I cannot help but feel a profound sense of gratitude towards James Cameron for having the audacity to ignore Steven Spielberg’s advice on Aliens back in 1986. Had he taken that detour, we would have been left with a misguided, fanged E.T. instead of the relentless, terrifying Xenomorph we all know and love. It’s a testament to Cameron’s vision and boldness as a filmmaker that he ignored the advice of one of the greatest directors of our time.
You would not think of the seminal, multiple Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg as someone who ruins movies, but it very nearly happened with the 1986 Alien sequel, Aliens. The James Cameron follow-up is now well-known for being by far one of the best installments in the iconic science fiction franchise, transforming the haunted house vibe of the first movie into the perfect action-horror flick. But, if Spielberg had had his way, Aliens would instead have turned the dreaded Xenomorph into a “misunderstood” extraterrestrial just trying to find its way home. Not unlike a fanged E.T. with acidic blood…
In 2011 at a gathering of the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, both Steven Spielberg and James Cameron were present. It was then that Cameron, now a renowned blockbuster filmmaker, shared an interesting tidbit. He disclosed that during discussions about the Alien sequel, Spielberg proposed a twist – turning the Xenomorph into the protagonist instead. As Cameron put it:
“During our conversation, I mentioned that I was either meeting up to film ‘Aliens’ or writing the script for it. You then brought up ‘Amazing Stories,’ and suggested an idea for ‘Aliens’: since the alien in the original was villainous, make this one misunderstood instead. The humans would be trying to destroy it while it frantically tries to evade them on the spaceship.”
Steven Spielberg Now Sees the Error of His Ways
If Cameron had heeded Spielberg’s advice, the creature in “Aliens” would undoubtedly have been an entirely different kind of (sci-fi) creature. The franchise would have taken a drastically different path, as the Xenomorph might have become something that viewers could sympathize with instead of the relentless, unbeatable predator it is today. It wouldn’t have been simple to make audiences feel compassion for a facehugger…
Indeed, it appears that Spielberg acknowledges his past mistakes, as he himself admitted: “You were absolutely correct not to make that choice.”
In a daring move defying the counsel of legendary director Steven Spielberg, James Cameron chose to press ahead with his vision for the Xenomorph, resulting in a creature that still leaves audiences shivering with fear today. The newest addition to the franchise, “Alien: Romulus,” has been praised by numerous critics as the most outstanding film since “Aliens,” and it unfolds the storyline between the original movie’s events and Cameron’s sequel.
Under the direction of Fede Álvarez, who collaborated on the script with Rodo Sayague, the upcoming film titled “Alien: Romulus” features Cailee Spaeny (as Priscilla), David Jonsson (known for Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (from Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (familiar from The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (recognized in Aftersun), and Aileen Wu. For more details about the plot, you can read the official synopsis for Alien: Romulus provided below.
“Exploring the abandoned corners of an old space station, a band of young space settlers encounter a creature that is the scariest in the cosmos.”
Alien: Romulus
is out now in theaters.
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2024-08-25 16:31