Ridley Scott Considers a Digitally De-Aged Ripley

I liked Hoops character. He was down-trodden with a chippa attitude, the complete opposite of Ripley. Had a similar vibe to Mark Watney in The Martian (book), a survivor. He would've made a good protagonist going forward. 

With all this neomorph, protomorph and pseudomorph shenanigans, l for one could do with going back to the source materials, and the end of Aliens (as a 'jumping off point'). So bring on Alien 5, with the real, old-age Ripley and a smart continuation of the story.

@Grinning & Dropping Linen

"Having her exist in the films now is not necessary nor does it add anything to the story telling"

How do we know it wasn't planned all along?  It can potentially add to the story in certain ways.  Something big may happen in Covenant that has potential to change how we view it all.

Sigourney, Ridley, and James Cameron began discussing her return years ago.  By the time Weaver spoke to Blomkamp on the set of Chappie, she'd already discussed Ripley's story with Cameron.  Even as far back as the filming of Avatar, she tried to get James Cameron back on board.  Cameron may have been forced to keep what he knows about the upcoming films a secret.  He told us to wait & see what happens with Ridley's film(s), before we decide if more ALIEN films are necessary.  

@Stan Winston

I'm thinking they'll only reverse Ripley's aging a little bit to make her more practical than special effects.  We likely won't see "young Ripley" in any of the prequels.  The digital de-aging would simply be to make her look a little younger.  There might still be this idea for ALIEN 5, even though Blomkamp will no longer be involved with that project (due to the new direction the studio is heading in).  If they're going to do it, they want to do it before Sigourney Weaver gets much older. 

It's Weaver herself who was coming up with many of the ideas for her return and bouncing them off of Blomkamp.  It's not really due to the demand of the fans.  Letting Blomkamp work with some of the ideas and add his voice to the discussions resulted in a few things that the studio liked.  But ultimately, Blomkamp's version of ALIEN 5 wasn't going to line up.  

Ridley Scott doesn't want the Universe to go the way of the superhero films:  he would rather follow the Star Wars model and release one film per year.  Now that Sigourney Weaver is done serving her time with Marvel Studios, she's available to film with either him or Cameron.  She really wants to be part of this thing they're doing.  Ridley wants to turn the franchise into something that pulls in the same amount at the box office as the Star Wars and Marvel films do each year.  At the same time, he doesn't want the ALIEN franchise to devolve back into comic book movie territory; he just wants to compete with the other sci-fi franchises and offer things that those films lack.  

ALIEN has always been sci-fi/horror, and it's more of a hard sci-fi series than something like Star Wars.  An interconnected ALIEN universe fills a certain void that other franchises can't. It's only natural that Weaver wants to play a role in it.  Her main reason for not returning before was because the studio kept trying to set the film on Earth (Whedon's ALIEN 5 & AVP).  

I respectfully disagree about Ripley. She does not need shoehorned back into this film universe nor does it serve the Alien film universe by doing so. Having her back in these film or prequels would not make sense, nor would having movies post Aliens with her. I loved her character in Alien and Aliens, but she has had her logical inclusion in this universe and even some unneccessary inclusion (Alien Resurrection which was a hot garbage shoehorning her way to be in another Alien movie). Her talks with Cameron do not matter as he isnt the visionary for this film universe, that is Ridley and the tone that Ridley has set for this film universe. Cameron's Aliens although a wonderful action movie and a great film in its own right actually took a different tone and did things that lessened the impact and watered down the Alien species to just mean dangerous insects.

Having Ripley in further movies would seem contrived and would end up and seem similar to something like Alien Resurrection. The whole idea and things going on with these Ridley prequels is expanding the mythology and expanding the universe these films are set in, that doesnt really work to have Sigourney show back up, ....we are trying to expand the mythology and worlds and species but due to some misguided nostalgia they somehow run back into her or find a way to force her to be part of the storyline...which if you are honest doesnt fit in prequels or even if sequels are created....keep Sigourney out, she has played her part well, but to force her back in is a detriment to the tone and elements they are trying to create.

The ALIEN life cycle was always partially based on the life cycles of certain insects.  Except that the Marines are wrong about them being similar to ants:  Marines are the ants in the analogy. We've been looking at some of those ideas all wrong.

To be clear, I'm not talking about something like Daniels being revealed to be Ripley's MUTHUR:  some of the ideas they've looked at are more interesting.  That to me, is shoehorning her into the series.  The goal is to learn from the mistakes of the Star Wars prequels.  If they wanted things tied up neatly in a bow, they wouldn't be doing what they're doing.  The symbol of the ALIEN eating its own tail is important to the company...

The filmmakers consider ALIEN: Resurrection to be canon (like it or not), and Cameron has impacted the ALIEN 5 discussions over the years.  They weren't prepared to let Neil Blomkamp completely ignore ALIEN 3 the way he wanted to. There are a number of new concepts that they can establish in the prequel films, which can actually change the way we view Resurrection (in light of learning more about the quest for immortality in Prometheus, genetic siblings, hybrids etc).

Yes, they're expanding the franchise and building a bigger mythos that revolves around many new characters; however, there are ways Ripley can add to the story if she returns to the Universe she helped create.  All it takes is someone like Ridley or Cameron working with talented writers who know where to take the story.  She doesn't even need to play a major role. The torch will be passed to a new character.  Simply seeing Ripley again as part of a nostalgia factor won't cut it:  that's partially why Blomkamp's project was halted.  If they did Blomkamp's film, that would have been more about what the fans want.  This is more about what Weaver herself wants. She feels that they left Ripley's story in a bad spot and wants to give her a proper sendoff before moving on with the series.

I had a chance to speak with Sigourney at one of the comic expos, and she was VERY interested in returning.  Back then, ALIEN 5 was starting to be considered by the studio again.

So it's not like the filmmakers were twisting her arm to be part of it, or forcing the actress into it.  She's an active part of the discussions about what she wants to see happen.

What I'm mostly trying to say is that Sigourney was the one making most of those discussions about ALIEN 5 possible.  If Ridley can fit her into the prequels/sequels in a logical way, then she'll return.  But she does want the story to be better than ALIEN 3 & Resurrection.  It's easy to pretend Alien vs. Predator doesn't exist, but the studio would like us to keep certain ideas, such as Ripley's sacrifice in Alien 3, in mind.

In the new mythos they're building, we can't really rule out that the ALIEN is a zombie.  At one point in the original, Ripley thought the ALIEN was dead and that we could rule out the creature being a zombie (or possessing some hidden ability to trick its own head back to life).  So it may turn out the creature itself is the key to the immortality, and the DNA that hybridized with her hair brought Ripley back only to kill her again.  If the ex W-Y scientists hadn't taken the Queen out of her, then she wouldn't have had the mother-daughter bond.

I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.

LOL I'm not so sure about it now.  Was "Zombie Fifield" actually alive, or was he dead?  We never saw all of what happened to him when the DNA started morphing him.  There was Alien DNA inside those Urns, and it started doing something weird.

I think the worm's naturally high regen factor was enhanced when hybridized with the Alien DNA.  Acid blood is a trait all forms of the creature appear to share.  Fifield & Millburn didn't have time to contemplate the way the hammerpede regrew its own head so quickly.  They missed out on the immortality. Even if Fifield's body was still showing faint signals of life in his zombified form, would we really call that an existence?  

So yeah, sometimes the bioweapon might be able to bring people back from the dead.  The cloning science has existed since the 90s (and is based on real-world science), but all the scientists aboard the Auriga would have needed to do was give Ripley a little push.  In Covenant, we might see that some of them can tap into an ability to essentially not die easily. 

The ALIEN could behave much like the bird in the Prometheus myth:  Zeus’ faction of Engineers may have altered it to punish Prometheus for all eternity.  The creature eats away at the Titan's insides until he’s dead, then it brings poor Prometheus back to life the next morning to start the whole cycle over...  

Tiny fungus-like spores could have the ability to turn the ants into mindless zombies that walk around in the zombie-fifield state - until baby wasps suddenly burst out of their heads.  The Marines wouldn't see the headburster types coming, because they're not aware the infection moves through the spine, the central nervous system, their hair etc.  A bunch of Marines suddenly become the ants in the analogy, while W-Y private security forces learns more about the smaller types that occasionally burst from peoples' eyes, like with Holloway...

Nowhere, anywhere, have i seen where filmmakers, Ridley most importantly, consider Alien Resurrection to be canon. 

I understand how Sigourney's ego wants to send her character off in a better light than it ended with in A3 and AR but thats her and her alone. It doesnt make sense for a studio to foot the bill on an Alien film project just so Ripley can have a character she played sign off in a more accepted cinematic way. Thats like what if Arnold wanted to do another Terminator so he can go out with a bang instead of how the last few Terminators ended up....its not logical.

The Alien film universe isnt Cameron's it is Ridley's. In fact although i can tell you disagree i feel introducing a queen and making the Alien creatures cannon fodder isnt as awesome as having the Alien be some ancient cosmic creation of some older than old entity. That being said Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time, but i still know that this film universe works best when its in the tone of Ridley's films and most definitely not the trash that is AR or the AVP movies.

If you think of what they can do with Ripley now especially after Prometheus and soon Alien Covenant, there is no way to bring her back into the fold that wont be contrived or seem implausible or seem like a rehash.

* If you count A3 then she is dead and there is no where to go

* Including AR seems ridiculous as that movie is garbage

* Not counting A3 and having a movie take place after Aliens with her seems implausible, what are the odds that she would yet again run into this organism in the vastness of space....doing so is akin to Die hard part 54 or whatever it is, anything like this would be would be predictable and not fresh and seem forced. I mean she is not gonna go the route of being a consultant again, the odds of her running into the organism in space again seems remote and if she does it seems a bit far fetched 

* She had no knowledge of the xenomorph or Aliens/juggernauts/derelicts etc before the movie Alien, up to this point in her life she was just a space trucker...so including her in any of the prequels does not make any sense at all unless you just want a movie about some tall old chic who has her looks "deaged" transporting rocks, because that is all she could bring to the story in any prequels, and keep in mind she has zero, thats NO knowledge of Aliens or any of this before they set the Nostromo down on LV426 in Alien...doesnt make any rational or logical sense

*We know where she was in between Alien and Aliens (frozen like a popsicle) so there is no chance of doing a movie set between these points even if they "de-age" her

Any points after Aliens or even Alien 3 make no sense, besides the fact that it would be contrived and seem forced... and would not benefit the story of this film universe, this world is better left to new characters, ideals and stories. Points before Alien in any prequels make no sense due to the fact she never encountered are little biomechanical monster or anything like it before that point. 

In conclusion including Sigourney in any further Alien Universe movies makes no sense....

* prequels it is illogical to include her

* After Alien and before Aliens, she was on ice so nope that doesnt work

* Honestly anything after Aliens whether you count A3 and AR or not seems forced as the odds of her running into this species again are beyond remote and i dont want to see it again, at least not with her, i and most of the audience have seen that, we dont want to see her interactions in this film universe, we want new and expanded mythology and stories...more Ripley does not do that

* Mention of Cameron does matter to me as he is far removed from the Alien Film Universe as it stands

* Ripley served to Alien films very well but having her in a film or having another film about her just because she wants one or is interested in having her character have a more palatable ending would be a poor decision by any studio

I

You raise a number of valid points, and you've explained your position enough for me to see what you mean.  Agreed that it's very illogical to include Ripley in the prequels in any way.  

I can't really see a way of including Ripley that wouldn't at least seem a little contrived.  I'm actually following where some of clues and hints may lead, because I think they'll bring Ripley back regardless of whether they come up with a good enough reason to, sadly.  To be completely honest, it was unbelievable they brought her out of cryo in the Out of the Shadows book.

Maybe there isn't a story idea that's worthy of her return? 

I'll try to dig up a quote of Ridley mentioning how he considers everything but the AVP movies to be part of the series.  It was around the time of Prometheus, during a press interview.  IIRC he also said he hasn't actually seen the AVP movies (and correctly assumed they were trash).

I'm mainly going from the timeline established in the W-Y Report, which includes the events of all 4 films, so I'm partially referencing the "semi-official" books that have been released. None of that really matters, because film canon always trumps whatever's in the books.  My intention isn't to offend, or to promote the Queen's return.  I usually try to be as objective as possible, and I truly hope we don't see Queens or Marines in the prequels.  There's just this feeling I have that the studio & Weaver won't let them ditch the Queen concept completely.

Seeing the new creatures and the ideas about evolution that Ridley keeps bringing up is far more interesting to me than seeing the Queen again.  We don't really need another film with Marines in it, but it's something the studio might try to do. I'm not really a huge fan of the Queen, or Cameron's film for that matter; I don't really have a horse in that race.  ALIEN is by far my favorite of the films, and Ridley will always be the father of this universe.  I just think Cameron (and Sigourney) deserves some credit for what they did with the second film.  It does manage to retain some of the horror of the original (the ALIENS crawling on the ceiling etc), even though it's more of an action film.  The third film is actually my least favorite, because it didn't really try to do much new or different.

In ALIEN 3 they went back to a lone Alien, but they couldn't really match what Scott did in the first film.  Worst of all, ALIEN 3 can be quite boring at times; it's almost a chore for me to sit through.  Similarly, Resurrection never even comes close to matching what Cameron did in ALIENS.  Although, somehow I've found more things to enjoy about Resurrection than I have with Alien 3 over the years.  My initial reaction to Resurrection was probably the same as many.  Alien 3 has more depth to its story, and the Alien isn't as one-dimensional as they are in Resurrection.  However, none of the characters in Alien 3 (besides Ripley) resonate with me.  The only reason I pop in my copy of Resurrection from time to time is for Call.  

My favorite film is Alien as well, while I really enjoy Aliens  the tone and elements of the original are my favorite.

i agree with you regarding studios often not doing the bat thing and they very well find some odd way to work her back in... Lol... Even though it would make me cringe.

i also agree A3 is not very    re-watchable it's kind of dull although a couple of the themes are nice for dramatic effect, it's just not that enjoyable of a film... It's the same ole same ole thing played again from a prison with elements of sacrifice and redemption.

i really hate Alien Resurrection, in fact I like Requim more... Crazy huh.... There are some cool action set pieces in the movie but the cheese factor with a lot of the scenes and the Over the top corny dialog and her shooting basketball ruined it for me I can't get past the corny stuff, and dialog. Plus the tone is all over the place and it was all wrong for an Alien film, while I like the idea of genetically messing with the xeno I didn't like the way they did it. Cloning her but yet the xeno ends up inside too? I didn't like the newborn and while I liked the crew of the nercenary ship I cringed at most of what Ripley said or every time she was on screen. It makes it worse if you watch AR after recently watching the classic Alien and or Aliens, it makes all the things wrong with AR more apparent.Lol.... But I did like Call, I felt that was a wasted character they could have used as a protagonist going forward if they had handled that movie better and did more with that character than they did plus Winona is s great actress. With a different story and a darker more haunting tone having a Call would be cool thing for new stories.

IMO missed opportunity with call

It was Good discussing ideas with you, heres to hoping Alien Covenant is outstanding and the studios do the right thing  with story telling and decisions as we move forward with this film universe... Cheers 

DAVID007 - Hmm, that would be rather strange, in my opinion. I happen to believe "digital resurrection" possesses a hollow quality that is most unbecoming. We should look forward to new characters; not cling to a set few in unseemly obsession. Ripley will forever be known for being an incredible character. However, we should allow her to rest on her well-earned laurels. :)

new movies are coming, cmon give her a chance! a post NOSTROMO movie; there is a big gap uncovering.