Audio Mix for Alien 3 (Fincher Restored Version)

Re: Audio Mix for Alien 3 (Fincher Restored Version)

I wouldn't call this the "Fincher Restored Version" since he had virtually nothing to do with this DVD project aside from giving Fox his blessing to do whatever they wanted. It is merely a restored version of the longest existing cut of the film. I say "merely" not to diminish this cut's historical importance to fans, but rather to say that it is by no means a director's cut.

Unfortunately, yes, it would have been somewhat costly to bring certain cast members in to complete ADR over a decade after the fact. And given that, in most cases, their busy schedules prevented them from doing new interviews for the documentary, getting them to come back and loop the required lines would have been even more difficult.

Frankly, considering the technical and legal challenges this project faced, it's a miracle it turned out as well as it did. Or even happened at all. I think Fox deserves a lot of credit for making it a reality.

Re: Audio Mix for Alien 3 (Fincher Restored Version)

I remember reading a story that Charlie saw Fincher one time eating at the same restaurant he was and he approached him about getting involved in the project, but Fincher politely declined. Forget where I saw it though

Re: Audio Mix for Alien 3 (Fincher Restored Version)

The Digital Bits book?

Re: Audio Mix for Alien 3 (Fincher Restored Version)

and dammit would it be that hard to do a subtitle track with arrows pointing to the cast with their names on it.

I was surprised to see that imdb didn't just list them as "Bald brit #1", "Bald Brit #2", "Ellen Ripley", and "Bald Brit then Scot for a scene then Brit".

Great movie still. Especially the extended cut. I first watched it with a friend who was having ulcer pains during the alien birth scene. He just couldn't watch and wanted out of there.

Actually, not to get on your case, but... I don't think there is any Scottish actors in the film, or at least none that display a scottish accent, there is an Irish guy - Eric the cook.
Plus the assembly cut fleshes out a lot of the none British actors parts, Boggs, Rains and Junior for example, all of which are American actors. (I assume Leon Herbert playing Boggs is American)
I find it an odd misconception that Alien 3 is 'just a bunch of British actors running through corridors shouting "f@ck" as I have heard the film described elsewhere ;) It's quite an international cast, with the main leads of Weaver and Dutton both being American.

As to naming the individual prisoners, there is a handy name by picture run down in the quad set booklet :)

Ha. I was just making fun of something that actor who played Golic said in the making of doc. If I remember correctly, he was mentioning that they asked him to change his accent for one scene, filmed it, didn't like the accent, asked him to change it back and then didn't re-film or ADR it. I never noticed at all until he mentioned it. I didn't mean to put down the brit-fodder at all.
I love this movie and the Extended Version does not suffer at all from it's audio limitations. I'm ecstatic that that we got the opportunity to see this version and a few missing lines here and there would never spoil it. I doubt I've watched the theatrical version since.

Actually, Charles didn't approach Fincher at the restaurant. In the book, he called his friend and told him that Fincher was in the restaurant and his friend told him to go ask him, but when Charles tried to approach him, he was already gone. It wasn't until the director of "One Hour Photo" (which Lauzirika also worked on the DVD) gave David Charle's number that he decided to give him a call. Unfortunately, this just had to happen on the day that Charles was out of his office and all that was left was a simple recording. And from what Charles said, the mere mention of Alien3 from Fincher gave the impression that he was not interested in taking part in the new release at all.

 

When I took part in the Paul's Brain Trust Blade Runner event with a tour by Ridley Scott, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles and asked him if he still had Fincher's recording. He said that it was lost when he was moving from one office to another. It was not recorded on a tangible medium so I could understand that.

 

I still loved Charles' original idea of putting that message on the Alien3 disc as an easter egg. We could have dubbed it "David Fincher Speaks!...kind of". Would have been epic to hear David starts to lose all interest when Alien3 comes up. That would have been 500 times more epic and insightful than that "written text introduction" by the Wachowski brothers on their ultimate Matrix set.

 

EDIT: It has been a long time since I've read that book. The One Hour Photo producer wasn't the DVD producer, but the director of the film itself, and Charles was the producer on that DVD! /selfbonk.

Edited by Ted Van Duyn - 8/5/10 at 3:28am

It's a real shame Fincher doesn't want anything to do with Alien3. If nothing else its stunning visually, and I'm sure he could work the film into something he was more comfortable with, even if it wasn't what he originally wanted. There are far worse films out there then Alien3, which their respective directors even like (*cough AVP cough*).

 

p.s. Having that voicemail message on the Quadrilogy would have been epic! I feel bad for Charles that he didn't get to speak to him personally. What did the digital bits book say about what Fincher actually said in the message?

I can't imagine it would be because of his grudge against 20th Century Fox since he's worked with them on other projects like Fight Club. His lack of participation will be sorely missed, especially since he's a very entertaining story teller when he does his commentary tracks. 

 

Maybe when we see the uncut edition (plus extra!) of the wreckage and rage documentary for Alien3, we'll get a much broader understanding of what horrors went on behind the scenes of Alien3 and how he reacted to it. And I thought "I sure hope someone sees this movie!" was rough.

 

One question I would certainly like to ask Charles is if this set is closer to what he wanted to get onto the Quadrilogy set. In the book he says something to the extent "Did we get everything we wanted to put on the set onto the set? No." I know the documentary for Alien3 was a big part of that, and since that is finally going to see the light of day along with other interesting extras that even he agreed didn't work (Burke cocooned!), it should be pretty close. And if it isn't, what the heck is being left out that you're not satisfied with?!

I think it's fantastic we're finally getting the full Alien3 doc + a bit extra! I wonder if the new extra bits are brand new interviews, or material they recorded back in the day but wern't gonna use? The more the merrier anyway. Maybe we see more modern interviews with Charles Dance and Ralph Brown?

That's exactly what I've been wondering. One would think that any actors who were brought in for ADR would've been interviewed as well. I'd love to get Dance and Brown's reactions to the film now. (Sadly, Brian Glover died in 1997.)

 

It's gonna be a long 2+ months till October 26th!