The “daft” movie that changed the course of James Cameron’s career
In 1979, Ridley Scott released Alien, which is considered one of the greatest science-fiction movies ever made. Released just two years after Star Wars, which helped kickstart a cinematic science-fiction boom, Alien took a much darker approach. Scott’s cosmic horror movie follows a small crew as they find themselves battling a terrifying alien on board their ship.
There are some pretty unforgettable moments in Alien, such as the hideous creature bursting out of John Hurt’s chest, making it a truly unforgettable watch. Yet, upon its release, Alien was met with mixed critical reviews despite becoming commercially popular. Discussing an early screening, the film’s editor, Terry Rawlings, said, “It was the most incredible preview I’ve ever been in. I mean, people were screaming and running out of the theater.”
These days, Alien is unanimously praised and recognised for its significant impact on the science-fiction genre. It also spawned a franchise, which Scott never intended, with its sequel, Aliens, released in 1986. James Cameron took charge of direction, and the movie was similarly praised, with many people believing it to be on par with its predecessor.
Yet, the release of Alien 3 (David Fincher) and Alien Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) was much less successful, with Cameron stating that he absolutely hated the former. Yet the franchise wasn’t done there. In 2004, Alien vs Predator was released, which merged the franchise with the Predator series, created by Jim and John Thomas. This was followed by 2007’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
Scott and Cameron were not fans of the spin-off franchise, with Scott calling it a “daft idea”. He told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast. And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel if you like.'”
However, the release of Alien vs Predator derailed an idea that would’ve seen Scott and Cameron work together on a fifth Alien movie. During a Reddit AMA, Cameron revealed, “What came up was the idea of doing Alien 5, and at one point, I pitched that I would write it and produce it, and Ridley would direct it, and we had lunch talking about this, and we were in violent agreement, then nothing happened. What happened was Fox went ahead with Aliens Vs Predator.”
The director, known for helming titles such as The Terminator and Titanic, warned against the creation of a spin-off. “I said ‘I really don’t recommend that, you’ll ruin the franchise, it’s like Universal doing Dracula versus the Werewolf,’ and then I lost interest in doing an Alien film.”
Yet, this led Cameron to focus on another project instead: Avatar. The movie had been in the works for years, but now he could dedicate all of his energy towards it. He explained: “But Prometheus is seen as the A-level alien, as opposed to rather, the derivative. I don’t think I have anything to offer on the Prometheus sequels, that’s Ridley’s, I think I’ll stick to the Avatar universe.”
