History Trivia / Alien3

** Fox tried to find the next James Cameron or Ridley Scott. The producers David Giler and Walter Hill prided themselves with discovering new visionary talent and make each installment something different and visually-striking. They went through multiple young directors and writers (cyberpunk master Creator/WilliamGibson turned in a draft) before eventually settling on Vincent Ward, who had some high-concept ideas. His initial draft, which reduced Ripley to a cameo, was nixed; Fox believed she should remain in the center. He came up with the 'planet of monks' concept, which was originally supposed to be a wooden planet covered in farmlands. Really far-out stuff, to the point where Fox got nervous and began asking questions about whether it made any sense, or if it was too different from previous styles. But at that point they had already released a misleading teaser, set a date (their first and biggest mistake), and started building sets. Neither Ward or Fox wanted to compromise, so Ward walked away. That left them with no director and no script a few weeks before shooting.

** Hill rewrote the story and adapted it to his own gritty sensibilities. (He was the protégé of Creator/SamPeckinpah before essentially making a series of brutal B-movies.) The monks were reworked into weird British convicts and the sets repainted to that drab metal look. David Fincher came on board. Michael Biehn and the Newt character were never included, since Ward wanted to wipe the slate clean and make it {{gothic horror}} with a PTSD Ripley, so they just stuck to that. After the Ward debacle and all of the other scripts and directors that came and went, Fox were impatient. They had a looming deadline, almost two million dollars' worth of sets that had been constructed, and no script. So of course they hovered and micromanaged. In their view, Fox was doing Fincher a favor, not the other way around; they treated him like an untested director who couldn't be trusted to deliver on-time.

** Hill rewrote the story and adapted it to his own gritty sensibilities. (He was the protégé of Creator/SamPeckinpah before essentially making a series of brutal B-movies.) The monks were reworked into convicts and the sets repainted to that drab metal look. David Fincher came on board. Michael Biehn and the Newt character were never included, since Ward wanted to wipe the slate clean and make it {{gothic horror}} with a PTSD Ripley, so they just stuck to that. After the Ward debacle and all of the other scripts and directors that came and went, Fox were impatient. They had a looming deadline, almost two million dollars' worth of sets that had been constructed, and no script. So of course they hovered and micromanaged. In their view, Fox was doing Fincher a favor, not the other way around; they treated him like an untested director who couldn't be trusted to deliver on-time.

** Fox tried to find the next James Cameron or Ridley Scott. The producers David Giler and Walter Hill prided themselves with discovering new visionary talent and make each installment something different and visually-striking. They went through multiple young directors and writers (cyberpunk master Creator/WilliamGibson turned in a draft) before eventually settling on Vincent Ward, who had some high-concept ideas. His initial draft, which reduced Ripley to a cameo, was nixed; Fox believed she should remain in the center. He came up with the 'planet of monks' concept, which was originally supposed to be a wooden planet covered in farmlands. Really far-out stuff, to the point where Fox got nervous and began asking questions about whether it made any sense, or if it was too different from previous styles. But at that point they had already released a teaser, set a date (their first and biggest mistake), and started building sets. Ward'sNeither Ward or Fox wanted to compromise, so Ward walked away. That left them with a few weeks before shooting and no director and no script.

* {{Blooper}}: In the Assembly Cut only, where Murphy still calls out Spike’s name when he finds the Xenomorph despite the dog being nonexistent in that version.

* ExecutiveMeddling: By the time Creator/DavidFincher was officially signed on to direct, the film had already gone though a dozen or so different writers and directors (and among 20th Century Fox's interference, the idea to reduce Ripley to a cameo was nixed, feeling she should remain at the center) and almost two million dollars worth of sets that had been constructed. And then Fox cuffed his creativity a lot, demanding reshoots and rewrites, and often blocking Fincher from filming key scenes (some of which he filmed anyway). When it finally came around to editing, the studio ordered that radical edits and reshoots take place in order to shorten the film's runtime by 30 minutes, causing Fincher to become infuriated and walk off set. The Alien's original designer, Creator/HRGiger, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28creature_in_Alien_franchise%29#Concept_and_credit_controversy also wound up shafted by Fox.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The film went through several writers, including Creator/WilliamGibson, Eric Red, David Twohy (who would later use some of the script he had written for ''Film/PitchBlack'') and Vincent Ward, before the final shooting script was thrown together using parts of all the previous drafts (mainly the latter three). Summaries of each can be found at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3#Writing The Other Wiki]].
** Gibson's script would have, ironically, focused on Hicks and Bishop, while Ripley remained in a coma and Newt would be shipped off to Oregon to live with her grandparents. They would join up with a USSR-analogue that wants to use the Xenomorph to fight the corporations, continuing on from the second film's Vietnam-allegory. For interested parties, the full version of Gibson's first draft can be found [[http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/Alien3.txt here]], and [[https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3002-524/William-Gibsons-Alien-3-1 Dark Horse Comics' 2019 adaptation here.]] So at least this 'could have been' will have a lot more than a lot of examples of this trope.. Gibson noted that the only part of his script that made it into the final film was his use of the ScannableMan trope.
** The autopsy scene was a lot more detailed than appears in the finished film. A rough cut of the scene had so much gore, it made some crew members that had worked on it throw up and nearly slapped the movie with an NC-17 rating.
** Noted sci-fi author [[Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye Alan Dean Foster]], who was hired to write the novelization (and had done the novelizations of the previous two films), disliked the killing Newt off and tried to turn his adaptation into a FixFic where she survives, albeit in a coma for the entire story. After Fox pushed back and told him to keep the story consistent with the movie, he declined to write any more novelizations for the franchise, and author A.C. Crispin wrote the novelization for ''Film/AlienResurrection'' instead.
** The role of Clemens was written for Creator/RichardEGrant, in the hopes of reuniting him with his ''Film/WithnailAndI'' co-stars Creator/PaulMcGann and Ralph Brown. Creator/GabrielByrne was also offered the role.
** An idea incorporated into this film was that the chestburster takes some of the characteristics of its host -- as the adult alien emerges from a dog, the VFX crew tried fitting a whippet with a bone costume but the result looked so comical they scrapped the idea, and the alien was eventually realized through a combination of CGI and marionettes.
** The scene of Ripley and the Alien in the basement was originally longer, it would back her up into the wall and she would demand it to kill her, they were to stare each other down until the Alien ran off, leaving Ripley alone. This was shot, as several trading cards provide shots from it, but it's mysteriously absent in any version of the film.
** Dillon, Aaron, and Golic all had different deaths at one point:
*** Dillon was originally going to be killed early into the third act after [[spoiler: Golic lets the Alien out]], the prisoners discover that the Alien had transformed either the Assembly Hall, the Cone of Silence, or the abattoir into a new nest, with a barely alive Andrews and Golic cocooned. Dillon would mercy kill them, only for the Alien to show up and drag him away. A head mould of Charles S. Dutton was made for this scene, as well as set pieces for cocoons and the Alien's secreted 'improvements' to the set, but David Fincher felt that Dillon was too important to kill at this point, so the scene was scrapped early on. His other death was to be killed by the Alien at the end of a version the bait and chase sequence in which Aaron actually took part in, but failed. His death that almost made it into the film and was in the novelization and comic adaptation was to escape the lead mould with Ripley and watch as the Alien is drowned in lead, the company arrives and Ripley demands him to kill her, but he can't bring himself to do it, only for the Alien to jump out of the mould and kill him.
*** Aaron's original death was exactly like Dillon's death in all final versions, where he would sacrifice himself for Ripley's escape and too keep the Alien in the lead mould and die fighting it off, this was given to Dillon in the final version. The second take on his death was when the company arrived, when the Asian scientist asks Aaron if he has seen the beast, he admits that he has, and Weyland then gives the order for the troops to kill him on the spot. It was changed and decided to give Aaron a more heroic, bittersweet death.
*** Golic originally lived much longer, essentially serving as the Renfield to the Alien's Dracula. In an early draft, after the company kills Aaron, they run into him and he agrees to take them to 'the Dragon', after asking them for something to eat. He was originally going to kill Weyland by slamming Dillon's fire axe into his head, after which he would be shot to death by the troopers. Another death, which got farther along, was that Golic would attempt to murder Gregor, William, and Eric (who decided to take their chances outside in suits), but fails and is dragged away by the Alien. They later find him cocooned up, apologizing for everything he's done before Dillon {{mercy kill}}s him.
*** Weyland aka Bishop II was supposed to die as well, as Golic's hands. Ripley's exchanges would have been with Matshuria, the Asian scientist who goes unnamed in the final film, but it was changed to have Weyland live, since the pleads to spare the Alien would have meant more from him.
** The Xenomorph was originally going to have human-like lips and kill its victims by kissing them. Amusingly, Fincher stated that Creator/MichellePfeiffer inspired that bit of creature design.
** Creator/RidleyScott would've returned [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder if he wasn't so busy]]. Creator/RichardDonner was also approached to direct.

** Gibson's script would have, ironically, focused on Hicks and Bishop, while Ripley remained in a coma and Newt would be shipped off to Oregon to live with her grandparents. They would join up with a USSR-analogue that wants to use the Xenomorph to fight the corporations, continuing on from the second film's Vietnam-allegory. For interested parties, the full version of Gibson's first draft can be found [[http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/Alien3.txt here]]. Gibson notes that the only part of his script that made it into the final film was his use of the ScannableMan trope.
** After 30 years, [[https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3002-524/William-Gibsons-Alien-3-1 Gibson's script is finally being adapted into a comic book by Dark Horse.]] So at least this 'could have been' will have a lot more than a lot of examples of this trope.

* RealitySubtext: Charles S. Dutton (Dillon) is a real life former convict who cleaned himself up before getting into acting.

*** After 30 years, [[https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3002-524/William-Gibsons-Alien-3-1 Gibson's script is finally being adapted into a comic book by Dark Horse.]] So at least this 'could have been' will have a lot more than a lot of examples of this trope.

** Creator/JamesCameron criticized the sequel harshly, specifically citing what became of Bishop, Hicks, and Newt, though in recent years he has said the aside from that he thinks the movie is fine. Creator/MichaelBiehn was reportedly so annoyed about his character's fate that he only allowed the use of his likeness in exchange for a hefty paycheck (so hefty, in fact, that it was more than his entire fee for ''{{Film/Aliens}}'').

*** Biehn later regretted his angry decision to deny them any chance to use his likeness - in hindsight saying it would have been a great chance to work with Fincher.

* ExecutiveMeddling: By the time Creator/DavidFincher was officially signed on to direct, the film had already gone though a dozen or so different writers and directors, and almost two million dollars worth of sets that had been constructed. With the release date looming, the studio had Fincher begin filming ''without even a finished script in place,'' ordering him to essentially make up the plot of the film as he went along by piecing together parts of the other unfinished scripts and improvising the rest. The studio constantly demanded reshoots and rewrites throughout the films production, and often blocked Fincher from filming key scenes (some of which he filmed anyway and made it into the final cut). When it finally came around to editing, the studio ordered that radical edits and reshoots take place in order to shorten the film's runtime by 30 minutes, causing Fincher to become infuriated and walk off set. David Fincher has since ended up disowning the film because of his horrible experience working on the project.\\
\\
As a measure of how much it afflicted the film, no fewer than ''eight'' people attempted to claim credit for the screenplay during the WGA arbitration process, with a further four not bothering for various reasons. In particular, Rex Pickett, who wrote a significant portion of the shooting script, ended up being one of the ones not wanting credit largely due to how unpleasant the whole experience had been. This was so bad, even Creator/HRGiger - the original designer for the first Xenomorph - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28creature_in_Alien_franchise%29#Concept_and_credit_controversy was shafted in favor of Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis' designs.]] This didn't stop Giger [[{{Determinator}} from faxing his designs to his client, David Fincher, after he disbanded from the project.]]
** Notably, one of the Fox executives was apparently dead-set on this film revolving around prisoners in some way. Early script treatments were set on a prison barge or transport of some kind (causing tentative director Renny Harlin to quit the project, as it was just "more corridors, more guns, more aliens," and nothing new he could get excited about). When Vincent Ward started doing his story treatment, it was suggested to change the monks from his version into prisoners. And of course, the finished film takes place on a penal colony.

* TroubledProduction: One could probably do an entire semester of film school class on the problems ''Alien³'' faced:
** After the success of ''Aliens'', 20th Century Fox was keen to get production of a third film moving immediately. Creator/WilliamGibson submitted a draft featuring Hicks and Bishop fighting biomechanical xenomorphs on a space station, but his draft was rejected and he declined further involvement. At this point, the studio didn't want Creator/SigourneyWeaver back, and scripts were written with this fact in mind. Eric Red was brought onboard, and penned a new script that had a spaceship discover the remains of the Sulaco crew (who were killed by the xenomorphs), before moving the action to a small town in an Earth-like biodome. Producers Creator/WalterHill and David Giler disliked the script, and Red was ousted, with tentative director Creator/RennyHarlin also leaving soon afterwards. Next, David Twohy came onboard and wrote a new script centered around a prison planet. Hill and Giler liked the script, but this too was rejected.
** By this point, nearly four years had passed since pre-production began. Vincent Ward was hired, and soon after, with Fox hiring Weaver back with a $4 million payday and a co-producer credit, Ward wrote a script with John Fasano where Ripley crashlands on a "wooden planet" filled with monks. At this point in production, 1/5 of the planned budget had already been spent, and Fox told Ward to rein in his plans (even prompting then-CEO Joe Roth to state "What the [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] is going on?" after hearing about Ward's plan to have Ripley be [[Literature/SnowWhite placed in a cryotube by "seven dwarves"]] in the finale). After butting heads with executives, Ward left the project.
** A rotating series of writers came in to try and improve the script during this time. Greg Pruss was hired to rewite Fasano's "wooden planet" script, but left after butting heads with Ward. Fasano then returned to rewrite his script, but he too had a falling-out with Ward. Larry Ferguson was then brought in to rewrite the Fasano script, and Fox complained that the treatment was not favorable towards the Ripley character. Finally, producers Creator/WalterHill and David Giler did an emergency rewrite that combined Twohy's prison script and Fasano's religious elements.
** Assembling the cast had its own problems. The film is infamous for killing Newt and Hicks in the opening credits when the pods crash. Newt was something of a given, as the actress had aged too much to play her again and cryogenic suspension wouldn't give her the chance to age enough for a new actress. Hicks, however, was repeatedly shuffled between "main character" and "supporting" with each new draft before they decided to kill him off - Michael Biehn was so disgusted when he found out that he demanded to be paid as much for his image being onscreen for a few seconds as he had for ''filming all of Aliens''.
** And the reason Hicks kept shuffling back and forth was because the writers were told to work the film around Ripley's absence, as Sigourney Weaver was proving to be problematic. Between the two films, she had become a spokeswoman for gun-control group Handgun Control, and was offended by the amount of weaponry present in the script. Very shortly before filming, one of the producers managed to woo her back to the project. Amusingly, it was by telling her that Ripley would be bald.
** Creator/DavidFincher, who at that point only had a handful of music videos to his credit, was brought on board to helm the film. He was greeted with a long list of problems; a major set had already been constructed (a monastery set built before the setting was changed to a prison — but still kept, as a church inside the facility), the budget was running behind, the script was still incomplete and roles still hadn't been cast. After being informed by the executives that he had to include as many of the creative ideas the producers asked for, Fincher rushed into production to make up for lost time.
** Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth fell ill a few days into filming, necessitating a replacement in Alex Thomson.
** Somewhere along the line, Hill and Giler (the latter of whom referred to Fincher as a "shoe salesman" during a conference call with the studio) fought with Fincher for 2 months over the script, and he complained about their budgetary restrictions. They and screenwriter Rex Pickett (who was also hired to rewrite the second half of the duo's script) in turn abandoned Fincher, and left him to finish the script himself. Fincher would end up rewriting lines and entire scenes on-the-fly during production, while trying to keep Fox (who were requesting daily updates from the set) at bay.
** [[ExecutiveMeddling Fincher was stymied at every turn by executives who attempted to stop him from shooting important scenes]] (including Ripley confronting the xenomorph in Fury 161's sub-basement level), forcing the director to grab a camera and skeleton crew and film it himself.
** Fox sent in a troubleshooter to investigate the spiraling production costs. A rough cut was screened for the crew, and reportedly made several audience members throw up due to a graphic autopsy scene. Hill and Giler were brought back onboard by the studio to give input, and it was deemed that the film had many issues that required significant reshoots (including a finale that was deemed too similar to ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''), and a pivotal sequence that had to be filmed (''the death of the xenomorph!'').
** Fincher (depending on which source you believe) either spent the next year attempting to edit the film, or was locked out of the editing suite altogether by the studio. The reshoots reportedly pushed the budget to $65 million, and were done in Los Angeles with almost an entirely-new crew. This was reportedly the last straw for Fincher, who walked away for good at the end of the reshoots. Because of the breakneck pace of the reshoots, composer Elliot Goldenthal only had a single night to create a new piece of music for the reshot finale. The finished film was released in May 1992.
** Even its post-production history was sordid. Fincher refused to come back and re-edit the film for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set, as he was still bitter over the whole experience. Likewise, FOX executives severely cut down Charles Lauzirika's documentary on the film, "Wreckage and Rape", citing that it made the company look bad. It wasn't until 2010 that the uncut documentary (as "Wreckage and ''Rage''") was released on the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set.

** Creator/RichardDonner was approached to direct.

** Even its post-production history was sordid. Fincher refused to come back and re-edit the film for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set, as he was still bitter over the whole experience. Likewise, FOX executives severely cut down Charles Lauzirika's documentary on the film, "Wreckage and Rape", citing that it made the company look bad. It wasn't until 2010 that the uncut documentary (as "Wreckage and Ra''g''e") was released on the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set.

* FlipFlipOfGod: Depending on the interview, Creator/LanceHenriksen can't decide if his character Michael Bishop is a human or a robot.

* DevelopmentHell: The tale of ''Alien³'''s development is the stuff of industry legend, and a prime example of ExecutiveMeddling in full force. A rotating lineup of directors who all got shunted aside by FOX, a lineup of writers working on screenplayers ''concurrently'' with no idea other writers were involved, delays, reshoots, disastrous test screenings, tensions between FOX and (then-newbie) director David Fincher, a "pay-or-play" deal between the studio and Creator/SigourneyWeaver, Fincher getting locked out of the editing room, executives and writers at odds as to how the story would play out, months spent building sets that had to be shoehorned into a completely different script...it all added to a giant mess in its development.

* DyeingForYourArt: Zigzagged in case of Weaver. She initially agreed to shave her head for the filming. However, as the TroubledProduction stretched on, reshoots were done months later, and Weaver refused to shave her head again, which meant spending some thousands of dollars more for a custom-made authentic-looking bald cap.

* BTeamSequel: At one point Creator/RidleyScott was approached to direct but he turned it down due to his commitment to ''Film/FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise''. He had ideas of exploring the origins of the xenomorphs, which would later manifest in ''{{Film/Prometheus}}''.

* HostilityOnTheSet: As Ralph Brown revealed by posting excerpts of his journal online, Sigourney Weaver was aloof or outright hostile to most of the other cast members (especially with him, Brian Glover and CharlesDance) during filming. She did apologize after the premiere, and Ralph understood much of it was due to the overall tension everyone was going through during the films legendary production difficulties.

*** Golic originally lived much longer, essentially serving as the Renfield to the Alien's Dracula. In an early draft, after the company kills Aaron, they run into him and he agrees to take them to 'the Dragon', after asking them for something to eat. He was originally going to kill Weyland by slamming Dillon's fire axe into his head, after which he would be shot to death by the troopers. Another death, which got farther along, was that Golic would attempt to murder Gregor, William, and Eric (who decided to take their chances outside in suits), but fails and is dragged away by the Alien. They later find him cocooned up, apologizing for everything he's done before Dillon mercy kills him.

** Noted sci-fi author [[Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye Alan Dean Foster]], who was hired to write the novelization (and had done the novelizations of the previous two films), disliked the killing Newt off and tried to turn his adaptation into a FixFic where she survives, albeit in a coma for the entire story. After Fox pushed back and told him to keep the story consistent with the movie, he declined to write any more novelizations for the franchise, and author A.C. Crispin wrote the novelization for Movie/AlienResurrection instead.

* RealitySubtext: Creator/CharlesSDutton (Dillon) is a real life former convict who cleaned himself up before getting into acting.

* RealitySubtext: Charles S. Dutton (Dillon) is a real life former convict who cleaned himself up before getting into acting.

* LoopingLines: Averted in the Assembly Cut. Some of the restored scenes were cut before the [=ADR=] was recorded, and since they didn't do any re-recording for the DVD, it can be difficult to hear the dialogue. Thankfully, subtitles are available.

* BTeamSequel: At one point Creator/RidleyScott was approached to direct but he turned it down. He had ideas of exploring the origins of the xenomorphs, which would later manifest in ''{{Film/Prometheus}}''.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Xenopedia]] has information on ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', and ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator''.

** At one point Creator/RidleyScott was approached to direct but he turned it down. He had ideas of exploring the origins of the xenomorphs, which would later manifest in ''{{Film/Prometheus}}''.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Brian Glover, who played the {{Jerkass}} Superintendent Andrews, turned out to be such a friendly and approachable guy that Creator/DavidFincher turned to him for advice when the movie's hellish production was getting him down.

** Creator/DavidFincher disowned ''Alien³'' due to all the ExecutiveMeddling he had to endure during the movie's production.

** ''Alien 3'' went through several writers, including Creator/WilliamGibson, Eric Red, David Twohy (who would later use some of the script he had written for ''Film/PitchBlack'') and Vincent Ward, before the final shooting script was thrown together using parts of all the previous drafts (mainly the latter three). Summaries of each can be found at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3#Writing The Other Wiki]].

* CasHCoWFranchise: Fox's attempt to keep ''Alien'' as this led to all the difficulties noted in ExecutiveMeddling and TroubledProduction, as the "Wreckage and Rage" documentary notes "they set out to make a release date, not a movie."