What if... Alien was remade?
Gavin
MemberTrilobiteJuly 13, 2016With a needless reboot of a certain childhood favorite of mine hitting cinema's this week like a sloppy fish across the face, it made me wonder how far studios really are prepared to go with this reboot, remake, reset, and redux phase Hollywood seems to be relishing in at the minute. Reboots and remakes can be a good thing but only when handled right, Planet of the Apes is a perfect example of this with Tim Burtons 2001 remake missing the point entirely despite having truly stellar make-up effects, yet 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes proved to be a highly effective and heart warming first instalment in a highly successful reboot of the franchise.
In terms of box office takings, both the first two installments of the Alien franchise earned back ten times their production budget. The latter two sequels and 2012's prequel Prometheus have continued to earn a profit, but that profit is gradually declining as the franchise continues, partly due to increasing production budgets but also due to a gradually disenchanted fan-based audience. If things continue in this fashion it is only a matter of time before 20th Century Fox decide to remake our beloved Alien franchise.
Remakes usually retread the familiar main beats of the original movie upon which they are based, with some occasionally adding a twist to the setting or underlying theme, much like how 2012's Total Recall was not set on Mars like its 1990 predecessor. How would this affect an Alien remake? Would the Nostromo be technologically more advanced? Would the design of the Derelict and its pilot be changed? What of the antagonist itself, what redesigns would it undergo in such a remake?
Another aspect of a remake is the characters and their dynamics. 2014's RoboCop remake swapped Nancy Allen's Officer Anne Lewis for Michael K. Williams' Officer Jack Lewis. How would the Nostromo's crew fair in a remake? Would Kane still birth the deadly creature? Would Ash still be a synthetic acting under company special orders? Would Ripley still be a woman, and would they still be the lone survivor?
How would an Alien remake be marketed? Would it remain as a dark horror exploring the unsettling aspects of meeting such a deadly alien race, or would it follow the action movie likings of James Cameron's sequel? Even worse, could an Alien remake be mainstreamed into a PG-13 summer blockbuster?
Finally, could an Alien remake surpass the original? Is it possible that a director, with the right production and creative team, could avoid all of the pitfalls and faux-pas' previous directors in the franchise have made and make a better movie than Ridley Scott's classic original?
The poster was good though!
The poster was good though!
The poster was good though!
