Whoever wins, we lose: Aliens and Predator (also Prometheus and stuff)

From Shane Black's new Predator movie, to Ridley Scott's Alien Covenant! Let's discuss it here!

Ah Prometheus, so much promise, so much bat*** insane development..... I wish we got Alien: Engineers instead soooo sooooo much -____-

I've still never seen Prometheus. I don't really know why. I'm interested to see Alien Covenant, and where Scott takes things.

Shane Black Wants To Bring Mystery Back To Predator Franchise

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In an interview with IGN, writer/director Shane Black spoke about his upcoming film The Predator. The planned sequel is due out on February 9, 2018. Black said that he hopes to bring some mystery back to the franchise. Here are highlights:

On the status of The Predator: The train is rolling I should say. I think it’s pretty clear now that this is the next thing I’m gonna do, is work on that. We’re having a lot of fun. The idea is to take what has been a series of kind of modest knock-off type movies which all made a guaranteed return. Not bad movies but certainly not on the level of what Ridley [Scott] was doing with Alien and then Prometheus and now this very much lauded prequel/sequel coming up. How can I follow in the footsteps of someone who re-invents and brings that much event-ised quality to a pulp franchise. How do you get people to know about the Predator and buy their tickets a month before it comes out as opposed to just ‘What are you seeing tonight? We can see a comedy or… oh, there’s a new Predator.’ No, no, this one we want to make people aware of – we’ve paid a lot of attention, there’s even some more money spent. We’re going to get a great cast and we really just write it and write and and write it – just keep writing it to make it as interesting and stuffed with ideas as we can and hopefully to re-infuse it with a sense of mystery. The worst thing you could hope for in one of these is a shot in bright sunlight of a field and the Predator just kind of walks on and ‘hello’ – you want to do… I keep going back to Ridley Scott, the way he captured the alien in that first movie. The sense of mystery and portent. If we could just cut into a little piece of that – that sort of vibe – and then I think there’s humour to be had too. And tonal shifting. I’m just having a ball. I’m getting more excited by the day, 30 years later working on this Dang thing. Who would have thought when we started out and they were saying ‘Geez the costume doesn’t work – throw this back to Winston and let him save the day!” Eight weeks later “I don’t know, looks like dreadlocks to me!” Suddenly it’s the most iconic costume ever. It’s the most iconic movie ever. It’s lasted 30 years and here I am god blessedly making a… it’s just unbelievable to me.”

On if Predators exists in this film: “Well it seems to me if we set ours in 2018 which is when the film is set, then we can only be a prequel to that one, so you could say yes it exists, but people won’t be discussing it really.”

On when the film is set: “It’s in the midst of the mythology. It’s a movie that’s set in our present-day. Or maybe the day after tomorrow.”

Noomi Rapace Joins the Alien: Covenant Cast

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Deadline is reporting today that Prometheus star Noomi Rapace will reprise her role as Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott’s follow-up Alien: Covenant despite previous reports that she would not be involved. It’s unclear how big her role will be, but the site says she’s in Australia and on the set to shoot weeks-worth of scenes for the 20th Century Fox release, which stars Michael Fassbender (reprising his Prometheus role), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down), Demián Bichir (The Hateful Eight), Jussie Smolett (Empire), Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Callie Hernandez (Machete Kills), and Billy Crudup (Watchmen).

Set as the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with Prometheus, Alien: Covenant connects directly to Ridley Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. It begins with the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy. There, the crew discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

First pic of an xenomorph (possibly) from Alien - Covenant.

Spoiler:

Sigourney Weaver Talks Blomkamp’s Alien, Reveals it Gives Ripley ‘An Ending’

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Though Ridley Scott is currently filming his Prometheus follow-up, Alien: Covenant, there’s still a future for the franchise as director Neill Blomkamp’s planned fifth film in the series is still in the cards. Speaking with EW, franchise star Sigourney Weaver revealed some new details about the film, saying:

““It’s a great story and it’s satisfying to me to give this woman an ending…The script itself has so much in it that’s so original, but also really satisfies the, I would say, the primal needs of the aliens. It’s a tribute to all of the great work that the other directors have done, in a way, but goes in a completely new direction. I hope we’ll do it.”

Weaver also clarifies the film’s divergent path from Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

“It’s just as if, you know, the path forks and one direction goes off to three and four and another direction goes off to Neill’s movie,” Weaver says. “It’s just more, I would say, following Jim Cameron’s story about these characters, rather than just ending up in this sort of monastery in space, which was [Alien3 screenwriter] Vincent Ward’s idea and Fox elected to go in that direction. I think Fincher was fine with that. Each director kind of wanted to create a whole new set of circumstances. In this case, it picks up, it follows directly the circumstances of Jim Cameron’s Aliens.”

Blomkamp and Weaver have currently moved to other projects for the time being, but she remains hopeful the film will be made soon.

“I hope it won’t be a few (years). I hope it’ll be a couple. But we’ll see.”

James Franco May Lead Shane Black’s ‘The Predator’

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Okay, so this isn’t confirmed yet at all but CAA (Creative Artists Agency) is apparently pushing real hard for James Franco (127 Hours, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) to land the leading role of “Quinn McKenna” in Shane Black’s The Predator, according to PopcornTalk. The podcast stresses that this information is simply rumor at this point and should not be taken as a guarantee.

Personally, I’m having trouble seeing this one. Remember when Adrien Brody was announced as the lead of Predators and a million eyebrows collectively shot up in confusion? Yeah, this is the same thing for me.

Last month, we reported that The Predator was going to begin filming this fall in Vancouver so that it can meet its expected release date of February 9th, 2018.

Michael Biehn says Blomkamp’s ‘Alien’ is Happening, Just a Matter of When

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July brought us the 30th anniversary of James Cameron’s Aliens, often considered to be one of the greatest sequels ever released. As a result of the occasion, many of the cast and crew have been getting interviewed at various events, which allows for some stirrings of the pots, if you will.

Such is the case with Michael Biehn, who broke down the status of Neill Blomkamps on again/off again Alien film that would see Biehn and Sigourney Weaver reunite in a story arc that would effectively ignore the third and fourth films.

Biehn explained to Forbes that while Weaver was working with Blomkamp on Chappie, he pitched her, “…an idea for another movie in the Alien franchise, which I thought was dead and gone as she probably did too as well as Fox. He tweeted out some pictures of me, he said he’s going take the third and fourth film and act like they never happened and things blew up.“

Biehn is talking about when Blomkamp released several photos via Twitter in early 2015 that spurred an explosion of excitement and interest over the idea of a new entry in the franchise.

However, as we all know the project came to a halt because a sequel to Prometheus was deemed the next necessary step. “It looked like it was all go and then Ridley Scott decided that he was going to do a second and third film in the Prometheus series, but Sigourney says they are still doing their project,” Biehn explains.

That being said, he believes that the possibility of the film NOT coming to fruition is simply ludicrous and unfathomable, explaining, “I think it would be very embarrassing to Fox if they don’t give Sigourney the movie that she really wants to go out on. I don’t know when it’s going to happen but I know it’s going to happen and I know I’m going to be in it and there’s going to be a new Newt, she’s going to be about 26 or 27 and looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence to me but I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a passing of whatever and then the franchise can move on so they can make more money because that’s what it’s all about.”

All of this will simply have to wait until after Scott’s Alien: Covenant hits theaters on August 4th, 2017.

That Prometheus 2 trailer, or whatever it wants to be called, looks just as generic as any conveyor belt Marvel popcorn flick. Ridley's never been particularly consistent in his productions to say the least, but this looks just so recycled.

Though given that my third favorite film in the shared Alien-Predator cinematic universe happens to be the universally-hated Resurrection (after Aliens and Alien of course), my word probably doesn't mean a lot in this matter

NECA has decided to start redoing the old Alien and Predator lines, and they look amazing. I picked up the Mantis Alien and Gorilla Alien, and they did a fantastic translation from the old Kenner lines.

Have not seen Prometheus yet but I would rank the Alien films as the following :

1. Alien - 9/10
2. Aliens - 8.5/10
3. Alien 3 - 5/10
4. Alien Resurrection - 4.5/10

Look forward to Alien Covenant but will have to see Prometheus first!

I would rank it as something like this:

1. Alien - 9/10
2. Alien 3 - 9/10
3. Aliens - 8/10
4. Prometheus - 7/10
5. Alien Resurrection - 2/10

Aliens is almost Jurassic Park amazing. I didn't actually see it until my teens, I think 2003 or 2004.

1] Aliens 10/10
2] Alien 9/10
3] Alien Resurrection 7/10
4] Alien III 7/10
5] Predator 7/10
6] Predator II 6/10
7] Predators 6/10
8] Prometheus 5/10
9] Alien vs Predator 4/10
10] Alien vs Predator Requiem 2/10

Or maybe 6/10 for Prometheus IDK, I only saw it once in theater and haven't wanted to go through it again. It wasn't "bad", certainly no cheap trash like AvP, but not particularly interesting either. In fact immediately after leaving the theater I was somewhat positive about it but more that you think about it, the less there was anything memorable about it... just kind of "meh that happened".  5 or 6 is appropriate. 5½ half probably.

There’s a “Slim Chance” We’ll See Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Alien 5’

I wasn't even aware Scott was planning three more Alien prequels altogether?

Ohhh... ohhhhhhhhhhhhh....

Mistral wrote:

Aliens is almost Jurassic Park amazing. I didn't actually see it until my teens, I think 2003 or 2004.

1] Aliens 10/10
2] Alien 9/10
3] Alien Resurrection 7/10
4] Alien III 7/10
5] Predator 7/10
6] Predator II 6/10
7] Predators 6/10
8] Prometheus 5/10
9] Alien vs Predator 4/10
10] Alien vs Predator Requiem 2/10

Or maybe 6/10 for Prometheus IDK, I only saw it once in theater and haven't wanted to go through it again. It wasn't "bad", certainly no cheap trash like AvP, but not particularly interesting either. In fact immediately after leaving the theater I was somewhat positive about it but more that you think about it, the less there was anything memorable about it... just kind of "meh that happened".  5 or 6 is appropriate. 5½ half probably.

I might as well throw my rankings out there as well.

1] Aliens- 9/10
2] Alien 9/10
3] Predator 8/10
4] Prometheus 7/10
5] Predators 6/10
6] Alien 3 6/10
7] Predator 2 5/10
8] Alien: Resurrection 4.5/10
9] Alien vs Predator 3.5/10
10] Alien vs Predator: Requiem 3/10

That Requiem sure is legendary trash.

At least the first AVP had Lance Henriksen (even if his character was terribly written) and some sort-of-okay moments in it.

Is that (yet another) Predator reboot still coming out? Does anyone care?

Oh, and anyone ever saw this fan film below? It's pretty good with substantial production values. Watched it again today for the first time since it came out, and had fun. I mean, it's basically just the original Arnold film but in medieval times, so essentially nothing new, but as it's not an official product I don't mind. They're having fun. In fan film fan service is fine. But only in fan film. That's what Hollywood doesn't seem to get. Or rather they do, but they don't care.

Yeah it's coming out and yes, people care. You may not care but I'm sure people that are and were fans of the series do.

It's kind of weird "series". First and second have something in common, but then you have the two AVP films which are largely unrelated. Then the first soft reboot (Predators). Now the second reboot. Does that have anything in common with the others or is it starting all over again?

And do people/fans really want another Predator reboot, and not Predator 3? Or is it just that they want "whatever" where Predator is in.

Not that Alien franchise makes much more sense, particularly now with Scott's horde of Alien-Prometheus-hybrid-combo-prequels and this talk of separate "Alien 5" entity.

Dead2009 wrote:

There’s a “Slim Chance” We’ll See Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Alien 5’

That's a shame. I wanted to see what he can do. Something fresh. I know that we'll still get something new via the Neomorphs and the Protomorph, but I think he should be given a fair chance.

How exactly would that premise even have worked without killing off both Alien 3 and Resurrection from the canon? I mean I know Blomkamp said on some random quote that they would not be ignored, but that sounds like even bigger of a lie than Trevorrow mentioning TLW/JP3 canon not being ignored in JW.

Mistral wrote:

How exactly would that premise even have worked without killing off both Alien 3 and Resurrection from the canon? I mean I know Blomkamp said on some random quote that they would not be ignored, but that sounds like even bigger of a lie than Trevorrow mentioning TLW/JP3 canon not being ignored in JW.

TLW/JP3 not being ignored as non-canon wasn't a lie, but I admit they should have done a better job explaining it. As for Alien 3 and Resurrection, they might have kept 3, while ret-conning Resurrection out of existence, since that one isn't exactly well liked.

Alien 3 isn't universally well received either, plus Biehn gets killed off in that which would have been the main problem anyway with the canon if he's supposedly back again now.

They could have cloned him like they did with Ridley.

But most people hated the cloning thing (I didn't, but I'm not most), so why would it have been any less rejected here?

Also, in Resurrection they needed Ripley because of the Alien queen inside her. Ripley was just a less important by product. Why would anyone want to resurrect Hicks and waste money and time? And how would they find his remains?

I mean I'm sure they could find a convoluted way to do this, but it would be even more awkward than Guy Pearce's old man makeup in Prometheus.

Thomas Jane in Talks to Battle ‘The Predator’

"-- which has been described as both a reboot and a sequel to the original franchise."

Soft reboot it is then...