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Alien vs. Predator Update


Glenn X

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Glennx,

Where u a little disapointed with the comentary on the aliens Quad disk? I hate how they blended them in instead of letting you slect who you wanted to hear from . Like Michael Biehn,Lance Henriksen,Bill Paxton,Jenette Goldstein. I wanted more cast stories. I would lvoe to head over to Pine Wood studios and see the Hive that is still standing from what I understand.

On Alien 3 good old David really got shafted with that. Coming in without a full shooting script, all the BS with the producers really messed up what he could have done with it.

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Originally posted by steveo56

Glennx,

Where u a little disapointed with the comentary on the aliens Quad disk? I hate how they blended them in instead of letting you slect who you wanted to hear from . Like Michael Biehn,Lance Henriksen,Bill Paxton,Jenette Goldstein. I wanted more cast stories. I would lvoe to head over to Pine Wood studios and see the Hive that is still standing from what I understand.

On Alien 3 good old David really got shafted with that. Coming in without a full shooting script, all the BS with the producers really messed up what he could have done with it.

To be honest, I haven't had a chance to check out my copy of the Quadrilogy yet. I got it as a gift from my sister several months back and have been too busy to even crack it open.

As far as Cameron's commentary on the Aliens DVD being less than desired, just be happy that Cameron's voice is on there at all. Amazingly, Fox had planned to not even use him, as he's been so busy prepping his next movie (which many rumors hold is a remake of Fantastic Voyage). To wit: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/alienquad03.html "Fans should be grateful to have Cameron here [on the DVD commentary track]. His portions were recorded only at the very last minute due to schedule conflicts."

Regarding Fincher's experience on Alien 3, check this out: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/alienquad06.html "The documentary on [Quadrilogy] Disc Six, now simply titled The Making of Alien 3, was originally called Wreckage and Rape: The Making of Alien 3. More than thirty minutes of material that was produced for this documentary was cut at the last minute. You might be wondering what difference thirty minutes could make in a three hour documentary. A big difference. Gone now is much of the honesty and truth about the hell director David Fincher went through on the production. Among the footage lost were actual moments with Fincher on the set, where you saw his frustration and anger. You saw his struggles with producers. You heard from Sigourney and the other cast and crew members talking about the problems, and what a raw deal Fincher got. You even heard from the film's producers and Fox executives talking about what went wrong. Simply put, this disc was about as good a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Alien 3 as you could ever hope to get, short of Fincher returning to address the production himself (and he WAS asked to do so, but declined). Unfortunately, what you get now, while it still does contain some of the above (including material that you've never seen before), it sort of teases the stuff you really want to know, then glosses by it."

Gamebreaker, if you're interested, here's the skinny on William Gibson's unused Alien 3 screenplay. Gibson, author of such cyberpunk sci-fi literature classics as Neuromancer and Count Zero, was hired by Alien and Aliens producers David Giler & Walter Hill to write a screenplay for a third film in the series. Gibson did so, bringing his tech-heavy panache to the proceedings and producing an exciting, action-packed (albeit imperfect) tale of an alien infestation aboard a military space station inhabited by, among other characters, Hicks and Bishop from Aliens; Ripley and Newt, as per Giler & Hill's instructions to Gibson, were written out of Alien 3 and were to be brought back (after Gibson's cliffhanger ending to Alien 3) in Alien 4.

However, when Gibson wrote his screenplay, it was in 1988, just before Hollywood's WGA (Writers Guild of America) went on strike for what they perceived to be poor wages for their writing services from the movie studios and TV networks. Gibson, who was not yet a member of the WGA but didn't want to gain a reputation as a "scab," begged Giler & Hill to wait out the writer's strike and let him return to do rewrites on his screenplay after the strike had been resolved. However, in a huff, Giler & Hill fired Gibson for refusing to work through the strike, and began rewriting the script themselves.

Unable to rework Gibson's script to their own satisfaction, Giler & Hill junked Gibson's intriguing and eminently commercial ideas altogether, and began soliciting new writers for the project. Inexplicably, Giler & Hill eventually settled upon little-known and way idiosyncratic Aussie filmmaker Vincent Ward's utterly downbeat and totally luddite take on the third film, even agreeing to let Ward direct his wacky script for the movie. It was Ward who came up with the completely loony notion of Ripley, with nasty xenomorph in tow, crash-landing on a planet made entirely of wood and populated by monks (which, of course, was later changed to a regular planet, made of dirt and rock, with a populace of prisoners).

As if on cue, Ward then had a falling out with Giler & Hill and 20th Century Fox during preproduction on Alien 3 (the ubiquitous "creative differences" were publicly cited, natch), and the entire project remained in limbo for several weeks till David Fincher could be coaxed off a music video set in L.A. and convinced to helm the tottering picture. Fincher immediately voiced his displeasure at the state of the screenplay, and was told by Giler & Hill that he would be allowed to do some rewrite work on it before shooting began. However, once Fincher arrived on the Alien 3 set in London and attempted to have a screenwriter pal of his take a whack at the script, Fincher was informed by Giler & Hill and 20th Century Fox that the project was already too far along for such tinkering and would have to be made as-is.

And, as they say, the rest is history. :(

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Yeah, I read Gibson's script last night and from the link steveo56 posted. It was very good, although I didn't think limiting Ripley to such a small role in this movie would've been the best idea. It does save her for Alien 4, yet I would've settled for at least having Bishop and Hicks in some type of role instead of cannon fodder, as they were in the real film.

It really sucks that it's too late now to change all the mistakes they've made with the series. I wonder if they'll actually make another one, considering the way Resurrection ended.

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Spolier in here for some

Interview: Lance Henriksen

We talk with Alien vs. Predator's Charles Bishop Weyland.

May 11, 2004 - Fighting Aliens is a tough job. And with the exception of Sigourney Weaver, nobody knows that better than Alien franchise veteran Lance Henriksen. We recently sat down for a chat with Henriksen, who is returning to the series with Alien vs. Predator.

AvP begins as Henriksen's character, billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland, sets out with an expedition of scientists and archaeologists to explore a ruined temple buried deep beneath the southern ice cap. When they arrive, they crew find much more than they bargained for... a small group of young Predators have arrived for an interstellar coming-of-age hunt. They've come to hunt Alien, but they warm up by picking off the humans with nets and spears. And how's this for timing? Suddenly, the Alien hive – buried for millennia – awaken from hibernation and begin a relentless attack on man and Predator.

The cast also includes Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova and Ewen Bremner.

AvP, from director Paul Anderson, hits theaters on August 13.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: So what's it like to be back in the franchise?

LANCE HENRIKSEN: Oh, it's nice because this is closure [laughs]. I remember when I did the second one, Walter Hill said, "Go have a coffee and a donut and come back." And I said, "Walter, gee, I had such a good time with Bishop." But it worked out just fine. This one is really closure because I'm the guy that started the robotics that goes into the future, but they patterned the robots after me as sort of a memorial.

Q: What enticed you back?

HENRIKSEN: When Paul and I talked I said, "That's a great idea." This is such an adventure. It's Weyland's last hoorah in a sense. He thinks that it's just a pyramid and when we get down here, the s**t hits the fan. But it's an exciting adventure and that's why he's doing it. You should see some of the stuff we've done in Antarctica already. Unbelievable stuff.

Q: In the third Alien movie, was your character human?

HENRIKSEN: They were leaving that open because they weren't sure what they were going to do with me. But what I saw was that it was a more advanced model certainly. Again, I love the idea of the advanced models. And this is a prequel, so I feel happy and well rounded.

Q: Even though this is a prequel, it certainly has a different feel from any of the previous Alien movies.

HENRIKSEN: Oh, yeah. That's for sure. It really does. Paul's a different breed, and he loves and respects those movies. But his approach is definitely his own, and his affection for the whole genre – he knows them both really well.

Q: Can you talk about working with him?

HENRIKSEN: He's a great director. He's so full of details. He said something to me that said everything – if he hadn't been a director, he would have been an engineer or a designer. And you can see it. He had a hand in this, too – all of the imagery and the concept. He's really way ahead.

Q: Bishop was such a pacifist. Do you get to play a nasty character in this one?

HENRIKSEN: No. I'm a good guy. I love playing bad guys, but good guys that have a good thing going on I like that too. I don't like passive good guys. Bishop was nonviolent, but he wasn't passive.

Q: Is this the first time you haven't had to sit for a life cast?

HENRIKSEN: No, I did. They did it. And remember, Aliens is 20 years ago. When I saw the life cast I went, "Oh, no!" And it was kind of an odd paint job and I went, "Oh, geeze."

Q: So does the merging of the two franchises feel nature?

HENRIKSEN: It feels very natural. I worked with Arnold when we did the original Terminator. And I went and saw Predator, just not knowing what it was. And another guy that I had worked with before designed the Predator – Stan Winston. So it was almost like a family affair. I was rooting for it so much. I loved the movie; I thought it was great. But this is taking it to another dimension. Remember, that's an old movie too now. So they have moved all the technology they used in that way ahead. You're not going to believe what they're doing. The Predator vision and all of that stuff is a completely different deal.

Q: With so many of the effects being practical, does that make your job easier?

HENRIKSEN: The best thing about CGI is when you don't notice it. If you notice it, it's no good.

Q: But you don't have to deal with that on this film.

HENRIKSEN: We do. We will. But, again, it's wisely. It's not like we're depending on it. We've done so much live stuff; it's interesting. But they're really going to put the icing on it.

Q: Have the cast and crew hit you up for stories?

HENRIKSEN: Yeah, I've been really greeted nicely by the cast. They're nice people. We're really getting along, I must tell you. We really love each other. I don't mean love each other in a Pollyanna kind of way, but we really make each other laugh a lot and we kill the time between takes by having some fun. But they've seen all of those movies. One of the things Paul did was give everybody all of those movies to see. But this is our own world. This is another major step.

Q: You've been killed onscreen by a Terminator and an Alien. Does the Predator complete the circle in this film?

HENRIKSEN: Yeah, but I don't go down easy. The thing about this is you have, again, the advances. It's like going through the looking glass backwards here because now we're going back in time to before Alien. What's happened, though, is because of the way he structured the script has such logic to it all and makes such sense. We know those movies before and we're not denying that you know them, and so when you see this movie you're going to see something completely different. But it's got those genres in it. So he's a very clever dog, he really is.

Q: Besides your character, are there other nods to the franchise?

HENRIKSEN: Oh, there's a lot of nods in this, but they're more treats than anything. Like, Sigourney's not doing any of this or anything like that. And the character of Lex is totally different than anything that Sigourney was ever doing. The only similarity of course is that she's a heroine and Sanaa is really up to the challenge.

Q: Do you think it's important to the franchise to have a strong heroine?

HENRIKSEN: I think so. There are guys in this, too, remember. I don't know what the psychology is behind it – I really haven't been clever enough to figure that one out yet. But there's something very comforting about a matriarchal figure battling. It's like they always say, "There's nothing more fierce than a mother lion." And then the Alien Queen is another matriarchal character.

Q: Which character is worse: Predator or Alien?

HENRIKSEN: Well, the Predator is more human. To me, the Aliens were always a mixture of like a tick or a parasite of some kind that was just indestructible. That's frightening to me. The Predator, believe it or not, they're more romantic. They have a culture and a code, where the other ones don't. Their code is survival.

Q: Were you at all familiar with the comics or videogames?

HENRIKSEN: Never looked at them. The first thing I did was I tried to get a Franck Muller watch because I knew Weyland being a billionaire would have the finest. And I did – I have one that I use in the movie. So things like that; I was starting to structure what a billionaire is. I tried to call Bill Gates and say, "Look, let's have lunch." He wouldn't even call me back. But it was trying to see all the conditions that this guy has. He's very ill and he's got a clock running. My whole thing in this is that there's a clock running and I've got to keep going. The train's left the station and I can't stop until it's over.

Q: Can you talk about being cast in the film?

HENRIKSEN: I was the first one cast in the movie. Paul and I met in the Beverly Hills Hotel – we sat around having coffee – and Paul was gracious enough to literally for two hours tell me every scene in the movie. I was stunned because he has this incredible enthusiasm for what he's doing and what his vision is that he had energy to do that. So I was really welcomed. It wasn't like a bunch of strangers in a way because Paul was already not a stranger.

Q: Your character has proven there's no such thing as death in these films. Would you be interested in coming back for a sequel?

HENRIKSEN: I have no idea. Paul and I were joking and I said, "Paul, what if I start out as a rickety model – a really poor prototype?" But when it comes to writers, you have no idea. Anything is possible. But for me, this is closure.

Q: Is there humor in the film?

HENRIKSEN: Yeah, but its going to be while we're busy doing other things. It's that kind of humor, as opposed to laughing at itself. It's not doing that at all.

Q: Humans really are the morons in this – they set the whole thing in motion?

HENRIKSEN: Well, it's a little bit like you don't know what you're getting into. It's like walking into the mouth of an alligator and not knowing you're there. You walk in and go, "This looks familiar, but I don't know what it is." It begins innocently enough – Antarctica and seeing a pyramid under the ice. That's an innocent thing because if it were true, it would be an incredible find. We're not saying its Atlanteans; we're just saying it's a pyramid under the ice.

-- Steven Horn

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As far as Cameron's commentary on the Aliens DVD being less than desired, just be happy that Cameron's voice is on there at all. Amazingly, Fox had planned to not even use him, as he's been so busy prepping his next movie (which many rumors hold is a remake of Fantastic Voyage). To wit: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/alienquad03.html "Fans should be grateful to have Cameron here [on the DVD commentary track]. His portions were recorded only at the very last minute due to schedule conflicts."

The problem was not Cameron it was the company the put it together. The comentary was cool. I just wanted to have the ability to listen to them seperatly instead of each group cutting each other off.One min its CAmeron, then the next it's Cast then Gale and Stan. The Comentary for Alien is great as well. It's also nice to see where the Line from Hudson came from "Right,right, sombody said Alien she thought they said illegal aliens and signed up. Jenette Goldstein coming mto the casting call thinking Aliens was a movie about illegal immagrants show up in a skirt , long hair and makeup. Looking around and seeing all kinds of battle gear. Great stuff.

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Originally posted by steveo56

It's also nice to see where the Line from Hudson came from "Right,right, sombody said Alien she thought they said illegal aliens and signed up. Jenette Goldstein coming mto the casting call thinking Aliens was a movie about illegal immagrants show up in a skirt , long hair and makeup. Looking around and seeing all kinds of battle gear. Great stuff.

Yeah, I've been aware of that story for awhile. Funny stuff. :)

I recall attending a retrospective on Cameron's work at the Egyptian Theatre in L.A. back when I was going to film school at USC in the late '90s and when producer Gale Anne Hurd came out at the end of the screening of Aliens and started telling old "war stories," I knew how a lot of them ended right off the bat because I'm such an Aliens nerd and have read so much stuff about it over the years. :)

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So did you end up staying in film ? Switching careers going corprate?? still working? I actually was a second AC on DAwsons Creek for a while down in Wilmington. Had the op to work on One Tree Hill but turned that down. TV can be the dregs!

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Originally posted by Ghost of Nibbs McPimpin

As I read Henriksen's interview I kept hearing the Predator score in my head. Which isn't a bad thing, I guess.

Indeed. However, Harald Kloser (The Thirteenth Floor) will be scoring the film. If I had my druthers, James Horner (Aliens) would've been hired. But I guess I should just be happy that Marco Beltrami (T3), whose work I detest, was replaced on AVP by Kloser, whose work has a bolder and more heroic quality to it.

Originally posted by steveo56

So did you end up staying in film ? Switching careers going corprate?? still working? I actually was a second AC on DAwsons Creek for a while down in Wilmington. Had the op to work on One Tree Hill but turned that down. TV can be the dregs!

I graduated several years ago and then decided that I wanted to work for myself, doing freelance photog (primarily video) and freelance editing gigs. However, I've grown tired of that. I think I'm gonna go back to college and pursue my doctorate in media studies, as I was always pretty good at film analysis and actually rather enjoyed it. In fact, I recall a film theory professor of mine asking me during my last semester at 'SC if I was going on to grad school for media studies. As a matter of fact, she didn't even really state it as a question. She stated it more as an expectation, like: "You are going on to grad school, right?"

I should've responded, "Yes, I am." But instead I said something like, "No, I'm gonna try to go make my own little movies and see where that goes." Looking back, that was a mistake.

My big problem has been that, as much as I love James Cameron, I'm (unfortunately) not him. To make it as a director, you have to love the process, love it as much as or even more than the final product because sometimes the final product doesn't turn out as you hoped it would. However, I always hated the process, always hated the hurry-up-and-wait rhythm of the set, always hated the daily crisis-management that comes with being the boss on the show, dealing with moody actors and on-set difficulties -- and there are almost always on-set difficulties. I loved the final product the most. (Well, I loved the final product when it was good anyway. :laugh: ) I even loved assembling the final product in the editing room. But getting to that point? Ugh, fougedaboudit. However, as I said, to be a director, you have to love all that stuff. Well, you have to love solving all those problems and getting through all that stuff. And that kinda stuff seemed to mostly bore me.

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So you want to get out of production? Usually it's the oppisite.

The PROCESS! Ah yes. Being a Director/dictator on set and off then getting told what to do by the producers:rolleyes: Fussy actors, most I have been around have been very nice to work with so far.Takes 2-3 hours to set up for a shot then all the fun of coverage. Most of the time a 14 hour day would fly by.

So are you a big fan of Piranha Part Two: The Spawning? JK!?

So what do you usually edit on? FC4,Vegas,Avid?quantel?Premier?

Good luck with going back to School. Good stuff.

:cheers: :thumbsup:

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Harald Kloser's work on The Day after Tomorrow sounds good so far. Hope he does a good job on AVP as well. Alien 3's score was actually good I thought. AR was a waste ,Alien is great as well but that new extended version of Aliens The Soundtrack is really ,really good.

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Originally posted by codeorama

Piranna II!!!

I post over at a Piranna II fan site message board all the time...

Did you ever wonder what the deeper and broader implications of that film were?

j/k

:joker: :allhail: :nutkick:

Code did you ever check out vhlinks.com with there download section? Lots of boots you can download from the Sammy and Roth Days.

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Originally posted by steveo56

:joker: :allhail: :nutkick:

Code did you ever check out vhlinks.com with there download section? Lots of boots you can download from the Sammy and Roth Days.

NO, didn't know about it...

Thanks for the link, I'll check that out when I get home tonight.:notworthy

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Originally posted by steveo56

So you want to get out of production? Usually it's the oppisite.

Well, even though screenwriters are typically regarded within the business as being just about as significant to the filmmaking process as craft services, I wouldn't mind writing screenplays for a living. :)

Originally posted by steveo56

So are you a big fan of Piranha Part Two: The Spawning? JK!?

Cameron summed that flick up best, jokingly calling it "the finest flying piranha movie ever made." :laugh:

Originally posted by steveo56

So what do you usually edit on? FC4,Vegas,Avid?quantel?Premier?

Mostly Premiere, as it works so effortlessly with my Canon XL-1 and most of the other "prosumer" equipment that I own.

Originally posted by steveo56

Good luck with going back to School.

Thanks. :)

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Originally posted by Glenn X

Well, even though screenwriters are typically regarded within the business as being just about as significant to the filmmaking process as craft services, I wouldn't mind writing screenplays for a living. :)

Hey 20 grand an episode for TV ain't to shabby! Do a few of those a year and your doing pretty darn good and in your time away from from TV writing your ALIENS would be great! I really enjoyed Robert McKee's book as well as Christopher Keane's book. Would be great to land a great United Talent Agent like M Night did, 5 mill to write 6 to direct and about 10-15 percent in the back. Most important is getting paid that money while DOING SOMETHING YOU LOVE! Awesome stuff.

Cameron summed that flick up best, jokingly calling it "the finest flying piranha movie ever made." :laugh:

Mostly Premiere, as it works so effortlessly with my Canon XL-1 and most of the other "prosumer" equipment that I own.

I was a premiereuser as well and have switch to the Dark Side of Sony Vegas with my X-l1s as well. Premiere crashed a lot on me. Vegas so far has be awesome with After effects. But a Timeline is a timeline. XL-1 is a great cam though.

Thanks. :)

:writing: :thumbsup: :writing: :writing: :writing:
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Courtesy of www.planetavp.com, there are 3 new AVP clips available. To see them, either go to www.planetavp.com and scroll down to the entry for June 11, 2004 or click here:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/internet_exclusive/

http://dishab.no-ip.org/avp-accesshollywood.wmv

http://www.angelfire.com/music5/ont-ska/avp-exc.mov (For this link to work properly, you'll have to cut-and-paste it directly to the address bar of your browser.)

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I just saw the trailer for Alien Vs Predator while at the theater to see "The Chronicles of Riddick." The new trailer is really cool. Yes, there are multiple Aliens, and atleast 3 or 4 Predators. I'm really looking forward to this one. It looks more like "Aliens" then any of the other Alien movies, or Predator 1 and 2. That's not a bad thing, as "Aliens" was the best of the bunch.

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Yeah, the preview in the Chronicles of Riddick were pretty cool...

Definitely looks interesting. I'm not sure it'll be 'good' at least not as good as the impending attacks in the first Aliens.

Never really got into the Predator movies anyhow, but the concepts pretty cool. I especially like the pan shot with all the aliens running up the pyramid and the Predators throwing em off.

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