 30 years, I’ve never been into the Alien books. From what I understand there are some terrific storylines, but also a lot that isn’t particularly memorable.
Similarly, there has been no shortage of novels (and film novelizations) over the years. While much of this work has been subjugated to the “movie franchise tie-in ghetto” there have been some standouts. The Cold Forge and Into Charybdis, both by Alex White, are routinely listed as among the best the franchise has to offer. I’ve read them both and found them to in fact be well above the standard for this type of book. I’d recommend them both to any Alien fan.
The Almost Films
Before David Fincher helmed Alien³ renowned cyberpunk author William Gibson wrote a screenplay (two in fact) for the Alien franchise. Now, multiple scripts for a project is nothing new in Hollywood. But thanks to the voracious appetite of the Alien fan community, and the name recognition of Gibson, these screenplays have come to see the light of day, albeit in different formats. One of the screenplays was turned into an audiobook as well as a graphic novel. The other was developed into a novel by another highly acclaimed cyberpunk author, Pat Cadigan. While the graphic novel is a fun read, I was less enamored with Cadigan’s effort.
Another project, a potential Alien film from Neal Blomkamp, has also been bouncing around the internet, with some early art and production design images to go with it. But ultimately nothing came of this project.
The Role-playing Game
Free League has created a very well-received TTRPG for the Alien franchise, and due to its popularity, they have produced additional campaigns and supplemental material.
Video Games
There has been no shortage of video games over the years, and recent titles such as Ailen: Isolation and Aliens: Fire Team Elite are well-received by fans and critics.
So now we’re all caught up. With the aforementioned movie and TV show both on the horizon, here’s my advice to those in charge:
Return to the Haunted House
It feels like, with each progressive entry into the Alien franchise the world depicted in the movie expands. To some degree that is understandable. You can’t have every film take place on the Nostromo or have characters land on LV-426 again, and again, and again. But with this expansion, we’ve lost one of the core elements of the franchise — that feeling of claustrophobia and dread we got when watching Alien. Watching that film you realized the crew was doomed because there was no way they were getting away from the xenomorph while aboard that ship. In Prometheus, they had a whole planet with which they could distance themselves.
I think the franchise would be well-served by figuring out how to return to that feeling. There is of course a concern that “modern” audiences wouldn’t be able to sit through the slow pace of the original, but I don’t think audiences are bored by slow movies, I think they are bored by boring movies. Let’s find a way to get back to that cramped, dark, closed-off location.
Return to the Mysterious Alien
“What the fuck is that?” That’s probably the most common utterance from someone who watched Alien for the first time. You simply did not know what this thing was, or what exactly it looked like. Of course, now the iconic alien design is so well known, it’s a part of pop culture. In an attempt to keep things fresh, the franchise has shown us the creature, shown us numerous creatures, made tweaks and modifications, and given us different versions of the creature. At no point have they improved upon the original, iconic H.R. Giger design. I don’t know if you can. So perhaps it’s time to walk away from the action scenes featuring two dozen xenomorphs, or the “look how cool this new version is” scenes and go back to the mystery and the terror of the unknown.
Let’s bring back fear, and the greatest fear is the unknown. Let’s get back to the tease, to the anticipation. Give me shadowy glimpses. Give me sounds.
Focus on the Cast/Characters
The success of Alien and Aliens can to a great degree be attributed to the casting and subsequent portrayals by the actors. Sigourney Weaver literally defined the female action hero with her portrayal of Ellen Ripley. The Marines of Aliens — Hicks, Hudson, Apone, and the iconic Vazquez — along with the pitch-perfect smarminess of Paul Reiser’s Burke, the Weyland Yutani stooge, are all equally memorable.
In addition to the casting and performances, there was something else though. Yes, the writing is very good, and the dialogue is memorable. But there is something these first two films have that is missing from the others. There was a grounding of the characters within the world. It’s not just that Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are good actors, you also believed that their characters were common crew on a common ship — truckers in space. You understood their motivations (“I think we should discuss the bonus situation”). I never really got that feeling while watching Prometheus or Covenant. I have a much harder time believing Idris Elba is just some ship’s captain. Ron Pearlman and his crew of pirates in Alien: Resurrection felt paper thin to me. Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and the rest of the crew in Covenant felt like very odd casting.
Let’s spend more time getting to understand why these characters are where they are and how they got there. That probably means fewer characters as well, which is fine. The first movie had seven characters, so you had time to get to know them a little bit.
Keep the Marines
Perhaps the most significant addition to the franchise post-Alien was the introduction of the USCM — The United States Colonial Marines. Introduced so well in Aliens, they have gone on to become a staple of the books, comics, and roleplaying game. But let’s take a less is more approach here as well. Maybe just a small detachment of three or four soldiers. Let’s get to know them a little. Where did they come from, why did they enlist, etc?
Highlight Weyland Yutani a Little More
The true villains of the Alien franchise. The executives depicted in Aliens, epitomized by Paul Reiser’s Carter Burke, gave a great glimpse into the heart of late, late-capitalism. I’d like to see a little more of them, and perhaps even a look into some of their main rivals, like Seegson. This sort of corporate intrigue worked well as a MacGuffin in Inception, with Cobol Engineering battling Fischer-Morrow for worldwide energy dominance being used as a catalyst for the story.
Meet Your New Synthetic
Ash. Bishop. Call. David… Ellen.
Fans of the franchise will know that the synthetics have followed an alphabetic naming convention (for the most part) throughout the series. Let’s continue that but with a twist.
The plight of the Nostromo is ancient history. So is the fate of the Marines who investigated Hadley’s Hope. Those Ripley clones from Alien: Resurrection? Let’s just forget about those altogether. But we do know that Wey-Yu has Ripley’s DNA. Perhaps they used that as a template for their latest synthetic. A clever little piece of irony, and Wey-Yu’s final indignity to the legacy of Ellen Ripley.
But what it really does is allow the filmmakers to fix a major problem with the franchise. You see, while it’s known as the Alien franchise it could almost just as easily be called the Ripley franchise. Sigourney Weaver brought the character to life in such a way that they didn’t just want her to be in three sequel movies, they needed her to be in three sequel movies.
And when they tried to repeat the formula in Prometheus (with Noomi Rapace) and Covenant (with Catherine Waterston) it just didn’t work. No offense to those two actresses, but it’s like the Chicago Bulls signing a second-year point guard in 1997 and saying, “Ok, we need you to replace Michael Jordan.”
Why were they never able to transition beyond Ripley’s character? In the four core movies, they never had a proper hand-off from Weaver to another actor who could then carry the franchise. This is of course a difficult thing to do. They tried it with the Bourne franchise, bringing in Jeremy Renner for The Bourne Legacy. It didn’t work and now with a 52-year-old Matt Damon, the franchise is likely dead. They tried it with the Mission: Impossible franchise, bringing in Jeremy Renner for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. It didn’t work and now they have a 60-year-old Tom Cruise in the lead role. The lesson learned from those two examples: Don’t try to replace Sigourney Weaver with Jeremy Renner. But seriously, this is hard stuff. The audience needs a soft landing, so let’s keep Ripley in this new film, but let’s have a (CGI de-aged) Sigourney Weaver play a supporting role, not the lead. This would be a much easier way to handle the transition, with the Ripley synthetic not only having her own arc but acting as The Mentor as the new character began their own Hero’s Journey.
Ok, let’s do a mini-treatment of what this could look like.
Alien: Destroyer of Worlds
We open in space. A Weyland-Yutani shuttle descends into the atmosphere of Mira Ceti 4, the site of a former Omni-Tech outpost that failed decades ago. Inside, Wey-Yu executive Dorian Sudler (portrayed by Robert Pattinson in a role against type), his assistant (Storm Reid), and a third passenger we can’t quite make out sit and discuss details regarding the upcoming operation.
As they disembark from the shuttle we see the third member of the party is… Ellen Ripley (a de-aged Sigourney Weaver).
They are met by a four-person team of colonial marines who escort them to the facility. The Marines are:
- Anderson (Lucas Hedges), a gruff jarhead, cocky and brash.
- Sun (Steven Yuen), the group leader.
- Dawkins (Stephan James), the wise-cracking joker.
- Ochoa (Jenna Ortega), the rookie.
We soon learn that Wey-Yu has finally done what they have been trying to do since they first sent the Nostromo to LV-426 — turn the Xenomorph XX121 into a biological weapon. To produce the biological agent they need to repeatedly extract certain bodily fluids from a xenomorph and combine it with the Black Goo. So, of course, there is a live xenomorph at the facility. But Wey-Yu has wisened up. No dumb scientists making mistakes a 12-year-old in a chemistry class wouldn’t make. They’ve got this whole operation on lock, and they are ready to go. Or so they think.
So, what’s the catalyst for the inevitable escape of the Xeno? Unbeknownst to everyone, Sudler’s assistant is actually a synthetic and spy for Seegson, one of Weyland-Yutani’s chief rivals. She has been programmed with one directive: sabotage the Wey-Yu installation on Mira Ceti 4, even at the cost of her own existence.
Will the spy/assistant be discovered before she releases the Xenomorph? No. Ripley thought there was something not quite right about her, but she didn’t act on it in time.
Ripley does however track down the Seegson synthetic and their confrontation creates drama on multiple levels: corporation v. corporation, synthetic v. synthetic, female v. female, and the irony of Ripley (albeit in synthetic form) fighting on behalf of Wey-Yu.
Due to the hostile atmosphere on Mira Ceti 4, Wey-Yu has set up shop by terraforming naturally existent underground tunnels, thus providing our contained location.
Now the Marines are the only thing that stands between the escaped Xenomorph and the facility personnel. In the second act, the Xenomorph picks off humans one by one. As they try to kill or escape from the Xenomorph the situation only becomes more dire. We learn that the AI that runs the facility was compromised by a virus introduced by the Seegson spy.
The third act finds us with only three remaining survivors: The synthetic Ripley, the bastard corporate exec Sudler, and one marine, Ochoa. They managed to barricade themselves and are relatively safe. Soon they learn that the biological agent is unstable and if they aren’t able to lock it down, the failsafe self-destruct of the underground facility will go off.
Sudler tries to walk the fine line of surviving, while also keeping the Xenomorph alive. Ultimately Ortega, with the help of Ripley, defeats the creature. Sudler survives and has the data on the biological agent to bring back to HQ.
With this story, we have multiple dynamics at play.
- There is the potential for a symbolic handing over of the torch as the Ellen synthetic hands over the franchise to one of the colonial marines. Doing so opens up a wealth of creative opportunities for Aliens-style action films in the future.
- We have the corporate espionage angle with the introduction of Seegson. Again, this provides a foundation for all new storylines in future films.
- We’ve introduced Dorian Sudler, one of the more memorable and well-known characters from the Alien novels. A bit of fan service perhaps, but not in a way that detracts from the story or diverges wildly from previous films.
- We’ve brought the franchise back to its roots to some degree. One Xenomorph; tight, claustrophobic environment
- We’ve introduced a truly horrifying new element as Wey-Yu has finally weaponized the Xenomorph into a biological agent, something which has additional resonance with our current concerns regarding viruses.
Will we see any of these elements in a future Alien movie? Hard to say, but I think there is an appetite from the movie-watching public for a return to the franchise's roots.
