hatch or chest-burster

July 28, 2010 8:00 PM

Damon Lindelof to rewrite Alien Prequel?
Collider says "Lindelof reportedly met with Scott and 20th Century Fox to talk about the gig, but also ended up sparking a discussion that “could well turn out to be a free-standing science fiction film.”
Thumbs up? Down? I wasn't a fan of 'Lost', but Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine did the trick for me...
posted by vhsiv (87 comments total)

I must be missing something. Without the aliens, what story is there to tell in that continuity that is worth watching?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:12 PM on July 28, 2010

I'm not at all interested in a Damon Lindelof Alien prequel.

I am interested in anything else he wants to do, though. I don't get why companies want to take a creative genius like him and have him work with old IP. Same deal with Abrams. Let them do something new. Let hacks do hack work.
posted by empath at 8:14 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

"Alien without Alien" - The story of how Ripley completely freaks out with Cabin Fever with paranoid schizophrenic delusions that a monster is out to get her.
posted by qvantamon at 8:16 PM on July 28, 2010 [4 favorites]

The most shocking thing in the Collider article was that Ridley Scott is attached to a future movie version of the board game Monopoly?!?
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:17 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

So the Aliens were all in purgatory?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 PM on July 28, 2010

Screw the prequel. What they really need to do is to make Alien 3.

Now THAT would be an awesome movie!
posted by darkstar at 8:18 PM on July 28, 2010 [9 favorites]

Ironically, this is the first use of the 'frequent_mefi_topic' tag.
posted by mannequito at 8:18 PM on July 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

But seriously, what do you mean, Chocolate Pickle? From reading the articles, it appears that it will either be a prequel (and the aliens did exist before the first movie, so it's not necessarily "without the aliens"), or it won't be on the continuity at all.
posted by qvantamon at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2010

Haven't we heard enough from Lindelof? I wanna know what Carlton Cuse's next project is (and that it's NOT a reboot of "Nash Bridges").
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2010

Huh? I don't get the endless permutations of Alien. Yes, the second one had some cool stuff, Cameron, but the first one is a real FILM. The second is a sequel, and nothing more. And the rest? Who cares?!?
posted by agregoli at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm a strangely big fan of all the proper Alien movies. Alien was a superb haunted house movie; Aliens was a superb action movie; Alien^3 presented great-looking footage of a troubled production, complete with a superb Elliot Goldenthal score; and Alien: Resurrection was a nutty French sci-fi movie which brought me to happy memories of Heavy Metal and Taboo magazine.

I'd rather eat a bumblebee than watch AvP ever again, though.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:23 PM on July 28, 2010 [8 favorites]

Oh, also, Jim Woodring wrote an Alien comic book and it was fantastic. Having a scientist walk a xenomorph on a leash is a great idea.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:26 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

agregoli, in a world where "sequel" generally means "repeat the first film's formula, but with a couple of new gimmicks", Aliens is a completely different formula based on the same scenario and characters. Kinda like Inglourious Basterds to Schindler's List.

*ducks*
posted by qvantamon at 8:26 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

> Huh? I don't get the endless permutations of Alien.

See, there's this alien thing with two mouths that bursts out chests, and space travel.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:29 PM on July 28, 2010

Every time I watch Alien: Resurrection, I think about how much more fun Gary Dourdan and Ron Perlman are to watch than Alec Baldwin.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:34 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I already thought Schwarzenegger already did an Alien prequel.
posted by chambers at 8:35 PM on July 28, 2010

Huh? I don't get the endless permutations of Alien. Yes, the second one had some cool stuff, Cameron, but the first one is a real FILM. The second is a sequel, and nothing more. And the rest? Who cares?!?

Well, a lot of people cared about this remake of Aliens by Cameron.
posted by fuse theorem at 8:37 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wish I could find this article, but I once read that the original conception for the xenomorphs in Alien had a funny twist as to their origin. See, the idea is that the xenomorphs went through this feral "eat everything in sight" stage in their juvenile form, but as they matured, they became milder and actually had a rather quiet, literate, bookish civilization. The xenomorphs would breed by implanting their embryos in cow-like organisms and then have the juveniles run amok under very controlled circumstances.

However, something went awry when they encountered the race of the Space Jockeys (the huge aliens we see at the beginning of the first movie). Somehow, one of their embryos got implanted not in one of their docile, unintelligent cow-like organisms, but in one of the Space Jockeys, trapped in a ship. Cue chaos. The ship crash lands, and the remaining Space Jockeys put up their beacon to warn others to stay away from them, from the ship bearing the eggs.

It's a rich, creative idea, and it plays interestingly with ideas of colonization and conquest. It would be amazing to see this idea play out in a prequel, but I doubt that'll happen.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:37 PM on July 28, 2010 [7 favorites]

Sticherbeast: "Alien: Resurrection was a nutty French sci-fi movie which brought me to happy memories of Heavy Metal and Taboo magazine. "

When I saw in theaters, I thought it almost unreleasably bad.

When we bought our first DVD player, we got the Tetralogy box set to watch on it. With nothing to lose, one day as a gag I watched Resurrection with the French language soundtrack and English subtitles. So: literally as a French movie. And it proved to be an amusingly gothic farce.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:38 PM on July 28, 2010 [7 favorites]

"You know the alien, that starts out as a facehugger, then bursts out of your chest, then bites your face off, whose origin is an unsettling mystery? You get to see it as a little kid!"
posted by usonian at 8:39 PM on July 28, 2010 [6 favorites]

Now we just need someone to replace Ridley Scott. I am getting really sick of his overblown movies.

You know, I saw Ridley Scott at the premiere of the Director's Cut of Blade Runner (well, the first Director's Cut anyway). He held a Q&A session after the show. He was stinking drunk, alternating between incomprehensible mumbling and insulting the audience. I walked out.

I have only walked out on one similarly abysmal performance: Hunter S. Thompson.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:43 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, okay. Either it will be awesome like Alien and Aliens or I'll have another entry in the long list of Sequels And Prequels That Never Happened, No Really Lalala I Can't Hear You.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:45 PM on July 28, 2010

Ooo, maybe it's about the Space Jockey!!!
posted by zsazsa at 8:48 PM on July 28, 2010

Now we just need someone to replace Ridley Scott. I am getting really sick of his overblown movies.

Ugh, seconded. He's made some excellent movies (Alien, Blade Runner), but in general, I think he's terribly overrated. Too much gossamer and smoke, not enough strong story and good acting.

Russell Crowe does not count as good acting, by the way. His best roles were in Virtuosity and The Insider. Now all he's good for is riding a little car whilst wearing a muzzle and a fez.

With nothing to lose, one day as a gag I watched Resurrection with the French language soundtrack and English subtitles. So: literally as a French movie. And it proved to be an amusingly gothic farce.

Yes! That is exactly correct. That is the right way to watch Alien: Resurrection.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:50 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

The most shocking thing in the Collider article was that Ridley Scott is attached to a future movie version of the board game Monopoly?!?

Oh, it's much more shocking than you can imagine.
posted by hippybear at 8:51 PM on July 28, 2010

...a future movie version of the board game Monopoly?!?

And here I thought that HBO's upcoming Boardwalk Empire was already a stealth adaptation of Monopoly.
posted by Iridic at 8:52 PM on July 28, 2010

Oh crap. I just now see Ridley Scott is signed on to produce The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I'd rather see a cheesy version a la Robot Jox than see Ridley Scott turn it into Interplanetary Blackhawk Down.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:54 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh crap. I just now see Ridley Scott is signed on to produce The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I'd rather see a cheesy version a la Robot Jox than see Ridley Scott turn it into Interplanetary Blackhawk Down.

Well that makes... one of you? I think that's a great fit.
posted by Sebmojo at 8:58 PM on July 28, 2010

Oh double crap. He says this film will be Intergalactic Blackhawk Down 3D.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:59 PM on July 28, 2010

Star Trek was fun and all, but made bog all sense.

I'm seeing this as 4 all over again, but with less frenchness and a less coherant TV writer.
posted by Artw at 9:01 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

You can't hate on Alien. The thing approaches perfection in its genre. I have a few nitpicky issues with Aliens (Paxton, why Ripley burns out her entire flamethrower killing eggs she's just going to nuke anyway), but the original is pretty bulletproof.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:07 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Either it will be awesome like Alien and Aliens or I'll have another entry in the long list of Sequels And Prequels That Never Happened, No Really Lalala I Can't Hear You.

I re-watched them all not too long ago and was surprised at how my tastes had changed. I enjoyed Alien and Alien³ a lot more than I did as a kid, but Aliens, the shoot-'em-up I loves so much, was nearly unwatchable. Yeah, it still has the classic lines, and the Alien Queen, but the rest of it is really, really bad.

</heresy>
posted by lekvar at 9:08 PM on July 28, 2010

Oh, and also, the APC in Aliens is completely ridiculous. Looks cool but the thing has like 8" of clearance. What happens if they need to drive it off-road?
posted by nathancaswell at 9:09 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

You'll blow the trans-axle!
posted by Artw at 9:14 PM on July 28, 2010 [6 favorites]

So, anyway, Lost guy writing Aliens is completly failing to excite me, even though it's Aliens. You know what movie writing news does excite me? Grant Morrison writing a weirdo freak-out psychedelic Western.
posted by Artw at 9:17 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

His best roles were in Virtuosity
oh man i thought i was the only one who had this idea
posted by angrycat at 9:18 PM on July 28, 2010

One thing I noticed on a recent rewatch of Aliens was far Hollywood has come in actually getting actors in the roles of soldiers/policemen/etc. to move like soldiers/policemen/etc. You watch the squad move in Aliens and it's like watching eight year olds have a water gun fight. There's no holding weapons properly, no covering each other, etc. It's interesting that the same culture has taught me the difference.
posted by neuromodulator at 9:18 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

So at the end of Lost, when all the dead people open the doors to the church and walk out into the next level, finally having gotten over all their hang-ups and all that?

They wake up in that next stage of the great chain of being, nestled next to someone or something's heart, freed of any concept of human morality, filled with the urges to get out now and to feed, a perfect remorseless killing machine.

None of the xenomorphs wear shirts, but somehow the one that used to be Sawyer will be the most shirtless.

Without the aliens, what story is there to tell in that continuity that is worth watching?

It's a semi-dystopic, corrupt and cynical, high-tech, militarized universe. There's lots you can do with a good dark setting like that.

There's all sorts of other bad things Weyland-Yutani could be up to. And not just the bioweapons division. You could tell a somber conspiratorial movie about a group of colonists who discover that the planet they're terraforming had had an intelligent species on it (maybe make it weird and harder to notice, like a planetary-scale mind built out of bacteria), and W-Y figured it was cheaper to just throw rocks at the planet and make the species go away than abandon their research work.

The universe presents itself as an obvious setting to tell Robot stories without having to deal with the trappings of Asimov's setting. Once you strip the story nuclei out, you don't have to worry about Susan Calvin or USR or how they interact with the rest of the Robots continuity, and you can have the three laws work differently, and have military robots that with no first law, and so on.

There's lots of room to tell stories about the Colonial Marines in the old Star Trek tradition of "We're going to do a story about a current controversy, but set it in space so it's okay."

I'd rather eat a bumblebee than watch AvP ever again, though.

I don't get this. I found it a reasonably entertaining bug-hunt movie, and everything looked really good, and it toyed with the conventions of the genre a little (ie, having Italian Dude get killed off pronto before even any smooching). Sure, it was a b-movie. But it was a good b-movie.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:21 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

I remember them trying to do some stuff where the marines with the chainguns or whatever cover the rest of the squad. Whether they pull it off is another story. I do think that Aliens does a tremendous job of using limited ammunition to build tension, something that was sorely lacking in the new Predators movie. In a straight action movie I dont' want to see guys reload. In an action-thriller, especially one in a foreign environment, I want to feel like every shell spent makes me tense.

Spoilers!

In my Predators the Yakuza's pistol would have been emptied after the first fight (maybe give him an extra clip or two) and I would have replaced the Sierra Leone dude's gun with an RPG which he was explicitly instructed to MAKE COUNT.

And they could have re-gunned up at Fishburns spot.

Ammo conservation. Tension waiting to happen, take advantage of it.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:24 PM on July 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

why Ripley burns out her entire flamethrower killing eggs she's just going to nuke anyway

She's pissed off and is thinking more along the lines of "fuck you, asshole" than "what is the most rational choice here".

Paxton

That's it, you, me, outside.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:33 PM on July 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

She's pissed off and is thinking more along the lines of "fuck you, asshole" than "what is the most rational choice here".

Yeah, I get that but the entire fucking flamethrower and then like 10 grenades? I'd buy the flamethrower and then she comes to her senses and books it. It's the grenades that kill me. IF YOU'RE GONNA SHOOT THEM JUST SHOOT THEM ALL AT THE QUEEN.

I have the Paton "fun or bad" argument constantly among my friends. I don't mind a guy freaking out and losing his shit, just him specifically I can't take seriously.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:37 PM on July 28, 2010

My thing with Alien is one of the things about it is watching along thinking "yup, I'd do exactly that in this situation" (although truth be told, I'd have said fuck Jonesy). When I watch Aliens I'm like "no fucking WAY I'm shooting all my ammo right there if it's all I got". I'm saving that shit. Cause it's a long ass way back to the ship.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:41 PM on July 28, 2010

That's it, you, me, outside.

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
posted by Artw at 9:47 PM on July 28, 2010

My only minute problem with Alien is there is no way Parker doesn't burn both Lambert and the Alien when she's sitting there freaking out in front of it. Don't buy it.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:47 PM on July 28, 2010

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

That's what I'm taking about. I'd have set the Nostromo to self destruct post haste and booked as soon as that fucker busted out of Kane's gut. Fuck that shit.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:50 PM on July 28, 2010

Extensive videogame simulations of the Aliens franchise suggest that freaking the fuck out and wasting a lot of ammo would be a pretty regular occurance in the Aliens universe, especially in situations involving facehuggers. And an egg is, of course, basically a facehugger waiting to happen.
posted by Artw at 9:55 PM on July 28, 2010 [5 favorites]

Ridley Scott is attached to a future movie version of the board game Monopoly?!?

You ever buy orange properties, Taffey?
All the time, "pal".
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:07 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: basically a facehugger waiting to happen.
posted by hippybear at 10:09 PM on July 28, 2010

Everyone needs a facehug.
posted by Artw at 10:16 PM on July 28, 2010 [6 favorites]

Say what you like about Scott's later films, but The Duelists is a thing of beauty.
posted by warbaby at 10:17 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

[i]Space Truckers: The Intersteller Stuckey's Projective [/I]
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:43 PM on July 28, 2010

I'm a dumb.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:44 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

I don't know what the point of an Alien prequel would be, since there isn't anything in the first film that would benefit from greater explanation. The Space Jockey just is, he/she/it doesn't need to be understood. A free standing science fiction film sounds like the best way to use Lindelof and Cameron's talents.

But if the studio really wants to resuscitate the Alien franchise, they should do it in a big way: jump far into the future, like a thousand years or more, and create some strange new world with totally new characters, and a different visual esthetic. Not another cramped spaceship full of depressed people and dark colors, but something different like science fantasy or the old Planet Stories. Make us fall in love with the place. Then threaten that world when an ancient spaceship carrying a mysterious creature drifts in from out of the darkness. We know what it is, but the characters have no idea what's about to happen...
posted by Kevin Street at 10:48 PM on July 28, 2010

Ridley Scott is attached to a future movie version of the board game Monopoly?!?

Shame it isn't Cameron.

"Did IQs drop sharply while I was away? Three houses is the most return for your investment!"

posted by Pope Guilty at 10:52 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Whoops. That should have been "the best way to use Lindelof and Scott's talents."
posted by Kevin Street at 10:55 PM on July 28, 2010

I really wish they'd make the AvP movie that the arcade game was supposed to be based on.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:57 PM on July 28, 2010

Or the Dark Horse comic.
posted by Artw at 12:01 AM on July 29, 2010

I have only walked out on one similarly abysmal performance: Hunter S. Thompson.

By the ticket, take the ride.
posted by clarknova at 12:06 AM on July 29, 2010

That's what I'm taking about. I'd have set the Nostromo to self destruct post haste and booked as soon as that fucker busted out of Kane's gut.

The thing was the size of a squirrel, and they didn't know it was growing. It would have been a bit of an overreaction to blow up your ship because you essentially have a rodent problem. A viscous rodent, but nothing they thought they couldn't stomp out of existence.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:52 AM on July 29, 2010

Paxton

That's it, you, me, outside.

PAXTON! WHY DO YOU RIDE WITH ME?
posted by Sebmojo at 1:09 AM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

P.o.B.: A viscous rodent…

They're the worst kind. An absolute bastard to pick up; they keep oozing through your fingers…
posted by Pinback at 1:10 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Did IQs drop sharply while I was away? Three houses is the most return for your investment!"

"I say we take off and build a hotel on Mayfair from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!"
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:12 AM on July 29, 2010

Irish hollywood:

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure, to be sure.
posted by biffa at 2:37 AM on July 29, 2010

See, the idea is that the xenomorphs went through this feral "eat everything in sight" stage in their juvenile form,

Yeah, that is something that evades most of the snarkers: every alien in every Alien movie is a couple of days old or less (save for the Cameron movie and possibly the Jeuet one, in which they may be a few weeks old). Making pronouncements and speculations on their life cycle is absurd.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:15 AM on July 29, 2010

In Alien, Cameron perfected the suspense horror film. In Aliens, he perfected the action film. In the next entry to the franchise, he'll perfect... the romantic comedy?!?!
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:44 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

In Alien, Cameron perfected the suspense horror film.

Surely you mean Ridley Scott. The extent of Cameron's involvement with Alien is identical with mine: he bought a ticket to see it. In 1979 James Cameron was a twenty-five-year-old model maker working for Roger Corman.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:09 AM on July 29, 2010

In Alien, Cameron perfected the suspense horror film. In Aliens, he perfected the action film. In the next entry to the franchise, he'll perfect... the romantic comedy?!?!

When an intergalactic predator who's hunting... for love...

Meets a deadly xenomorph with heart... full of acid...

This summer, experience the chaos...
The humour...
And the tenderness...

That occurred...

When Predator Met Alien.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:22 AM on July 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

I lost all hope regarding the Aliens franchise a long time ago... even the comics are rubbish now. Similar feelings re Scott tbh.

Although weirdly I kinda don't hate AvP and find it sorta watchable... especially the fight that's like something out of WWF
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:31 AM on July 29, 2010

I think the "Director's Cut" of Alien 3 found on the Quadrilogy box set (which is the only set I have) is actually a really good film and I'm happy to see it as part of the Alien lineup. "Wahh wahh wahh they killed Newt and Hicks", big deal, shut up you incessantly annoying person.
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:57 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, and also, question: why are the prosthetic Predator munchface effects in Predator and Predator 2 so much better than in any subsequent Predator film, despite being two decades old? Who did that, and why? Predators makes them look like something I would keep in a big plastic bin and feed kitchen scraps to so I have delicious soil to give to my herb garden.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:03 AM on July 29, 2010

why Ripley burns out her entire flamethrower killing eggs she's just going to nuke anyway

Watch the scene again. Ripley is fine with leaving, the queen does something which starts an egg opening. Ripley gets this look on her face like "oh, for fuck's sake" and then cuts loose with the flamethrower. This makes perfect sense to IMO, cause there's a ton of them around and they can open fairly quickly and one they're open they facehuggers move even faster. Holding off one is damn near impossible, let alone two or whole room of them. Then, of course she uses the grenades not just on the Alien queen, but on her egg producing sac. It's one mother completely destroying another by killing not only her children but her ability to make children.

My thing with Alien is one of the things about it is watching along thinking "yup, I'd do exactly that in this situation"

Sorry, I would have so left that cat there. That ranks of one of the stupidest things about Alien and annoys me every damn time.

Aliens succeeds where Alien failed because yes, after getting their ass kicked, the Marines are all about taking off and nuking the site. The problem is that the aliens and believable circumstances keep getting in the way.
posted by nomadicink at 5:03 AM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Re the cat. Obviously it's impossible now, but if you go into the film not knowing who is going to die next or at least try and watch it like that, then the scene were Ripely goes back for the cat has lots of hints that she's going to get it next with long lingering shots of her being alone etc. When in fact a bait and switch for the other two characters, including by far the biggest toughest character on the ship being killed. Also going back for the cat shows off Ripley's humanity because after all... we are more evil than than the alien. Which was emphasised in the second film. Big pity they made her an alien herself by the end.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:07 AM on July 29, 2010

It was ludicrous and remains the single biggest difference in between Alien and Aliens in terms of believability.

That and the lack of lifeboats which could support all of the crew.
posted by nomadicink at 7:39 AM on July 29, 2010

^Kevin Street:I don't know what the point of an Alien prequel would be, since there isn't anything in the first film that would benefit from greater explanation. The Space Jockey just is, he/she/it doesn't need to be understood. A free standing science fiction film sounds like the best way to use Lindelof and Cameron's talents.

This is being beaten to death by ROU_Xenophobe and Stitcherbeast, but there's plenty of prequel space in the dissimulation (aka lying and deception) of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which knew about LV-426, because the android, Ash was placed on the Nostromo to investigate, if not coolly observe the deaths of his human crewmates.

And who ever said that this was his first trip as a 'chaperone', huh?

Ashe already knew (3 links) something was up, knew that Weyland-Yutani wanted something from LV-426 and sent the Nostromo to retrieve it.

Without an active Xenomorph to kill the crew and destroy a carrier worth several $billion$ dollars, I'm sure the extra-legal appropriation of an extraterrestrial species is cause for a Congressional investigation, just as Weyland-Yutani's exploration of bio-weaponry should be everybody's concern. (non-native organisms being manipulated? -- pathogens, fauna, flora? -- anywhere near Earth? Yikes!)

And no, the Space-Jockey doesn't need to be understood. But there is an Insider-like thriller (sans Crowe, please!) waiting to be told here. Multinational corporations, a bio-weaponry divisions, clones, interstellar commerce, Black-Book excavation projects, paradigm-shifting technology and gadgets...

There's plenty of Earth-human stuff to explore there -- I just hope that Lindelof is aware of it.

Hell, Scott could make the prequel about Ash the android and how an expensive piece of equipment like Ian Holm ended up on a freighter(!?) in the first place.

In Alien, Ash (the android character played by Ian Holm), was missioned by the Mega-corporation Weyland-Yutani to bring the alien back alive. It was (semi) explained in the film that the corporation had made prior (unsuccessful) attempts to capture the alien; between that reference, and the logical deduction that a human exploration party must’ve made first contact with the aliens at some point for the mega corp to even know of their existence, let’s just say there is a lot of fertile ground on which to build this prequel.

posted by vhsiv at 7:52 AM on July 29, 2010

I just gave Joe Besse the most patrotic favorite ever, cause French Sci-Fi and thus Alien 4 has a place in my heart.

So my ideal Alien prequel? A completely animated, strange tale of the crashed alien ship from the first movie done entirely in said Alien's lanuage as they attempt to understand and control the infestation of the xenomorph in their own alien ways and failing miserably.

Final shot? A spare-looking olf fashioned terminal screen, green on black.

> POSSIBLE INTEREST NUMBER 77 FOUND.

> RE-DIRECTING COURSE - NOSTROMO.
posted by The Whelk at 8:37 AM on July 29, 2010

destroy a carrier worth several $billion$ dollars

42 million in adjusted dollars. That's minus payload of course.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:44 AM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

That's, um, not really all that much money these days is it? It's a fraction of a deepwater. Space oil is cheap AND environmentally sound! What with the fancy new superconductor from that jungle moon there’s clearly a future in space mining.
posted by Artw at 9:22 AM on July 29, 2010

Even as a dumbass teenager in 1986, I remember thinking that that wasn't much money.

But who knows how they adjusted their dollars. Maybe $42 million in adjusted dollars is equivalent to the entire gross domestic product of the Orion Arm in 1986. Or maybe it would only buy you an animal-style double-double in 1986. IT IS A MYSTERY.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:35 AM on July 29, 2010

Maybe they had a radical currency adjustment after massive space-inflation and made a billion dollars into 1 dollar.
posted by Artw at 9:51 AM on July 29, 2010

Maybe they could take Stephen Kings suggetsion about Alien being basically a Cthulhu Mythos story in space, and base the prequel on an earlier shittier work of Lovecrafts, possible making it about being a space racist in space new york.
posted by Artw at 9:54 AM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

...which leads us to Alien Episode 1: The Hyperinflation Menace and Alien Episode 2: Attack Of The Monetary Policy.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:55 AM on July 29, 2010

Space Dollars.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:56 AM on July 29, 2010

Curse you for your interposited comment.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:56 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Idk. I'll have to watch Alien 4 again. Maybe. Because I don't care how people try to reframe it as some wacky French movie, I just can't get over the cognitive dissonance I have about it. I do remember about 3/4 of that movie not being to bad, but that ending...*sigh*.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2010

Ignore the ending, the aliens and the frenchness and you get an early version of Firefly.
posted by Artw at 10:13 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Once you start building colonies in space, the whole question of worth becomes more complicated. Maybe they have some kind of space dollars, and not US money at all. If Weyland-Yutani has built Gateway Station and colonies like the one on LV-426, it's possible they have a whole parallel economy set up. On Earth you use ordinary money to buy things, but in space everything is owned and operated by Weyland-Yutani, so you use company scrip backed by them.

If that's the case, then things created in space could be quite cheap, since inputs like raw materials and energy are abundant and the manufacturing cost is just the company taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another. But things made on Earth are still fairly expensive because they have to be imported. So when they say that the Nostromo is worth 42 million in adjusted dollars, that's the absolute cost to the head office back on Earth. The Nostromo might be worth billions in company scrip, but those costs don't all translate back down the gravity well.
posted by Kevin Street at 10:41 AM on July 29, 2010

42 million in Space Miles, adjusted.
posted by Artw at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2010