What next for the Alien?

I've just started reading through the Alien RPG. Looks like a lot of almost-certainly-fatal-for-the-PCs fun...
 
Tying into Prometheus would be the next logical step. The previous film just omitted too many details to be a completed story. There's a guy on YT call Kroft talks that gives great details about the Alien universe, great stuff.
 
"The series is billed as being the first Alien story set on Earth, and will blend the timeless horror of the original 1979 movie and the non-stop action of the 1986 James Cameron-directed second."

Back to the beginning. Maybe they will resurrect The Invaders, or blend The Invaders, Species, and The Arrival into an X-Files format, so it doesn't get bogged down in the Earthly mud. One thing it will probably have is lots of drama. I wonder if setting the show on Earth frees up money that would normally go into special effects.
 
Surely another twist on Weyland-Yutani corporation or another company doing experiments on Aliens/alien DNA they have brought back to earth before some escape. I would hope it is something set in something enclosed like a factory, at least for the first few episodes. Having them rampage through a city could be wild too. Though with their nesting/queen centred characteristics I suppose they could be nuked..unless they spread to multiple sites before the defence was organised.
Could otherwise be at a remote location if for some reason communications were down. Tricky in the internet age.
Alternatively it could be some slow thing with hints of a potential alien escape and the actual action taking some time. I don't think that would work well. Neither would tanks roaming around a landscape blasting away at aliens. Combining both the horror and action is not easy.
 
Alien is one of my favourite films. Aliens is also very good, but I have a soft spot for Alien 3, despite the obvious production problems that marred it. Resurrection is an abomination. I have never seen the Predator crossovers.

I liked Prometheus a lot. It was convoluted and the crew were underdeveloped compared to other entries, but on the whole I think it's underrated. Covenant was interesting and had some good scenes, but for the most part was very disappointing (not least for the near complete absence of any practical FX). Still, I would like to have seen the story resolved. I'd be more than happy to have Scott's third prequel film come along, link into the first Alien film somehow (which is what he said was his intention) and then the franchise be left alone.

An Alien 5 could be fun... Even though I'm not a fan of the 4th film, it could be a nice change to have an entry set on earth. While on some level I'd like to forget the 4th exists, I don't really think it's right to ignore a film's existence just because the majority don't like it, and then carry on a franchise (eg. X-Men trying to overwrite "The Last Stand" with "DOFP" and "Dark Pheonix"... or to a less explicit extent, what happened with SW: Rise of Skywalker). The Neil Blomkamp film that was rumoured and has since disappeared into the void I was not keen on the idea of at all, simply because it was going to ignore Alien 3 and 4. I think that kind of thing overcomplicates things and risks alienating part of the audience.

A while back a series of Alien shorts were released, written and directed by smaller names in the industry. It felt like a promotional that was going to lead to something, and it wasn't long after Disney bought Fox, if memory serves me. I always thought it a bit odd that nothing really followed on from that.
 
Alien uses the horror genre, which is why the creature is shown only later. But with that, Aliens could no longer use horror, so it switched to action, and did very well in that (unlike in recent movies, the action takes place only in the latter third or so of the film).

Given those two points, the third movie had to use another genre, and settled on the equivalent of detective fiction. Gibson's unused script for it would have focused on a political thriller, which is hinted at at the end of the third movie and made more explicit in the fourth. Given that, one wonders what they plan to do with the TV show, although they might be free to do anything as the franchise appears to be in reboot mode, i.e., the prequels borrow heavily from the first two movies and can be seen without watching the earlier films.

Some problems with Aliens, though, which is considered on of the best in the franchise, together with Alien:

Obviously, Burke isn't working alone as he gets a percentage, and given the fact that he knew about the location of the derelict ship, then that means that the shuttle included logs from the Nostromo, which would have been enough for the company to confirm part of Ripley's report.

But even with that, they don't bother to send a prepared team to the ship, and have a better-prepared armed expedition to recover alien artifacts and organisms, not to mention system redundancies in both the colony, Sulaco, and even the ground team. This carelessness goes against decades of exploring over 300 worlds with their indigenous lifeforms, the presence of a marine unit specializing in "bug hunts," and potential profits that could be made from gain of function.
 
paeng said:
Alien uses the horror genre, which is why the creature is shown only later. But with that, Aliens could no longer use horror, so it switched to action, and did very well in that (unlike in recent movies, the action takes place only in the latter third or so of the film).

Given those two points, the third movie had to use another genre, and settled on the equivalent of detective fiction. Gibson's unused script for it would have focused on a political thriller, which is hinted at at the end of the third movie and made more explicit in the fourth. Given that, one wonders what they plan to do with the TV show, although they might be free to do anything as the franchise appears to be in reboot mode, i.e., the prequels borrow heavily from the first two movies and can be seen without watching the earlier films.

Some problems with Aliens, though, which is considered on of the best in the franchise, together with Alien:

Obviously, Burke isn't working alone as he gets a percentage, and given the fact that he knew about the location of the derelict ship, then that means that the shuttle included logs from the Nostromo, which would have been enough for the company to confirm part of Ripley's report.

But even with that, they don't bother to send a prepared team to the ship, and have a better-prepared armed expedition to recover alien artifacts and organisms, not to mention system redundancies in both the colony, Sulaco, and even the ground team. This carelessness goes against decades of exploring over 300 worlds with their indigenous lifeforms, the presence of a marine unit specializing in "bug hunts," and potential profits that could be made from gain of function.
Click to expand...

They could bring in both the Predators and the Engineers into the series.
 
I've always suspected that the Alien evolved acidic blood to help it fend off the Thing. In seriousness, the Alien from Alien and the Thing feel as if they might inhabit the same grisly universe.
 
I remember how the Daleks went from hide behind the sofa scary, with ruthless totalitarian resonances, to corny parody with cheap, inaccurate plastic toys.
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To me, a franchise is something that always ends destroying the original. Like the punch line of a joke, it doesn't work on repetition.
There should really have only been the one iconic alien movie. Everything subsequent is driven by cynical and risk averse Hollywood accountants as much as by creativity.
 
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Astro Pen said:
I remember how the Daleks went from hide behind the sofa scary, with ruthless totalitarian resonances, to corny parody with cheap, inaccurate plastic toys.
View attachment 94699View attachment 94700

To me, a franchise is something that always ends destroying the original. Like the punch line of a joke, it doesn't work on repetition.
There should really have only been the one iconic alien movie. Everything subsequent is driven by cynical and risk averse Hollywood accountants as much as creativity.
Click to expand...
So many of the classic Doctor Who villains were very scary to me. Now they just serve to push whatever preachy message has been deemed necessary that week.
 
The Borg suffered the same thing as the Daleks.

It's difficult to balance a brilliantly devised enemy with the need for our hero to be able to consistently "win" as it only serves to make the enemy less threatening and less interesting. I'm not sure if anyone has done it well. (I'd argue Babylon 5 and the Shadow story arc.)

As for the Alien Franchise? I'd like to see them get into a major populated area. Terrifying.
 
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