Pitch Black - Could it have been Alien 3?

Necronomicon

I watched Pitch Black for the first time in a while last night and I really forgot how good it was. It reminded me of an article I read in Empire a couple of months back (a terrific article at that) about all the production problems surrounding Alien 3; various producers, directors and scripts before we finally got Fincher's version. Something that interested me in particular was that an early draft of the film was penned by David Twohy, who would later go onto create Pitch Black. Shades of Twohy's script appeared in the version we all know, as his also took place on a prison colony. The big difference is Twohy's version would've killed off Ripley and the new main character was an escaped convict (sound familiar? )

Anyway, I'm glad it didn't happen because for its flaws I like Alien 3, and of course David Twohy would go on and create the Pitch Black franchise which I'm a big fan of. I just think it's interesting that a Riddick could, conceivably, been an Alien character. I guess it makes sense that Twohy was involved with Alien somewhere, seeing as how Pitch Black is so Alien-esque. According to IMDB he was also Fox's first choice for the original AvP but couldn't because of scheduling conflicts, and he's being mooted again for a possible third instalment.

MementoMori

Might want to check out this article on the ins and outs of Alien 3

http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_12/12_alien3.asp?IshNum=12&Headline=The%20Metamorphoses%20of%20Alien%20III

Vokes

Necronomicon wrote: »

I watched Pitch Black for the first time in a while last night and I really forgot how good it was. It reminded me of an article I read in Empire a couple of months back (a terrific article at that) about all the production problems surrounding Alien 3; various producers, directors and scripts before we finally got Fincher's version.

I think i read that article. There was a version mentioned about something to do with a wooden planet / moon or something mad like that, that had a monastery of monks who tended crops, etc. and Ripley's ship crashed there.

Slutmonkey57b

Anything that kills off Ripley is a good script in my book. Weaver actually believes people watched Aliens because of Ripley.... mind boggling.

pixelburp

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Anything that kills off Ripley is a good script in my book. Weaver actually believes people watched Aliens because of Ripley.... mind boggling.

What's so mind boggling about it? Alien was more about Ripley than it was about the creature. Ripley is one of sci-fi's stronger characters & I think the most telling element about her character is when they get the same "tough female protagonist" archtype wrong, or blatently copy her ala Aliens vs. Predator.

Slutmonkey57b

Everything cool about Aliens was centred around "check those corners" and the sound of the smart gun. Ripley may have been the main character but she wasn't what made the film what it was. See Alien3 for why.

Galvasean

Weaver as Ripley was crucial to the success of Alien. A lesser actor/character occupying all that screen time would have made the film unbearable.

BlitzKrieg

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Everything cool about Aliens was centred around "check those corners" and the sound of the smart gun. Ripley may have been the main character but she wasn't what made the film what it was. See Alien3 for why

See Aliens for why Ripley is a huge part of what puts the alien franchise many bars over thousands of other sub par sci fi horror/action films.

Ripley is a crucial central part of the alien mythos and a more important development aspect throughout the films then the diversifying of the alien biology, and YES she is what made the film what it was. Aliens is critically acclaimed because of how Ripley's character was portrayed, it also one of the aspects that makes the film so damn powerful.

Whoever heard of a sci fi horror film being nominated for best actress.

Oh wait


ALIENS!


http://www.popculturemadness.com/Trivia/Oscars/Top-1986-O.html

Actress in a Leading Role

Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God
Sissy Spacek, Crimes of the Heart
Kathleen Turner, Peggy Sue Got Married
Sigourney Weaver, Aliens

Necronomicon

MementoMori wrote: »

Might want to check out this article on the ins and outs of Alien 3

http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_12/12_alien3.asp?IshNum=12&Headline=The%20Metamorphoses%20of%20Alien%20III

Cracking read, thanks.

pixelburp

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Everything cool about Aliens was centred around "check those corners" and the sound of the smart gun. Ripley may have been the main character but she wasn't what made the film what it was. See Alien3 for why.

Well if your idea of what makes a good movie consists of gun noises, then yes, Aliens was marvellous. But the Alien trilogy is about Ripley & her development and to a lesser extent, the xenomorphs.

Galvasean

pixelburp wrote: »

Well if your idea of what makes a good movie consists of gun noises, then yes, Aliens was marvellous.

So was AVP2

Nah, not really

Slutmonkey57b

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

See Aliens for why Ripley is a huge part of what puts the alien franchise many bars over thousands of other sub par sci fi horror/action films.

Ripley is a crucial central part of the alien mythos and a more important development aspect throughout the films then the diversifying of the alien biology, and YES she is what made the film what it was. Aliens is critically acclaimed because of how Ripley's character was portrayed, it also one of the aspects that makes the film so damn powerful.

Whoever heard of a sci fi horror film being nominated for best actress.

Oh wait


ALIENS!


http://www.popculturemadness.com/Trivia/Oscars/Top-1986-O.html

I found her unbearably irritating in every part of the Alien films - an overwhelming whining presence of mediocrity and disinterest. If I had to pick a "lead" character from Alien, it would be Dallas or Ash, and from Aliens it would be Hicks, Burke or Bishop. Every time I hear that line "Get away from her you bitch!" I cringe and almost fall over. The character itself could even have been improved by a different actress, but I certainly don't see how she's the "glue" that makes the Alien films what they are.

pixelburp

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I found her unbearably irritating in every part of the Alien films - an overwhelming whining presence of mediocrity and disinterest. If I had to pick a "lead" character from Alien, it would be Dallas or Ash, and from Aliens it would be Hicks, Burke or Bishop. Every time I hear that line "Get away from her you bitch!" I cringe and almost fall over. The character itself could even have been improved by a different actress, but I certainly don't see how she's the "glue" that makes the Alien films what they are.

Do you generally have a problem with female leads? I don't mean that in an argumentative or accusatory sense, but you name checked all the ostensibly male males in the first two movies & that you preferred the psychopathic Ash over Ripley is a bit ... odd. To say the least. Maybe you have a problem with female characters who show enough ... uhhh, balls shall we say, in films to take the lead.

BlitzKrieg

and from Aliens it would be Hicks, Burke or Bishop.

strange picks considering the three of them as characters mean little beyond the soldier, the corporate and the andriod without the character of Ripley to play them off against.

Slutmonkey57b

pixelburp wrote: »

Do you generally have a problem with female leads? I don't mean that in an argumentative or accusatory sense, but you name checked all the ostensibly male males in the first two movies & that you preferred the psychopathic Ash over Ripley is a bit ... odd. To say the least. Maybe you have a problem with female characters who show enough ... uhhh, balls shall we say, in films to take the lead.

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

strange picks considering the three of them as characters mean little beyond the soldier, the corporate and the andriod without the character of Ripley to play them off against.

No, I have no problem with strong female leads - as I said, I didn't find Ripley to be a strong female lead at all, I found her to be a nasal windbag, which is part of the problem. In another voice, the character could have been stronger, but Weaver really doesn't cut it for me, particularly the scene mentioned above, and the scene in the Weyland Utani corporate office where she does the "you can kiss all this goodbye" speech just do not work, it seems hollow and forced. Ripley may be getting more attention in the scripts than the likes of Hicks, Bishop, Burke and Dallas, but the characters are more natural, more interesting, and more engaging than Ripley, and as a result I find they lead the film's purpose a lot more than Ripley, who only ever seems to react hysterically or emptily to what everyone else is doing. Burke, for example, is a character that does more, and the actor inhabits his skin much more comfortably, than does Ripley in Aliens. He (as the company) is the driving force between what happens in that film, why the colonists and marines are there, what happens with the Aliens, and how Ripley ends up behaving. Hicks, as the soldier, has a much more reasoned path during the film, I'm far more interested in what's going through his head as he comes to terms with what happens than I am with Ripley's shrieked expositions.