Sigourney Weaver Won’t Be Back for ‘Alien’ Prequel
Aug 5, 2009 by Rob FrappierFacehugger fanboys around the world cheered last week when Screen Rant reported that director Ridley Scott was taking over the reins of the upcoming Alien …
Facehugger fanboys around the world cheered last week when Screen Rant reported that director Ridley Scott was taking over the reins of the upcoming Alien prequel from 20th Century Fox.
Previously, Scott had indicated he was interested in returning to the franchise only if he could bring back Sigourney Weaver as well. So, does that mean Weaver will be reprising her role as Alien ass-kicker Ellen Ripley? According to the 59 year old actress, the answer is no.
MTV caught up with Sigourney Weaver at Comic-Con to speak with her about returning to the franchise she helped make famous and her thoughts on an Alien prequel. Check out the video below.
I’ve always been a fan of Sigourney Weaver and I think her work in Alien and Aliens was fantastic. That being said, I can’t imagine her taking a role in an Alien prequel unless it were a small cameo. I mean, it’s a prequel. The events in the film are meant to precede the events of the original film. How could she fit into the plot in any logical way?
So far, we don’t know much about screenwriter Jon Spaihts’ script, but, now that we know the prequel won’t revolve around Ellen Ripley, we can start to ponder some potential plot details. Let’s start with the basics.
The first Alien movie focused on the crew of the towing spaceship Nostromo. During the film, we find out that Weyland-Yutani (the corporation in charge of the ship) wants the alien brought back alive, regardless of whether the crew lives or not. Might the prequel revisit the devious megacorporation and their earlier efforts to catch some xenomorphs?
Well, what do you think? Do you have any guesses as to the plot of the Alien prequel?
Source: MTV Movies Blog
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What about the excavation and alien artifact, couldn’t the prequel actually be the events leading right up to the first movie?
And if they want to do a Ripley comeback in a prequel, they could always introduce time travel…
I really hope nobody in Hollywood reads that last line.
I’m guessing the company doesn’t even know about the Aliens in the prequel. Most likely it’ll be about humans first-contact with the creatures.
As much as I’d love to see Sigourney back, I’m glad she’s not. It wouldn’t make sense to have her in a prequel to Alien, it would be quite hard to justify having her in another sequel too. Holding out hope for this, looking forward to casting news.
“LiquidSpark says:
August 5, 2009 at 6:47 am
I’m guessing the company doesn’t even know about the Aliens in the prequel. Most likely it’ll be about humans first-contact with the creatures.”
The company does know about the Aliens. It’s hinted at in AVP:Requiem. Right at the end when some alien artifacts are presented to a Ms Yutani. As bad as the AVP films were they do at least try and keep canon within both franchises.
Bishop Weyland in the first film and then Ms Yutani. Obviously there was/will be a takeover before the events of Alien take place.
I made a comment about this in another post. The universe is huge, they can do whatever they want with this film. You only have to look at what Dark Horse did with the graphic novels to see how big this could be.
Done right, this could be the best film yet. Don’t bring Sigourney back, the Aliens are the stars. Let’s see some new takes on the mythos.
She was great in the alien movies but this is probably the right direction to go. Bring in someone young and fresh.
I would think the prequel will show us how that first ship crashed onto the planet. If they do include Sigourney Weaver or Ripley in any way, I would think the most logical way would be by pulling footage from the original film to show when her ship receives the distress signal that draws them to the planet where they discover the aliens.
AnyTime there is discussion about Alien that scene where they find the ship is always mentioned. It’s what everyone wants to know about. Where did it come from? How did it get there? What happened and when? Here’s to hoping these questions are awnsered and in decent fashion.
I’m really curious what sort of story they will come up with that will involve a human cast. It seems to me that any prequel really shouldn’t have humans in it at all.
Vic
@Vic… an interesting point. One has to suspect that perhaps the human element will involve the company again, as was mentioned earlier. Only this time, the humans discover the ship before it crashed, boarding it in space just before the alien infestation begins. The problem with that idea is that it kind of mirrors the whole Aliens vs. Predators movie… with the humans just kind of being there, and that’s not very exciting.
Not suprising. I think it would be kinda difficult to bring in Ripley when her character doesn’t encounter the Alien til “Alien”.
“Vic Holtreman says:
August 5, 2009 at 9:39 am
I’m really curious what sort of story they will come up with that will involve a human cast. It seems to me that any prequel really shouldn’t have humans in it at all.
Vic”
I don’t know if you read graphic novels (comics to some!) but there were some great stories written without any human involvement.
Some where the aliens were harvested like cattle for foodstuff, others that were a riff on the “prey for the Predators” type stories and there was one that involved a race of space travellers, one of which we see in Alien as the dead captain of the crashed ship, traversing the galaxy trying to exterminate all remaining Xenomorphs for wiping out his planet.
Of course, financially, it would cost a fortune to create all new (CG probably) lifeforms in a new film, one of the advantages of a drawn medium. But the options are limitless when it comes to the universe.
I’m not shocked. I think the Aliens franchise needs to move on without her now, anyway.
I really don’t see how she would of worked in a Prequel anyway. She’s a sexy GILF, but I can’t really see her playing Ripley anymore when there are so many possible paths and stories to pull from the Alien universe.
@ Vic
I’m sure it they will be humanoid or you use the old hollywood magic of a deep space soemthing or another also wen off course to somewhere and was never found blah blah blah, You know how they do it.
Shatner should be in it!!!
Geez. It’ll be a terrible movie made by a director past his prime. The orignial was cool because there was mystery and we were left to imagine the possibilities. Face it, this one will have some stupid plot explaining everything. just like Star Wars.
I think they should go to the Aliens homeplanet.
What about the whole story of how the Predators trapped and used the Aliens as hunting stock? YES – I know those movies were not good but you can’t just ignore the back story. Plus, it obviously provided a way to bring humans into the saga BEFORE the original ALIEN movie. -just a thought
I know of only one way Ripley could be in the prequel. At the very end of the entire movie, you see Ripley recieve the distress call sent out by the crashed ship and direct her ship towards the distress call.
end scene, end movie
Kyyle23,
Thats actually what I was thinking they could do. Use remastered stock footage from the beginning of “Alien” where the crew wake up and end the film right there…in the same way it was done in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”.
Whew…that was close…..I give Kudos to Kyyle23 and Matt. Good idea!
i think it will be about the colony that was found to be wiped out in the first alien movie.
A prequel could work but so could a legitimate sequel. It seems to me there are just as many gaps in the story as is. When someone can be cryogenically suspended, anything is possible.
And I’d also like a cast of newbies, like in Aliens: vasquez, hudson, newt… that whole squad rocked! (especially Bill paxton) Solid casting there.
Well, there are so many unanswered questions from the first movie in the series, I was always interested to see what the Alien life from was that was sitting in the chair when they first found the ship.