ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY: William Gibson’s Vision
ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY: William Gibson’s Vision is grandiose, terrifying, and feels very much alien.
There are quite a few busted scripts that never made it to the silver screen.
And there are other excellent scripts that are written on top of, often to dire results, such as Frank Miller’s Robocop 2 script.
Coincidentally, Mr. Miller’s sexier, bloodier, and more suspenseful original script also got the graphic novel treatment some years back.
Back to the now: Alien 3 could have been totally different.
I had no idea that a favorite author of mine had penned an entirely abandoned script for Alien 3, one of my favorite space-horror-sci-fi cinema series.
To clarify, yes, we are talking about that William Gibson.
The man who wrote one of the most original science fiction novels of all time, Neuromancer, where he coined the term ‘The Matrix’ (oh so many years before those movies).
ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY Issues #1-2 Reveal High Stakes Intensity Absent from the movie.
The movie itself is damn good and rounds off a H.R. Giger nightmare universe nicely.
But it certainly was a letdown to have all of our new favorite character ties in Hicks and Newt severed in the outset.
In ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY issues #1-2, Hicks, Bishop, Newt and Ripley are all alive, if not all well.
The following may have some *****Spoilers for the books.
In the second comic, Ripley is comatose and wearing a weird breathing apparatus while Corporal Hicks tries to make heads or tails of a particularly messy situation that they have been landed in.
From Dark Horse Comics:
After the deadly events of the film Aliens, the spaceship Sulaco carrying the sleeping bodies of Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop is intercepted by the Union of Progressive Peoples. What the UPP forces don’t expect is another deadly passenger that is about to unleash chaos between two governmental titans intent on developing the ultimate Cold War weapon of mass destruction.
What could be more deadly than weaponized Xenomorphs after all?
How do you test this germ warfare?
How about on an enclosed space station where the inhabitants are trapped as government factions threaten war over the alien weapon.
The art is fantastic! It is eerie and reminiscent of the first Alien movie while giving it its own feel.
The dialogue and scenes are all top notch so far, not that writing is much of a concern when William Gibson is at the helm.
The suspense is building along with epic stakes and gory realities through the first two comic books, and I cannot wait for more!
ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY
Writer:
William Gibson, Johnnie Christmas
Artist:
Johnnie Christmas
Colorist:
Tamra Bonvillain
“ALIEN 3 THE UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY: William Gibson’s Vision” was written by R.J. Huneke.