Alien3 (1 Viewer)

[Daz_85]

First of all, congratulations on the Alien Quadrilogy set. 5 years later I still consider it my bible! Thank you and your team so much for help putting it together.

Regarding Alien3, there are around 18 scenes/differences from the old bootleg "workprint" cut of the film that arn't present on the official "assembley cut" release... what happened to these extra pieces?

Some of these are interesting, including Aaron's "you'll need a bigger cage than that" to Bishop II's team, Ripley's extra long decision whether to go with Bishop or not, and her "for the last time" line before she killed the alien. How about the rumoured longer and more graphic Newt autopsy scene?

Also, I read in an fairly recent interview that out of all the projects you've worked on, that Alien3 would be the one you'd wish to revisit the most... if so, what changes or further work would you do? Maybe you'll get your chance for the eventual Blu-ray release.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Charles de Lauzirika]

Hi Darren,

The Special Edition assembly cut of "Alien 3" conforms to the earliest and most "complete" workprint of the film as created by David Fincher and editor Terry Rawlings before the Los Angeles reshoots. I put "complete" in quotes because, as you correctly pointed out, there are still additional scenes that do not appear in that early assembly. The reason not to include those scenes in the Special Edition was an ethical one: We could have gone through all of the dailies of the entire film and created our own glorified fan edit that incorporated absolutely everything, but then that cut would have no historical basis in the creative process that actually occurred. Since Fincher opted not to participate in the Quadrilogy project, we wanted to present an alternate cut that reflected his work as closely as possible, incomplete and compromised though it was. The one area where we had to apply some creative license was in the new visual effects shots, but fortunately, visual effects producer Richard Edlund provided very helpful reference materials which allowed us to approximate the work that probably would have been done had the finished film ended up closer to the workprint.

Why those additional deleted scenes didn't appear elsewhere in the Quadrilogy set requires a more complicated answer, but the very short answer is, we simply ran out of time and money. The Quadrilogy project was an incredibly ambitious one and even though I'm largely happy with the final product, there are still some components of it which leave me somewhat unsatisfied. Leading me to your final question...

Actually, of all the titles I would want to revisit, the one I would most like to tweak, polish and enhance is now "Blade Runner." But in regards to "Alien 3," there are some sound issues in the workprint that I would love to correct. And there are some things I'd like to fix and add to in the supplements. But that's not saying anything new if you know the history of the Quadrilogy. I suppose there's a part of me that would want to go back into every project I've worked on in order to adjust or beef up some things. I think the one disc I've produced that I'm fully satisfied with is "Black Hawk Down," even though, on that one too, there were additional supplements I wanted to include.

At some point, you have to let it go and move on. But gosh...if only I could...just...do one more...little...

 

[Greg Mariotti]

what did you want to fix with Blade Runner?

 

[Daz_85]

Many thanks for your reply Charles!

I see what you're saying about the Assemley Cut, and wanting it to be a representation of what Fincher was going after in the beginning... but god, as a huge fan I would have loved to have seen a version that included everything available! That would have covered all bases, but like you say, you had other obsticles and ideas which is perfectly respectable.

I've got a weblink to a Total Film magazine article here where Fincher talks a bit about what he wanted to have in his cut, including that scene of Ripley taking a long time to decide her fate in the face of Bishop... so you missed that one out in your version afterall

“There was a whole section where they actually cut three minutes out of the end sequence when Bishop comes and presents his case. I always wanted it to play like she listens to him and she’s really tempted by it. Originally that scene played out much longer and there was a 40-second pause from the time Bishop said, ‘Please trust us’ until the time Ripley looks up at him and says ‘No’. It wasn’t as quick as it is in the theatrical version. I always liked that – the idea of her making a choice as opposed to having a choice made for her.”

You can read what he said here (bottom of page): http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...-post1122.html

He also mentions that he wouldn't have shown the alien much, which I thought interesting. If only he'd have worked on this project or given notes...

I think if you ever got the chance again to tweak Alien3, I'd love to see the following:

- Original Theatrical
- 2003 Assembley Cut
- Extended Theatrical Cut (keeping the continuity of the original release, but extending it where possible)
- Full Workprint

Keep dreaming hey

Regarding the Quadrilogy as a whole, even though you say you're unsatisfied with it in a few aspects, it's still one hell of a set, and certainly something to be proud of and that fans like myself love. I think the only things "fixed" I'd really like to have seen would have been:

- Deleted "Burke cocoon" scene from Aliens. Apparently Cameron doesn't want this to see the light of day, but shame it wasn't a seperate extra, or in one of the documentaries!
- The "other" alternative ending of Alien3, where blood appears on Ripley's shirt before she goes into the lead.
- The extra Alien3 scenes.
- Your unedited Alien3 documentaries.
- Getting the actors back to re-record the poor-quality lines in the Assembley cut. Hey, it was done for Apocalypse Now Redux

But really, that's it, so great work overall.

Thanks again for your insights

 

[Michael Rogers]

Love the work on the Alien set. I too am hoping that an eventual blu-ray release would be able to get ADR from the actors to properly finish the additional scenes in A3 that have poor dialog audio.

 

[EnricoE]

i'd love to see these additional scenes from aliens and alien 3 too

 

[Manfred123]

very helpful post.. thanks for sharing..

 

[Dave Simkiss]

The one thing that I would truly love to see included on any future releases of the Alien Quad would be all the B-Roll footage that was shot, especially on Alien 3 which seems to have been quite well documented by Fox back in the day (no doubt so Joe Roth could keep an eye on it all)

I should also be pointed out that the British 'making of Alien 3' (released in '92 to promote the film and later included as part of the facehugger box set) is different to the US 'making of Alien 3' that was on the first DVD release and on disk 9 of the quad set.

N.B. I am not refering to the 3+ hr making of Alien 3 produced for the Quad set, but the original promo docs.