You kinda had to feel for 20th Century Fox and their 30th anniversary celebration of “Aliens” at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. On the same afternoon as Warner Bros. unleashed a tornado of trailers, with Marvel not far behind with their own goodies, no one had much time for reflection.
However, the panel for the film was nonetheless interesting, but not because of what was said about “Aliens” (it’s a great sequel, we’ve known that for three decades). Rather, it was James Cameron’s honest assessment of “Alien 3” that raised some eyebrows.
“I thought [the decision to eliminate Newt, Hicks, and Bishop] was dumb,” he said (via io9). “I thought it was a huge slap in the face to the fans. [‘Alien 3’ director] David Fincher is a friend of mine, and he’s an amazing filmmaker, unquestionably. That was kind of his first big gig, and he was getting vectored around by the studio, and he dropped into the production late, and they had a horrible script, and they were re-writing it on the fly. It was just a mess. I think it was a big mistake. Certainly, had we been involved we would not have done that, because we felt we earned something with the audience for those characters.”
Damn. And of course, the natural followup query would be what Cameron thinks of Neill Blomkamp’s plans to make an “Alien” movie that is more of a direct sequel to “Aliens,” and steps around everything that happens after. Well, Cameron thinks the concept is a winner.
“I think it works gangbusters. He shared it with me, and I think it’s a very strong script and he could go make it tomorrow,” Cameron stated. “I don’t know anything about the production, and I don’t know what Ridley [Scott]’s doing. But hopefully there’ll be room for both of them. Like parallel universes.”
I don’t know about you, but between Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron’s excitement, I might be more eager for Blomkamp’s movie, than Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” which the filmmaker insisted on making first. But it’s a long way from a great idea to a great movie, and it seems Blomkamp’s picture is some time off from being made. Until then, you’ll have to stick with the other movies in the franchise, including “Aliens,” which arrives on Blu-ray in a new 30th anniversary package on September 13th.