What if... Alien was remade?

I'd like to have a little more Cosmic horror. One of the things I like about the Engineers...THEY will bring the horror to your doorstep. Xenomorphs stay put...you have to engage them. Zeno's aren't hopping in flying saucers and invading Earth. Weyland Yutani are the Cosmic horrors, trying to bring back some xenomorphs or goo back to Earth.

"Which one is Sevastopol?"

Ah. Yes I zoomed in on that one because it looked like the Nostromo refinery falling apart, and then realized that's from the game. There's a real downfall to doing this all from one's phone. Thank you!

A remake/reboot would have EPIC FAIL written all over it. Just... don't, don't even think about it. The end.

Why?

There seem to be a group of people that view Alien as above the need to remake, or ability to do so.

I'm sorry but if King Kong can be remade/rebooted so many times in the years it's been out, nothing is out of bounds for a remake.

Its as i have said, we can remake it as far as touch upon the same material and plot, without having to class it as a replacement for Alien.

The movie had these few themes for the backbone.

*unaware Human Crew of a Space Ship.

*Investigating a signal, on a Alien World/Moon

*Discover a Alien Ship with a deadly cargo

*Potentially lured them via undercover mission unknown to the crew apart from a assigned Android.

The originally idea added to the above and changed it, that there was no undercover Android or hidden company Agenda... they ship just happened to be near by and discovered a SOS....

The Egg Chamber was not the cargo but part of another Structure.

And so these Elements can be incorporated into a new story that does not have to rule out or replace the Original Movie.

Besides i think Alien Covenant could touch upon those elements that where never used in Alien

Well, at the end of the day, despite my wishes to the contrary, just about every time I've watched a "directors cut" or "added scenes", or even re-read a book with added material, it never equaled the original.  I'm not sure why.

But when it comes to sci-fi, I tend to make an exception, because I really appreciate the re-done FX.  After watching all those cheesy sci-fi movies from the 50's and 60's, when I see really awesome FX the new technology gives us, I'm always seem to be thinking: "damn, if they just re-did my favorite movie, like Alien with it, it would make the whole experience so much richer, visually.  But the reality is, trying to get Ridley Scott to re-do his masterpiece, with all the bullshit interference from the Hollywood asshats and tools; yeah damn near impossible.

It HAS been done, but no easy task to pull off.  I liked the Total Recall re-make.  Also Godzilla was pretty good.  Ditto Planet of the Apes.  Yes even some of the Batman/Superman stuff.  The Star Trek stuff is pretty good. 

The problem is with any long-running franchise, like Alien or Star Wars, which started at the end of the industrial age, and continued into the information age, there is such a huge gap in FX technology.  After watching Prometheus, it's almost painful to watch Alien or Aliens.  For example, Cameron's Space Marines are laughable, with their cobbled together Viet-nam era military and sports kit.    

I think for those reasons... yes we could see a Re-boot but not for a long time..

They are trying tie in Alien Covenant and its sequels to Alien and maybe Ripley (hope not to much) they are planning a Alien 5 with Miss Weaver too....  no doubt a Alien 6 will happen after Alien 5 with who ever is cast as Newt taking the reigns and carrying on the story.

So with Fox investing in having a Alien 5-6 potentially on the cards over the next 10 years that tie directly to Alien and Aliens...

And with a Alien Covenant and Sequels to tie directly into Alien at some point while also tying to Prometheus.

I cant see FOX Re-boot a Alien as in to replace the movie.

But we cant rule out a Re-boot down the line but i doubt it within the next 20 years.

But again we have to ask.....WHY DOES IT NEED A REMAKE?

The effects where good, the movie was great and yes the Ships interior had that 70's Sci-Fi Ship look but the only reasons to REMAKE it are to make a more realistic interior and maybe better effects Xenomorph..

But then the practice effects stand the tide of time... only the Adult Xeno in a few shots could have been improved, but it would take TOP TOP CGI of which even Prometheus never quite matched...

And the Alien was only shown a few times in the dark and thats what made the Movie work so well.... having  a part CGI and Part state of the Art Prospectics Xeno would be a improvement but then are we showcasing these effects by seeing the Monster more on screen?

For how little we saw of it and how well the effects was in Alien i dont see the purpose for it..

So the only reasons for a Remake are....

1) Include elements that was intended but left out... i.e Temple Complex and Egg Silo, maybe Murals and Frescos but would this take away the Mystery.. and Alien Covenant can touch upon these.

2) Modernize the Ships design.... which to be fair apart from CRT Monitors and Mother.... the ships looked fine.. Prometheus made the error of making a more Modern and different ship.....  

Again i think Alien Covenant will give us a Ship like in Alien but with a modern touch and i dont expect everything to be as Nice as Prometheus.

We cant guarantee that in 100 years time if we can send ships into space regularly that they would all have that Polished look that Prometheus and say the Enterprise or Voyage do in Star Trek.

They could have a basic look like in Alien but only replacing CRT Screens etc with Flat Screens and Touch Screens.

In fact this image captures it Perfectly...

so those two reasons for a Remake i said above... are elements that Alien Covenant and its sequels could actually cover.

I love film, not horror, or sci fi but film. A L I E N is one of a handful of truly original films which goes beyond its flaws to make it special in a unique and timeless way. The Ape reboot is an example of a reboot of an original which has a great idea but the original was not a great movie. A L I E N  was great idea and is a great movie. The 50's and 60's sci fi movies "Quatermass" and "W of T W' still work for me as does "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing", "Shangri la" and "Its A Wonderful Life' - lightening in a bottle.     

I am cautiously optimistic that the reboot that began with Prom is worthy of A L I E N but if they attempted an entirely separate reboot I think a PLANNED sequence which had confidence in the narrative and was not constrained by budget restrictions would be worthy of consideration. More along the lines of the original Prometheus 2 a separate but connected vision which dealt with the mythos from a different angle with the Zeno only touched upon. All the themes can be there but a radical recasting of the notion to the point that A L I E N remains rather than is replaced.

I agree with Ridley the beast is cooked for my generation the only thing that will make it interesting is the answers to the questions he is posing the John Logan element. I do not doubt the Zenomorph will be used heavily in the advertising for placement but if the movie is going to work it has to be a lot more than a horror flick  just as reboot would need to be.      

Beast is cooked...but the fans still want Xenomorph action!

Ridley introduced the Engineers....but that's didn't catch on..

One Engineer: capable of killing billions...wiping trillions of organisms from the face of your planet....fans 'meh'

One Xeno: capable of killing your crew(10-15 humans!)...unless you have weapons..then it's a even match.

Maybe Ridley can introduce a creature that will make the fans move on from the zeno fixation.

BravoDelta:  Yeah those tiny flat screens in the original movie are so antique, along with all the blinking LED lights in the mother comms well (what the hell was that all about?! Ooh blinky blinky, in my best Homer Simpson voice).

As to a "grimy" used look in a space-faring ship vs the slick look of Prometheus et al.  The question is will we need POLs (petroleum, oils, and lubricants) in a space ship the same way as today's vehicles.  My best guess is no.  I think the POL's will be so advanced that they will not leave a lot of greasy residue like today's products.  So the grimy lived-in look may be anachronistic to space travel.  Compare a WWI fighter to a modern-age one.  So much mechanical has been replaced with electro-mechanical.  Battery technology will be so advanced that internal combustion engines will be all but obsolete.  Whatever the main engines are, I would bet there won't be a lot of oil and grease involved.

So my best guess is the Prometheus look will be closer to the mark.   And yeah, the A:C cockpit looks spot on with updated avionics.         

@Monsterzero

I think a lot of that is to do with the quality of the movie. Fans are "meh" about the engineers because frankly the movie based around the engineers is meh. Meanwhile the Xenomorph has 2 genre defining movies under its belt.

If you want to make people care about something else, you have to make a movie that grabs them as much as the xenomorph's movies do and for most people I think it's fair to say Prometheus did not.

Adding to the designs with xeno being leagues ahead of buff bald albinos aka engineers.

@Monster Zero

Curiously most of the criticism of Prometheus, which I do not share, is about whats there, not whats missing. People do not like the Shaw character or the Milburn/Fifield scene indeed they do not like anybody. They are puzzled about how it "fits" with A L I E N not that a Zeno is missing. That is the Lindelof factor he is light on exposition and wants us to give ourselves permission to use our imagination rather than be spoon fed. I think for a tent pole it did need more threading but again I say where is the demand for the Zeno.

I think it comes out of the internet response to A. 5. Personally I wouldn't read to much into that it feels like a desire for nostalgia rather like in the rock world where bands are playing entire albums for the baby boomers. Playing you favourite album in concert is one thing, repeating the same tropes in a movie yet again will bite you in the bum.

The other difficulty with Prometheus is the threat is not anthropomorphic it is existential almost in the imagining rather than the reality. Very briefly it becomes person centred first Weyland then the surviving Engineer then the Trilobite then the Deacon. Notice the domino effect, because the real threat is the movies ideas the proposition of it. 

We have the ideas, now watch the narrative harden on Paradise.       

@MonsterZero

Beast is cooked...but the fans still want Xenomorph action!

Sure, if done right.

Ridley introduced the Engineers....but [that] didn't catch on..

Wrong. The Engineers are the most interesting thing in the series now.

Maybe Ridley can introduce a creature that will make the fans move on from the [xeno] fixation.

That would be cool!

Monster Zero:

I think that they could make AC a movie that isn’t Xeno centered but they need to make a lot better characters than Prometheus had. What is needed is characters that get into situations where we sympathize with their struggles and Prometheus for the most part didn’t have that. As a matter of fact I would welcome a movie that isn’t Xeno centered but they need good human characters. The Engineers could be interesting but they got to make things make sense and still have some mystery about it while still make it a (credible) threat.

One thing that they need to show is the intentions of the Engineers and make a good story about why they are threatening. Having them as a megalomaniac specie that is mad at humanity and wants to kill us all. This could be done well but we will see.

Durp 004:

I think that if they made the Engineers like megalomaniacs with a will to power above everyone else that could be a scary thing but it has got to be done right. They need to make credible human characters that we care about something that Prometheus didn’t.

Michelle J:

You wrote:

“People do not like the Shaw character or the Milburn/Fifield scene indeed they do not like anybody.”

I like some characters but I don’t like Shaw or Fifield and Milburn. David and the captain (Idris Elba) were good but there were too few characters that they got right and honestly I didn’t care for most of them. Some of them were just there for what reason exactly? Alien made this right and made likeable characters but in Prometheus there were too few of these. Sure it would have been better tied to the Xeno and have been less ambiguous but the characters were the main problem IMO.

The main problem is that they got a writer that can’t write good characters or the editing process (maybe a combination of these two). Hopefully they will get it right for AC.

@Michelle Johnston

"The other difficulty with Prometheus is the threat is not anthropomorphic it is existential almost in the imagining rather than the reality."

I agree. Nice insight! I would be traumatized by seeing Jonesy bitten in half then 'hearing' about the death of 10 billion Earthlings.

Me: "10 billion dead?! Wow! that's a lot!"

Me: *chomp* "Jonesy dead!?! NO !!! They can't kill Jonesy! OMG!! NO!"