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Fox to remake Alien?

Next up: Michael Bay does Star Wars

BY Chris Hicks May 28th 2009 2:02AMFILED UNDER: Movie news

We'll serve one this up straight: a reliable source has tipped off Bloody Disgusting that Twentieth Century Fox is remaking Alien.

Some days, we just wish the world would end to spare us further suffering.

The tipster appears to be reliable, after previously leaking news that Robert Rodriguez would be producing a Predator reboot way back in January this year.

According to him/her, Michael Costigan, Ridley Scott and Tony Scott are on board to produce.

They have even tapped commercial/music video director Carl Rinsch to direct. Rinsch has previously worked at Scott Free Productions on adverts.

The movie would focus on the original concept of Alien; one xenomorph, one ship and half a dozen scared shitless crew.

Update: A separate source has told Bloody Disgusting that this may indeed be an origins story, as opposed to a straight remake.

So remake, origins story, or sequel. Which would you prefer?

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Comments (32)

1: punchdrunklove says

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 10:29AMAlert a moderator

2: jonesr9 says

Dear lord, LEAVE THE CLASSICS ALONE!!!!!!

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 10:37AMAlert a moderator

3: punchdrunklove says

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 10:40AMAlert a moderator

4: ashley.russell says

this is just getting silly.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 11:24AMAlert a moderator

5: mattburgess says

Remaking Alien, rebooting Buffy The Vampire Slayer, remaking Assault on Precinct 13, remaking The Ladykillers, revamping The Italian Job, rebooting James Bond, restarting Star Trek....

IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO COME UP WITH NEW IDEAS!! Hundreds of thousands of people who can't get into the business, because of the idiots who sit around "remaking" things, have brilliant new ideas all the time!

That's it, time for a totalitarian regime. From now on, you can only produce, direct, act-in ONE film. Then it's someone else's turn. (I know it's stupid, but at least that would give people the drive to make sure theirs is a GOOD film!)

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 11:59AMAlert a moderator

6: sansbinho says

My eyes have caught fire from anger.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 12:40PMAlert a moderator

7: DravenCage says

mattburgess says - "... remaking Assault on Precinct 13..."

The first Assault on Precinct 13 was a remake in its own right.

Remaking/adapting/visiting old ground itself isn't a bad idea, otherwise we wouldn't have had Heat, Man on Fire, Evil Dead II, The Departed, The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, The Mist, Batman Begins/The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Casino Royale, Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen, 3:10 to Yuma, Brewster's Millions, Dangerous Liasons/Cruel Intentions, Death Race, The Mummy, Memphis Belle, Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis, The Bucket List, Thirteen Ghosts, The Great Gatsby (Robert Redford version), The Fly (Brundlefly), Night**tch, No Way Out, Ocean's Eleven, Throw Momma From the Train, Sweet November, Nikita, The Ten Commandments, True Lies, The Thing, Twelve Monkeys, Treasure Island, Vanilla Sky, Dracula, The Wolfman and loads more movies that we've enjoyed... and that's before we've even got to the TV shows that have been "upgraded" into movies like Get Smart or movies that have been "downgraded" into TV shows like Buffy.

Not all remakes/revisits are good ideas, with Alien being one of them, but to dismiss them all is ridiculous.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 1:01PMAlert a moderator

8: sleepwalker says

Travesy!!!!!

There is however something we can all do about it.

Dont go and see it!!!

Ive had Indy, Star Wars, The Matrix and countless others ruiined for me in the last few years. with shoddy remakes and re inaginings.

Thats it im taking my ball home!!!

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 1:39PMAlert a moderator

9: Caseyyy says

............................... God damn it.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 2:45PMAlert a moderator

10: NickyC says

There is no God.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:06PMAlert a moderator

11: kevster says

Sorry but Alien & Aliens are CLASSICS, all others are a complete waste of time.

Did NOBODY learn after AvP 1&2?!?!?

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:08PMAlert a moderator

12: TheTingler says

Dammit, punchdrunklove stole my line. Twice!

Hmm, if this is a 'Predators'-esque CONTINUATION of the franchise, so in other words another Alien film, then I'll accept it... although cautiously.

If it IS a remake, then... there is no word in Entish, Elvish or the tongues of Men for how p**sed off I will be.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:08PMAlert a moderator

13: TheTingler says

Oh, the other rumour - an origins story? Very close to my feelings on remake, slightly more preferable, but still: f*** off. The Aliens don't need one.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:10PMAlert a moderator

14: whateverman says

There is a way to stop this.

Think of a song buy The Wombats.....

Only joking

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:41PMAlert a moderator

15: Serrano says

What happened to Alien 5?

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 3:47PMAlert a moderator

16: sashurst says

I'm well up for it.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 4:03PMAlert a moderator

17: elmonty says

I wouldn't mind an origins story, actually. The problem for the filmmakers (unless they did it in animation) is that it shouldn't involve humans. The Nostromo crew were supposed to be the first humans ever to make contact with the aliens. Therefore, any prequel that has humans in it will just be p**sing on the original story. Which I'm afraid is what might happen.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 4:38PMAlert a moderator

18: helenlt says

An origins story might be interesting but I think I can hear Ellen shouting:

"leave the film alone, B!TCH!"

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 5:39PMAlert a moderator

19: thejonner says

On what planet is this a good idea? Certainly not this one and definitely not LV-426. This HAS to be bollocks, surely? It's unforgivable.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 6:27PMAlert a moderator

20: DanRose says

This is a bad idea.....

I bet they ask some two bit bob monkey to play Ripley

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 8:07PMAlert a moderator

21: ashley.russell says

It'll probably be Megan Fox or someone c**p like that.

maybe Natalie Portman could pull it off...bah...what am I talking about, this is terrible news

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 8:49PMAlert a moderator

22: MikeyRix says

NO. NO NO NO NO NO. NO. NO. NOOOOO. Leave the "Alien" series the f@ck alone! For God's sake!!! Has Hollywood run out of original ideas and has resorted to making origins film *COUGH WOLVERINE!*, sequels and/or remakes?? NOOOOOO and NOOOOOOOOOO again!! Mikey.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 9:07PMAlert a moderator

23: ThrashGordon says

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 9:34PMAlert a moderator

24: MadMatt says

DravenCage, there's a difference between ripoff/homage and remake. The (brilliant) original Assault on Precinct 13 is definitely the former. If filmmakers aren't going to come up with original ideas I'd much prefer it if they ripped off/reinterpreted an earlier movie and called it something else.

There are a handful of exceptions that prove the rule, but most remakes are completely unnecessary. We've never known anything like the volume and frequency of them we've suffered through this decade. It's getting utterly ridiculous. Given the financial climate and the level of risk associated with every film, studios are going to keep exploiting existing 'brands' and name recognition for the foreseeable future, sadly.

Posted: May 28th 2009 // 10:45PMAlert a moderator

25: eeyore1059 says

I hope Ridley is directed to this site and sees the mostly negative response this little blurb has gotten. Reading recently about the aborted sequel to Gladiator, I can't help but wonder why he doesn't direct his talents to making something truly different than rehashing a true classic from his past. Don't do it Ridley !!!

Posted: May 29th 2009 // 1:14AMAlert a moderator

26: theGlimmerTwin says

Remakes are all fine and dandy, but when your original is hailed from almost entirely all quarters as a classic what is the motivation? What happened to Alien 5 indeed, there are 101 things you could do or could explore, so why revisit what we already have other than it'll be cheaper and "easier" (even though in actuality it is more difficult to battle the original as it will dog the remake)?

The only reason to assault such a film is if you have an original way to view the material, or a new direction to take a similar story. Time will tell if this is a) true, b) if they have something new to bring...

Posted: May 29th 2009 // 1:49AMAlert a moderator

27: asfm1 says

I welcome the idea.

Firstly, the Alien series is dead. Dead. How many of us are already pretending there are only two Alien films? Making a prequel won't hurt the series and remaking it won't hurt the series. You can't hurt something that's dead.

Secondly, kids today see Alien and laugh. Nine inch monitors and columns of glowly LEDs on the walls? Oooo, scifi! Aliens has a pretty timeless look to it, but Alien is ridiculously dated.

There are plenty of people out there who would really be able to love Alien, but they can't because its visuals take them out of the experience. And believing what you are seeing is vital for a horror film to work.

That said, I expect it to suck. It will probably be awful. But, so what? let them take a shot. Maybe they'll pull it off.

The absolute worst case scenario: we have one more Alien film to pretend doesn't exist. Big deal.

Posted: May 29th 2009 // 5:46AMAlert a moderator

28: Bigby says

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO whose seriouslly in chare at fox, they seem to have a profession as to royally raping anything they can, do i need to mention wolverine, dragonball and street fighter *loads shotgun and puts it in mouth* NOW THEY WANNA RAPE A GOD DAMN CLASSIC THAT HAS NOTHING WRONG REMAKE SOMETHING c**p FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!

Posted: May 29th 2009 // 9:03PMAlert a moderator

29: Parkie says

My favourite comment so far was @ 6: by sansbinho "My eyes have caught fire from anger."

That summed up my feelings entirely!

However, if the project was an "Origins" story - with Ridley overseeing - I can see some potential for success. A "remake" however, would be an unconscionable act of commercialism and would, in my opinion, tarnish the reputations of Fox & Scott beyond repair.

So I guess the jury's still out until further evidence is presented...

Posted: May 30th 2009 // 5:38PMAlert a moderator

30: BlueSmudge says

If it's a remake I only have one phrase;
"I saw we take off and nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."
Dear Lord, please do NOT remake this classic.
If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

Posted: May 31st 2009 // 12:31PMAlert a moderator

31: frostfacechilla says

Leave Aliens alone, can't you see the series is not well right now, all you movie execs want is more more more more more...boo hoo hoo!
still reckon i'll go check it out though if there's nothing better to do at the time!

Posted: May 31st 2009 // 6:26PMAlert a moderator

32: zombiebones64 says

It needs to be known that there are several novels written which precluded Alien 4 (and Alien 3, for that matter !!)which had the craft crash into earth as in Alien 4 ending and from that crash the Alien survived and wreaked havoc on earth; reducing a near wipeout of all human life, just a rag-tag lot of humans surviving. Now, imagine...Ripley,somehow gets to hear of the 'Alien Genocide' going on, gets to earth and somehow leads the revolt against them. Even if this doesn't become the case, imagine the potential of off-shoot series, even a Battlestar Galactica type series that could spring up once the franchise is ended, (if they end it kindly, that is !). So far, the movies have stuck to the books in certain ares such as Aliens sacrificing another to gain an advantage as in Alien 4 where the Aliens took advantage of another Alien and killed it to 'acify' a wall to breakout and attempt to get top the 'Betty', let alone the potential of Aliens spontaneously changing sex, (rather like frogs), when needs be. You all oughta rerad all the books as a prequel will definately show how the 'Jockey' was compromised, how the Aliens arrived and obviously how our intervention with them began. That would be Alien5, but Alien 6, the final in the franchise, will be about the near wipeout of all human life, fronted (possibly) by Sigourney, how we reclaim earth at the dying moments assisted by the 'Jockey' species who return to wipeout the Aliens. All of this is in the 'Aliens' books, you gotta read 'em.
Andy P

Posted: Jul 25th 2009 // 2:15AMAlert a moderator

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