Maybe there's a future after all...

ninXeno426 Welcome back. Since you were gone, little has changed about what direction the Alien franchise should go among forum members. We all have different preferences but most seem to think the franchise still has potential. People seem more receptive to the idea of a streaming series since other shows have seen success. A lot of people don't like to hear the words Raised by Wolves, so I won't mention it. 

I think you would be safe skipping the last Predator movie. There was a lot of anticipation and some good parts to it, but just din't deliver the goods imo. AVP was a better movie.

Glad to be back, Thanks dk. I spend some time in Alien Theory's Discord server and a huge majority of that group want to see some of the old comics adapted, namely The Earth War trilogy. I keep saying nah that's kinda boring turning comics as old as me into a movie lol. But maybe a series off those wouldn't be a terrible idea? I still would prefer a fresh plot though. They're all pretty adamant that they don't want a retread of Alien, which I can't say I blame them because under Disney that's what Star Wars mostly turned out to be.

 I wanted to watch Raised By Wolves lol. But I did hear Ridley got really Ridley on it. Made me think back to a whole bunch of convo's here where everyone was rather upset that he abandoned his original Prometheus vision in Covenant. Made me think "I wonder what they make of this lol"...guess I got my answer.

I only saw the first 2 or 3 episodes of RBW since it was free. I liked it. Lots of people dislike it seemingly due to the vibes of Alien and even BR. OK, Fine. I get it and feel it too, but I like what I saw when I viewed it as a stand alone show on it's own merits. Haters will hate. 

Its still on my radar. If listened to everyone I wouldn't like nearly as much as I do. I got a video in my Yt watch later about the apparent Alien connection to Raised by Wolves. Looks like something resembling a hammerpede appeared on the show

I think the next Alien film should be like Infinity War. Furious Engineers attack the Earth with a pathogen and xenomorphs. Only a group of colonial marines can fight back. You can even connect the Predators - they will infiltrate the motherships of the Engineers and will fight the Queens! And at the end, the Space Jockey will arrive with a new biological weapon - ultramorphs. And only a squad of Autons can stop him. The film will also feature epic space battles with handreds of ships with lazers and rockets.

I think with Predator it has that KIDDY Friendly Cool Factor!

You can TONE DOWN the Blood/Guts from the Predator Franchise and still have the Uber Cool Hunters going around KICKING ASS and so it would FIT very much in line with the ACTION that you would see in a STAR WARS or the Marvel Universe.

With the Xenomorph then the GORE was kind of Part of the Parcel with the Beast.   If you took out the Chest Bursting and Toned down the Gore of the Killings, then you STRIP away a lot of the Xenomorph and leave NOT so much left.

This is maybe WHY they are going for a Predator Movie as they can TONE down the Gore and Blood so that they can PUSH it for 12-13 Year Olds and still make a Decent ACTION Flick.

I think DISNEY would look to Exploit the Market to get on board the 10-15 Year Olds for a Greater Market Share than to Restrict the Franchises to 15+

I think they also would Abandon any kind of Thought Provoking Elements, it would be about Effects, Action and Explosions.....

I think such Restrictions/Attitude does-not LIMIT the Predator Franchise as much as it would the ALIEN Franchise.

While it WONT be my Cup of Tea... i think what LETO has Suggested would be more likely how Disney would continue with a ALIEN Franchise... it would be more Marvel/Comic like than what a ALIEN or Prometheus was.

But its about what would make more $$$$ and Appeal to a Younger and Greater Numbers Generation... and the Comics and Video Games take on the Franchise (especially like AVP) is something that really Appeals and SELLS!

I think something of a Cosmic Horror with elements we see from Blade Runner and Prometheus with some Dark and Lovecraftian Themes are NOT the Direction that DISNEY would take.

I see maybe a ALIEN Franchise that would be aimed at the 13+ or 15 Year Olds and so a HARD R or Cert 18 is something i dont think the ALIEN Franchise would become...    a lot would be Sacrificed to DRIVE a Action and Special Effects FEST... that can be Marketed to a Generation of 12-18 Year Olds and OLDER rather than say a 15+

This could be the way to go.... as well i think if you showed the WHOLE Franchise to say 13-40 Year Olds in the General i think they would feel that Movies like ALIENS, and AVP and to a extent Alien R would appeal more... due to the Action Orientated Nature of them compared to say a Prometheus, Alien 3 and Alien Covenant.

I think if we look at the Infinity War idea which you could wonder what was RS plans when he said WAR OF THE WORLDS...

I think the PROBLEM we Face is Respect and to NOT cause any Conflict with the Franchise... so it gets TRICKY to Pull Off depending on WHAT we class as Canon!

But i think if we look at the ALIEN Franchise beyond the Restraints of the Franchise and look at what Prometheus has OPENED UP then you DONT have to Contradict the Franchise.

STAR WARS is set in a Galaxy FAR FAR away and for all we know the Humans etc in that Franchise are speaking ENGLISH just for our Convenience!

Battle Star Galactic and Caprica show us that their are more Human Colonies in the Galaxy than Earth...

And so the PLOT of Prometheus does OPEN UP this as far as going to another Galaxy or a Distant Part of our Galaxy where you can have other HUMANS and Races and Engineers and CONFLICT.

The Ideas i had for Prometheus Sequels, one of them was to go where David and Dr Shaw go.... and they DID-NOT go to our Door Step.......

They went VERY FAR.... like 16'000+ Light Years away!  (Maybe 40'0000+)By the TIME they arrived then ALIEN had already Happened...

They Discovered Humans, Engineers and few other Species... i NEVER got to Finish it.... but the Aftermath and Anger caused by Davids Actions would have UPSET the Engineers...

At this POINT the Aftermath/Retribution would take Place in a Time-Line that is POST that of ALIENS, hey maybe even Alien Resurrection!

If you had Engineers etc coming to Earth say 2250-2350 then it would NOT go and Conflict the Franchise as much.... be better Still if its set say 2400+

Something like this remains a OPTION for them!

So you see thats a VAST area to Expand to, where you may not be Restrained by the Franchise Limitations and Conflicts.

Well one thing they have said so far is the new Predator will indeed be R rated, but just how R rated is the real question. The big apocalyptic scenarios is why I've rebelled against some of the guys on discord for their want of The Earth War trilogy to be adapted. Things don't need to be so damn big with a $200 million + budget. They also have a preference to see a Colonial Marine story to which I also said no. Aliens is my favorite movie...but there have been so many Marine centric stories in games, books, and comics that the idea just comes off as uninspired. But it's a highly likely route that Disney would follow.

Totally agree..... you run the RISK of Conflict if you go the WHOLE.... Invasion of Earth Plot!

It would be Interesting to see DISNEY go and make a R Rated Predator. I think to do it Justice you only need a UK Cert 15 and whatever the USA Equivalent would be.

Like the AVP Movie that is HARD enough to Pull Off a Predator Movie... just like Predators..... I felt that The Predator had some Interesting Ideas and Concepts.

The Execution was POOR... with some Silly Stuff!

The Pred Killer Suit... and also that the Cloak is Basically just a Little Ball are STUPID

The revelation of Genetically Engineered Super Predators and their Species going to Worlds to take Traits from Various Species and conduct Genetic Experiments are INTERESTING.

I do think that DISNEY could gain some Success with a REBOOT of the AVP Franchise and give us something more Closer to the Video Games..  i think that this could be WORTH a Punt!

Regarding the ALIEN Franchise i think that the PLOT of Prometheus had OPENED UP a lot of Potential... that Sadly i cant see that we would see again!

ninXeno426

You are making two big logical mistakes:

1) you are looking from a fan's perspective. Most viewers are not fans, but just casual viewers. What is boring for you, can attract a lot of viewers.

2) games, comics, ect. - a fanservice for fans. This is additional material for those who love the franchise. The probability that a random player or reader interested in them - low. Thus, we return to point 1. For most viewers, there isn't any bored or worn out colonial marines or any other themes. All looks fresh.

On the contrary - guys with the smartguns versus scary monsters - sounds fun! Sounds like you would like to spend a weekend with your friends!

You have to understand that what bored the fan might be a breath of fresh air for the casual viewer.

The last movie fell flat. I would like to see Disney take a risk and go dark. Go back to the basics but without doing a re boot and lose the campy over the top humor. I doubt Disney has any real interest. They probably just like to own the rights and gloat while spewing out comic book hero action movie re treads.

Agreed with that dk. Alien is exhausted mostly. I'm probably among the few who enjoyed Covenant for what it was but admit it wasn't the best direction for the series.

Leto I'll continue to respectfully disagree. Going bigger and action packed doesn't guarantee success. Even Star Wars is having a hard time maintaining relevance, and were it not for The Mandalorian (probably the best Star Wars made in my almost 31 years) I'd say Star Wars would be dead. Alien isn't Star Wars levels of popular. It's just unwise to make a  large scale film when audiences will likely shrug it off and see Marvel, DC, or Fast and Furious. 

To justify making a big budget Alien Film, it'd have to make IT numbers (over $700 million world wide) or JOKER numbers (over a billion dollars).Both of those had $50 million budgets and Joker was quite the gamble and only ok'd by it's small for comic book movie budget,WB had no faith in this small character based approach. And IT Chapter 2 had a drastic drop from it's predecessor at the box office making about 300 million less. Those were two proven properties. Alien's box office days are behind it. Again back on discord I was trying to tell some of those guys that Alien has always been more niche than anything after they said Covenant killed any box office for the series. While that's partially true...it's worth noting Alien 3, Resurrection, both AVP's and Prometheus were all considered financial disappointments as well. 

I'm going to use Terminator as my poster boy here. The past 4 films have all had huge budgets. Each film was less successful than the last. Dark Fate fell so hard at the box office that it guaranteed we won't see Terminator any time soon. Terminator has almost consistently been more successful than Alien and is dead now. Even what's considered the worst Terminator, Genisys, was more successful than the highest grossing Alien which is Prometheus. If we can't get audiences to see Terminator and even Star Wars...then a big budget Alien is an even harder sell.

My opinion is Alien goes smaller in the vein of Halloween 2018. It'd be Better for the series. Give audiences a reason to be scared again. If they want generic action they can go see Marvel or Fast and Furious.

My rant there is precisely why I created this topic lol. Taking Alien to streaming, be it movie or series, can allow for smaller weirder and darker stories to exist. I quite like what little Noah Hawley was able to tell us about his Alien series for FX. It was killed by Disney's Fox purchase.

I doubt anyone over their 20s living in the 21st century will in any way be scared of the monster on the screen.

If you don't want popcorn action - how about adventures? Something like cosmic Indiana Jones or Tomb Rider.

Elizabeth Shaw and the cursed egg.

David: The mystery of the land of the Gods.

Ripley and the biomchanical kingdom.

I doubt anyone over their 20s living in the 21st century will in any way be scared of the monster on the screen.

I believe Alien Isolation would like to disagree with you. The beast still has power to terrify. If Michael Myers and Pennywise still can after all these years then so can the Alien.

As for your pitches...no thanks I'll pass. Those are so far removed from Alien I wonder why they'd exist in the first place. Like when Ridley planned on a Ripley movie minus the Alien. Those ideas remind me of the Star Trek reboots: movies purposely engineered for new audiences and new audiences only. I recall 2009 Star Trek's advertising tag went something like "This isn't your Dad's Star Trek". I don't understand the point of rebooting franchises with the intention of appealing to new comers, while alienating the old fan base almost on purpose. There needs to be a middle ground. You need to make sure you respect the old fan base while making sure something about it attracts new fans. This is something Disney's Star Wars sequels and the Star Trek reboots failed miserably at.

tbh, I never thought Isolation was scary. I find AvP2 more scary game. And this is a shooter, action game where you have a weapon and you kill aliens in large numbers.