“Disney’s ALIEN Franchise Coming Soon!”
One of the most disturbing aspects of Disney’s acquisition
of the 20th Century Fox assets is that they will now control what
happens to the ALIEN and PREDATOR franchises.
The family oriented company has in its control two of the best
horror-sci-fi franchises ever made in these two iconic cinematic monsters and
yet I can’t help fearing the worst. My
fears have just been realized when Disney announced new versions of both franchises
and for the purpose of this article I will only take a look at the Alien franchise
mostly because Predator, in my opinion, can work either as a PG-13 or R
franchise.
The Alien films have all been pretty much individual
film-maker endeavors from Ridley Scott (Alien, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant),
David Fincher (Alien 3), James Cameron (Aliens), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien:
Resurrection), Paul WS. Anderson (Alien Vs Predator), and The Brothers Strause
(Alien Vs Predator: Requiem). Despite the mixed audience and critical
response between each of the films, they are a singular vision of the director
with the exception of Scott who is the only one to do more than one film.
Disney, on the other hand, is a company that produces film by committee so that they can appeal to all audiences. They want their films to be all inclusive and homogenized and to not offend anyone. So, in reality they don’t want creative filmmakers, they want filmmakers who understand their brand and can continue that brand. This is most evident in the franchises surrounding their MCU and Star Wars universes which are homogenized and indistinguishable from one another. These are all PG-13 films that focus on action and adventure and not horror or gore. The Alien Xenomorph is not like the kaiju from Pacific Rim; these monsters hide in darkness, have acid for blood, and kill everything – violently.
In Anderson’s Alien Vs Predator the horror is toned down for
the action and adventure aspects that he is best known for and even though the
film was financially successful fans of the franchise felt a little let down,
so with the sequel Requiem, The Brothers Strause decided to craft a slasher
film with monsters. Anderson’s film was
Rated PG-13 while The Brothers Strause sequel was Rated R and thought to be a
return to form but a slasher film is also what audiences didn’t expect from the
franchise. This film did not sit well
with anyone.
I mention this because at this point 20th Century Fox had no idea what to do with the franchise as they couldn’t craft a film for all audiences (Alien Vs Predator) nor a film for the fans (Alien Vs Predator: Requiem). The franchise has been through many different creative hands so why not let the director who started it all come back!
Scott’s vision with the franchise was to craft a story that
went back to the beginning and in 2012 after a five year gap Prometheus was
released to a divided audience that were
disappointed by the film that lacked Xenomorphs and had logic problems. Scott tried to rectify this with Alien: Covenant
but by the time this sequel saw release audiences were no longer
interested. It’s hard to determine what
general audiences want from an Alien film especially since the films have had
such mixed results, which is not a problem the comic books from Dark Horse
Comics have ever had.
Two years after Cameron’s Aliens became a Box Office sensation, Dark Horse Comics purchased the rights and created the first mini-series that would help put their company on the map (along with Predator, Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, etc. a lot of film franchises). This original series was a direct sequel to the film and would bring back popular characters from the films (the character of Ripley would eventually return in the third series Earth War which would conclude the storyline of these film characters). The most astounding thing about the comic book franchise is the fact that over the last 30+ years the franchise has been kept fresh and interesting and almost at a non-stop pace. Subsequent series would see the Xenomorphs cross into the DC universe and battle Superman, Batman, and W.I.L.D. Cats as well as battle such iconic figures as Judge Dredd, Hellboy, and Vampirella, to name just a few. Cross-overs with both the Predators and Prometheus franchises happened on a regular basis but within those thirty years the franchise has remained fresh because of the many different characters and stories that were possible.
Dark Horse never had a loss for ideas, so why have the films?
One of my fears with Disney is that they will take the
franchise and craft something more in line with their MCU and Star Wars
franchises. As the Dark Horse Comics
have proven, there is a way to integrate all the different franchises into a “shared”
universe (which will make Disney happy) but it couldn’t happen unless you could
find a way to make it darker and Rated R (to make the fans happy). Borrowing from the Dark Horse huge history of
storylines would be the best way but since I’m sure Disney will yank their license
with the characters (like they did with Star Wars) is soon coming if it already
hasn’t happened (I’ve heard that Marvel is now doing a series which I’ll have
to see how that all comes about). It’s
not too far off to see the Xenomorphs show up in a MCU television series since
they already know aliens of all types exist (so why not just add the
Xenomorphs?).
I can’t really see Disney making an R Rated film that will be in line with the original franchise. What I do see is a remake or reboot to fit the Disney mandate which is not something I’d be interested in. I’ve been a huge fan of the films and comic books since the Cameron film so I’m not looking forward to seeing anything Disney has planned either for the films or comic books. I can only see it as a complete disaster, but then again I can’t say that all the films in the current franchise have been all that successful but at least they had a vision from their respective directors.
Only time will tell what will become of the Xenomorphs under
the guidance of the Disney machine and unfortunately if I want to see another
film come to fruition that is the only version I’ll be able to see.
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