The ‘Alien’ movie that Sigourney Weaver found “depressing”
Whenever a discussion around strong female protagonists pops up on social media, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley is always one of the first names to be thrown into the mix. It’s definitely justified since Ripley’s influence on popular culture extends far beyond the scope of the Alien film franchise.
For Weaver, Alien was the kind of breakthrough that most actors spend their entire lives dreaming about. One of the greatest sci-fi horror films ever made, it constructs an intense framework of atmospheric anxiety as a hyper-violent extraterrestrial entity wreaks havoc on a commercial spaceship.
Although Alien found commercial success, the initial critical response to the film was mixed. Fortunately, an overwhelming consensus was soon formed by fans who knew that they were watching one of the best cinematic achievements of the decade. Since then, the franchise has expanded into multiple sequels, crossover films, comic books, video games and many other avenues.
Although Weaver is greatly appreciative of the impact of the Alien films and the immortalisation of her iconic character, there’s one Alien movie she really hates. During a conversation with Radio Times, the actor revealed that she wasn’t a fan of the Alien vs. Predator mashup directed by Paul W. S. Anderson in 2004.
“I heard that Fox was gonna do Alien vs Predator, which really depressed me because I was very proud of the movies,” Weaver said (via Independent). The actor famously claimed that the crossover trend “caused more problems than it was worth”, insisting that the Alien vs. Predator project should never have been made.
Interestingly, Weaver was so disgusted by the idea of the crossover movie that she wanted David Fincher to kill off her character in Alien 3. Although Weaver was supposed to reprise her role in a future Alien project directed by Neill Blomkamp, those plans never came to fruition.
It appears as if the crossover movies were the final straw for Weaver. She added: “I’ve nothing against building a movie on a video game, but at the time, it was, as Jim Cameron said, I think publicly, ‘Why would you want to do that?’. It’s like making Alien Meets the Wolfman.”
