Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

It’s been 30 years since audiences were introduced to a whole new kind of terror. From the moment the iconic trailer played to unsuspecting cinema-goers it was evident that Alien would forever change the face of both the horror and sci-fi genres. In those 30 years the franchise went from being improved by the genius of James Cameron in the sequel Aliens, to just ticking over in David Fincher‘s Alien3, to taking a bizarre, nonsensical dive in Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s Alien: Resurrection and finally being wounded and subsequently pounded into the ground by the two Alien vs Predator movies. But it was announced earlier this year that the legendary director that birthed the legendary franchise would be returning to make the 5th (not counting the AVP movies) installment, a prequel. That’s right, Sir Ridley Scott is coming home. But is it too little, too late?

Ridley Scott taught us the true meaning of terror and suspense back in 1979 and despite not returning to the horror genre since (Unless you count Hannibal), more than proved his worth in the sci-fi genre with Blade Runner and showed us the meaning of realistic action in Black Hawk Down. Add to that his consistent string of great dramas, thrillers and big budget historical epics, and it seems that if anyone is capable of breathing life back into the franchise it will be Scott.

As the film has only just been announced and given a tentative 2011 release, details are slim pickings at best. Rumours bounced around the intertubes saying that the story would focus on the space jockeys – remember, the big-ass pilot creature with it’s chest blown out from the ship exploration scene in Alien – and how the acid-blooded nasties found their way to LV-426 in the first place. A recent article on Empire, however suggests that this won’t be the case. Scott suggests that it would take place approximately 30 years before Captain Dallas landed Ripley and the rest of the crew of the Nostromo on the baron rock. This could suggest some dark history that may go to explain why Ripley’s destiny became so entwined with the alien creature… or it might not have anything to do with Ripley, who knows? Perhaps it will look into how the Weyland Yutani Corporation became aware of the aliens’ presence on the planet, a subject handled, in the AVP films, with all the finesse of a palsy victim performing brain surgery with a pipe wrench. Without a sniff of plot, cast or setting it’s anyone’s guess.

What is certain, though, is that this is a project with the utmost fragility. The franchise sits on a knife-edge. The fans still love it but one more farcical or ham-fisted installment could see even the most die-hard losing faith. Not just in the franchise, but also in the director who fathered it. It would seem that this installment of Alien could be likened to those green balls of VX poison gas from The Rock. Not only is it very easy to break, should that happen it could prove deadly to the career and reputation of whoever broke it. Rather you than me, Sir Ridley. Rather you than me. I’ll tell you one thing though; if you put Russell Crowe in it I will personally shit through your letter box. Capiche!?