Original Alien 3 director Renny Harlin reveals what the film would have been about had he directed it. Released in 1992, the third installment in the Alien franchise follows Ridley Scott’s beloved original in 1979 and James Cameron’s acclaimed 1986 sequel. Sigourney Weaver returns as hero Ellen Ripley in the David Fincher-directed threequel, this time facing off against a Xenomorph within a rundown correctional facility. The film, which suffered from studio interference, was divisive and received mixed reviews.

In a recent interview with SlashFilm, Harlin reveals his original Alien 3 story idea before he parted ways with the project. According to the director, the film would have brought the action to Earth for the first time, but studio executives shot the idea down. Check out Harlin’s full comment below:

“I was working on ‘Alien 3’ in ’89, which was before ‘Jurassic Park’ and all those movies. So the concept of having these creatures on Earth for the studio, it felt scary and unattainable. For me, it was the natural evolution. We’ve had the ‘Alien’ with the truck drivers in space, we’ve had ‘Aliens’ with the Marines in space, and where do we go next? Let’s bring the aliens on Earth and have them going through the cornfield.

“I had the poster already in my mind with the farmhouse and the cornfield in moonlight, and they are going through the cornfield. To this day, I think it would’ve been a ginormous hit movie because it would’ve been the first time anything like that was done. But for whatever reason, the studio felt like, ‘Ah, the audience won’t buy that.'”

“So let’s put the aliens on a prison ship. A prison ship? How am I going to relate to a prison ship? But that’s ancient history. I’m not blaming anybody, but for those who don’t know, I worked for a year on ‘Alien 3,’ and I quit politely, respectfully, because I couldn’t stand the idea of, after Ridley Scott and Jim Cameron, coming up with a movie that is just not going to live up to what the audience is expecting and give them that experience.

“The key to me, just to say again about the ‘Alien’ movies, was that they have to be relatable. They might be in outer space, but the characters are you and I, in outer space, and that’s what makes them tick.”

Would Renny Harlin’s Alien 3 Have Been A Better Movie?

Earth Would’ve Been The Perfect Setting

Obviously, whether Harlin’s Alien 3 would have been better than Fincher’s would have come down to execution, but purely from a story standpoint, it sounds intriguing. Alien 3‘s Rotten Tomatoes score sits at a lackluster 48%, and the audience score is even lower at 47%. The movie also failed to repeat the box office success of its predecessors, earning a respectable $158 million worldwide, which makes it the lowest grossing movie of the franchise globally.

It was always going to be a challenge to follow Cameron’s Aliens, which is widely regarded as one of the best sequels of all time, but setting the film inside a prison perhaps just wasn’t a big enough creative leap. There are some substantial tone and setting differences between movies one and two, and setting Alien 3 on Earth would’ve continued this trend and significantly upped the stakes. As Harlin mentions, it also would’ve come at the perfect time, with Jurassic Park coming the next year and believably bringing dinosaurs back to life using practical effects and early CGI.

Ironically, the Alien franchise is now set to travel to Earth for the first time with Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien TV show for FX. In many ways, it’s surprising the franchise has taken so long to bring the Xenomorph action back to humanity’s home planet, and perhaps the FX series will finally deliver something similar to what Harlin originally envisioned. Story specifics for Harlin’s Alien 3 remain unknown, but the setting alone makes it a shame the movie never came to fruition.

Source: SlashFilm