Glenn X Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 If you'd like to see a trio of behind-the-scenes featurettes on 20th Century Fox's upcoming Alien vs. Predator, go to the film's official site and click on the tab entitled "view trailer." The third featurette is the most interesting one, as it gives the greatest overall sense of what the finished film will (hopefully) be like. I'm still bracing for the worst but am guardedly optimistic that Paul Anderson may just be able to pull this puppy off. One thing's for sure -- Anderson sure can construct some mean action sequences. In fact, at this point, my only real quibble with AVP is the fact that Anderson passed on hiring FX whiz Stan Winston, who designed and realized the creature FX on Predator and won an Oscar for his superlative makeup FX work on Aliens, instead opting to go with Tom Woodruff, Jr. & Alec Gillis, whose creature FX work on Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection is nearly universally regarded as being subpar. For one thing, I can't stand the design changes Woodruff & Gillis have made to the aliens, inexplicably junking the elegant biomechanical texturing of the jawline, neck, shoulders, and upper arms of the creatures in Alien and Aliens, going instead with a look for these parts of the aliens that honestly looks like it's straight out of that dopey Pumpkinhead horror flick from the late '80s. P.S. I feel compelled to correct a mistake that I made in an earlier AVP thread on this board in which I stated that the basic premise of the AVP movie (and the long-running comic book series) is that the predators bioengineered the aliens for, in essence, the biggest of big-game hunts. Apparently, I had my facts wrong, as I recently came across an interview with Randy Stradley, who penned the original AVP comic book back in 1989, in which he explained that it was always his idea that the predators were able to harvest and deploy alien eggs only after they'd captured an alien queen and forced her to seed their hunting grounds. The following item, which is associated with the upcoming movie, makes it clear that this is indeed the case: "The wait is almost over, as one of the most highly anticipated match-ups in cinematic history makes its way to the big screen this summer. Alien vs. Predator... The Captive Alien Queen is depicted here, writhing against the chains that hold her, her acidic blood oozing from multiple wounds. This mini bust is one of the most dynamic and kinetic that Palisades has ever produced." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 man. that looks insane. Wish they didn't have to add humans to the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdsknbill Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Sweet trailer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 I'm very pumped for this movie... I hope they follow it up with a cool game for the Xbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor The Invincible Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 I think this movie will be a complete disaster... ahem. It just looks like another Freddy vs Jason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo21 Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Yeah, Paul Anderson was interviewed on Howerd Stern a few weeks back saying that this film is going to be very dark. Like Alien and Aliens, taking the serious tone that they did. He also stated that he thought Freddy VS Jason was very week and that this film AVP will have a deffient winner. I know some people who went to showest and thay said the 5 min tralier was just awesome. I posted that peace last week also. http://www.extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59583&highlight=avp Code you should check out http://avpgalaxy.t35.com/ to get the geek fix like myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Thanks steveo.... cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn X Posted May 5, 2004 Author Share Posted May 5, 2004 Originally posted by Skeletor The InvincibleI think this movie will be a complete disaster... It just looks like another Freddy vs Jason. Then you've clearly never read Dark Horse Comics' excellent AVP comic books, which have been going strong since 1989. Trust me, this concept is a strong one. Now, it's simply up to Anderson, who's been rather up (Resident Evil) and down (Soldier) in his career, to do justice to that concept. Originally posted by steveo56 you should check out http://avpgalaxy.t35.com/ to get the geek fix like myself. Nice find, steveo. In my opinion, this is the best AVP website out there: http://www.planetavp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo21 Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Glennx I have to agree with you on that one big time. Very nice site! Thanks! Notice in that featurette how Anderson pays some repect to he ship in Aliens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo21 Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Right here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earl Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 i have mixed emotions about the movie. i liked all the original movies but i don't know how i feel about a fusion. on the other hand the aliens probably are more convincing then arnold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn X Posted May 9, 2004 Author Share Posted May 9, 2004 steveo, are you talking about the U.S.C.M.C. vessel, the U.S.S. Sulaco, or the Weyland-Yutani Corporation's interlocking "WY" logo, which can be seen in the background of that screencap you attached (well, at least the "W" part of it can be seen, as Charles Weyland's company has yet to merge with the Yutani Corp. in Anderson's film)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Sanaa Lathan is in this movie. Not only is she an incredible actress, but she is FINE, FINE, FINE. I'll definitely be seeing this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn X Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 Ditto, Gamebreaker. Sanaa Lathan is babelicious. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo21 Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Yup. the Sulaco is it. It's cool to see he is paying homage to the other films .(ALIEN and ALIENS.) I wonder if they will cover the business merger in later films. I know Cameron talked about it on the Alien Quadrilogy a little. Also Sanaa Lathan is hot.:point2sky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Sanaa Lathan? Already hit, moving on to the next one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Originally posted by Ghost of Joe Bibbs Sanaa Lathan? Already hit, moving on to the next one Sure, Ghost. And then you woke up...:laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Originally posted by Gamebreaker Sure, Ghost. And then you woke up...:laugh: Yeah, I woke up to the reality that women are a cruel sort, who like to pull an unsuspecting man into some sort of bizarre ritual of rejection even when said man was just chillin' and not bothering them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn X Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 Originally posted by steveo56 Yup. the Sulaco is it. It's cool to see he is paying homage to the other films .(ALIEN and ALIENS.) I wonder if they will cover the business merger in later films. I know Cameron talked about it on the Alien Quadrilogy a little. There's no denying that AVP is the first Alien film since Cameron's superlative Aliens that has legitimate, bona fide, no-doubt-about-it commercial potential. Unfortunately, Alien 3 was too concerned with taking everything that had been accomplished in its immediate predecessor and flushing it down the toilet, ticking off legions of fans in the process, and Alien Resurrection was too concerned with... Uh, to be honest, I'm not sure what exactly they were trying to do in Alien Resurrection, as that film turned out to be such a disjointed mess. It's clear from interviews that Anderson's a huge fan of Alien, Aliens, and Predator, which is good because it shows that he has good taste in this area. (Conversely, if he were talking about how "great and underrated" Alien 3 is, I'd be very, very worried!) However, in light of this fact, I don't really understand why Anderson didn't immediately go out and hire Stan Winston, who was so instrumental in the making of Aliens and Predator, to do the FX on AVP. I mean, it's not like Winston didn't want to do AVP. Hell, I remember him doing publicity for T3 and saying things like, "I hear that they're gonna do AVP. Man, I'd love to be involved with that. I loved doing Aliens and the two Predator movies so much." So I just can't fathom why Anderson would instead choose Tom Woodruff, Jr. & Alec Gillis, who couldn't hold Winston's jock with all four of their hands combined, to handle the FX chores on this flick. As far as that AVP set in that attached pic looking like the cargo bay from the Sulaco, I don't really see it myself. I mean, I don't think it looks way different from the Sulaco's cargo bay, but it's not exactly the spitting image either. However, it's certainly nice to see Anderson using the same "company" logo (albeit modified just a bit) from Cameron's movie. What's interesting is that Weyland-Yutani Corp. was supposedly the name of "the company" back in the original Alien, but you'd never know that from watching the film, as there's not a single "WY" logo in the whole movie and no character ever refers to his/her employer as anything other than "the company." In fact, the first time I recall "the company" being given an actual name was in Aliens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McMetal Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Finally! Been waiting for this flick to get made for years...should be worth the wait. When's the estimated release date? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Ghost, that one went right over my head man. Glenn X, Aliens was my favorite movie of the quadrilogy. I disliked Aliens 3 the most, I didn't even want to finish watching it after the first 20 minutes. It just seemed too unrealistic. How could exactly did the alien even get in Ripley while she was in cryosleep? Why kill off ALL the other surviving characters, like Corporal Hicks, who were actually cool?? And the rest of the movie was just depressing and dumb. I wasn't too happy about Resurrection either, especially how they left the ending so wide open like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo21 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 I have a feeling Budget or loyalty to Cameron might have been a reason Stan didn't show up for it? He could have been booked solid work wise also? He just gushes all over James in the Aliens comentary. Who knows? Studio heads always have the final say. I would love to see Ridley an James work together on a Alien flick and write off A3 and AR. Braing back Newt, Hicks and Ripley and delve in to the space jockey. As far as Anderson? It seems like he has more love for the Alien. I think this will be the first flick he really pulls off. I wasn't a huge fan of RE but it made mad cash overseas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom [Giants fan] Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 What was wrong with Freddy vs. Jason? I thought it was pretty good. I'm looking forward to the sequel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn X Posted May 11, 2004 Author Share Posted May 11, 2004 Originally posted by McMetal When's the estimated release date? Middle of August. Originally posted by Gamebreaker Aliens was my favorite movie of the quadrilogy. Agreed. I love Alien to death... but Aliens is not only my favorite film of the entire series, it's my favorite film period. Cameron took what was there in the first movie and expanded it in so many different directions -- cinematographically, editorially, narratively, FX-wise, genre-wise -- that it's damn near impossible to not be impressed by his film. Originally posted by Gamebreaker I disliked Aliens 3 the most, I didn't even want to finish watching it after the first 20 minutes. It just seemed too unrealistic. How could exactly did the alien even get in Ripley while she was in cryosleep? Amen. That egg in Alien 3 couldn't have found it's way onto the Sulaco because the Queen rendered herself incapable of birthing again when she tore asunder her eggsac to go after Ripley & Co. at the end of Aliens. Originally posted by Gamebreaker Why kill off ALL the other surviving characters, like Corporal Hicks, who were actually cool?? And the rest of the movie was just depressing and dumb. Amen again. I think the problems on Alien 3 can probably best be summed up by something that director David Fincher (who has since gone on to bigger and better things) said in an interview prior to the film's theatrical release: "A friend of mine said to me the other day, 'Hey, even if it sucks, it'll still make money. It's an Alien movie, man. You could piss on a wall for five minutes and call it Alien 3 and it'll still make $30 million on opening weekend.'" If only the geniuses at 20th Century Fox and Brandywine Productions had stuck with cyberpunk novelist William Gibson's intriguing ideas in his initial (and ultimately unused) draft of Alien 3's screenplay instead of inexplicably opting for Vincent Ward's low-tech and ultra-downbeat take on the third installment's story... Originally posted by Gamebreaker I wasn't too happy about Resurrection either, especially how they left the ending so wide open like that. AR was a mess because Fox didn't know what it wanted to do on that movie. Fox execs kept giving interviews to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, saying things like: "Yeah, we're gonna return to the kick-ass, balls-to-the-wall-style action of Aliens on this next flick. That's why we've hired Joss Whedon, who did an uncredited but very substantial rewrite of Speed, to write AR's script. Don't worry, folks. This movie's gonna rock." Then they went out and hired a French artsy-fartsy type like Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the film! Look, if you want a quirky live-action cartoon, Jeunet's your man. But if you want a slick action movie, he's not your man. Simply put, that was the first of many mistakes the studio made on AR. Originally posted by steveo56 I have a feeling Budget or loyalty to Cameron might have been a reason Stan didn't show up for it? He could have been booked solid work wise also? He just gushes all over James in the Aliens comentary. Who knows? Studio heads always have the final say. If fealty to Cameron were the reason, then why did Winston agree to do the Cameron-less T3? No, Winston isn't working on AVP because Anderson never thought to ask him to do so. And why is that? Because Anderson already has a working relationship with Tom Woodruff, Jr. & Alec Gillis, going all the way back to Anderson's first big movie, Mortal Kombat. Originally posted by steveo56 I would love to see Ridley an James work together on a Alien flick and write off A3 and AR. Braing back Newt, Hicks and Ripley and delve in to the space jockey. Me too, man. Me too. Unfortunately, however, I doubt that'll ever happen. Several months back, Ridley Scott gave an interview to some Japanese entertainment magazine in which he said that he was thinking of directing (with Cameron writing and producing) a new Alien movie that would take place in between the timelines of Alien 3 and AR, a movie that would feature Bishop II, the android doppelganger seen at the end of Alien 3, heading a Weyland-Yutani expedition to the homeworld of the derelict spacecraft from the first movie, an expedition that would lead to the very origins of the acid-blooded xenomorphs. I got all excited about what Scott said... but then I realized that he and Cameron make statements like this once every three or four years, and nothing ever comes of it. Originally posted by steveo56 As far as Anderson? It seems like he has more love for the Alien. Indeed. Which I've always found odd, considering that Anderson's hyper-kinetic visual style has far more in common with that of James Cameron or John McTiernan (who helmed Predator) than Ridley Scott's comparatively sedate approach. Originally posted by steveo56 I think this will be the first flick he really pulls off. I wasn't a huge fan of RE but it made mad cash overseas. Considering that most zombie movies tend to be direct-to-video cheapies, I think one has to truly marvel at the invitingly glossy and technically polished nature of Anderson's commandos-versus-the-undead-in-confined-quarters spectacle. In fact, I feel that Resident Evil is clearly the high water mark in Anderson's oeuvre, a body of work that has been maddeningly erratic to date, fluctuating between tantalizing near-misses like Event Horizon and bloated dreck like Soldier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Glenn X, Do you know where I could see a copy of the unused Alien 3 script they should've used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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