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 Nostromo was a giant turd floating through space. It was that old it was falling apart at the seams and its only serviceable function was being able to transport ore from one place to another. Like many old ships, the technology was very dated. The Nostromo was built in 2101 as a cruiser, but by 2116 had become refitted as a tug. So the Nostromo was not exactly state of the art for its time. The Prometheus on the other hand was built in 2091 as a state of the art ship. This is why The Prometheus looks better than the Nostromo even though it was built earlier.
The condition of the Nostromo is at the heart of the film Alien because everything revolves around the fact that the crew had to survive using nuts and bolts technology. It is the nuts and bolts technology that helps drive the story, which imo is why a remake would be a bad idea.
The Tempest was written by William Shakespeare around 1610-1611. This was ‘adapted’ and remade into the movie The Forbidden Planet in 1956. If The Forbidden Planet is the same story, then why have a title change ? If Alien was to be remade, what aspects of the film would change? Once a change has taken place, would it still be Alien ? In the case of The Tempest there is an obvious, historical change in the technology between that and The Forbidden Planet, but the real big change is in the way key characters were re adapted and names changed, but essentially the story was the same, but there was enough change to re name the story The Forbidden Planet.
Alien has its own particular story line, and a storyline imo which also relies on the general aesthetic created by the technology of its setting. I think that once you start screwing around with the aesthetic components of Alien, you are actually making big changes that can alter the feel of things. This is why I hate remakes of films sometimes because it can remove the aesthetic essence that makes an original great.
The Nostromo has a very analogue feel, which is maybe why there are those who would want to see things updated, but personally I think it still works. There is a derelict ship in Predators, where the interior design is from the analogue sets from Forbidden Planet, and in the context of Predators works well.
There are of course remakes that can work, but only because they have stayed true to the original, but then the problem is which actors have done the characters justice, so there is still some question mark possibly hanging over the validity of remakes. Of course with science fiction it does help if the special effects are superior to the original.
I personally think Alien is a classic and an original, that has set a standard for Sci-fi. It is not just something that anyone can come along and change. Also bear in mind, You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.
