Exclusive: New Alien Vs. Predator Movie In Development
We've exclusively learned that Disney is working on a new Alien Vs Predator movie.
This article is more than 2 years old
When Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, the second AVP story, launched to mostly negative reviews, plans for a third installment were put on hold indefinitely. This was kind of surprising since the first movie where Aliens and Predators faced off also faced negative reviews and they went ahead and made a second one, but it seems that the second time around they had kind of lost steam. Now, over a decade has passed since that second installment released in 2007, and Disney wants to give the idea another chance. Thanks to work from one of our trusted and proven inside sources, Giant Freakin Robot has learned that Disney has plans for Fox to make a new Alien Vs. Predator.
One of the more interesting notes here is that we have been unable to learn if the new Alien Vs. Predator story will be a direct sequel, making it the third film in that series, or if they are going to make an entirely new story and start fresh. What we’ve heard makes it sound like this is intended to be a fresh start for the series, so a fresh take seems like the move they’ll make, but we weren’t able to confirm that. Seeing as the first film got hit with harsh reviews, and the second time around even harder, it may be best if they simply start fresh with the idea. Those films both came out in the early 2000s. With Disney acquiring Fox, and time having passed, now seems like a good moment to try again with Alien Vs Predator. At its core, the idea should be pretty great. You have two fun creatures with their own backstories, bring them together, and make something cool. So why has that been so difficult?
One reason Disney probably sees a lot of potential in the Alien and Predator combination is actually in those bad reviews. People showed up to watch those first two movies back in the early 2000s, only to be disappointed by things like terrible lighting.
Both of the prior Alien Vs Predator movies had critics remarking on this, despite the films being made by different people. These seem like fixable problems. Of course, both stories also got a lot of negative comments for their scripts, with their unnatural dialogue, and fight sequences that were edited strangely and hard to keep track of. With the right people behind the scenes, and with the improvements in special effects over the past decade, it’s easy to see why Disney believes Fox can find a way to do this better a third time around.
Director Paul W.S. Anderson made the first Alien Vs Predator. He’s made the Resident Evil movies and Event Horizon. He would feel like an easy fit for making a brand new Alien Vs Predator film today, but considering that he didn’t return for part two, it doesn’t seem like the studio will be able to get him to sign on for this one. What they’ll need is a director who sees the potential from the story. Someone who loves both Alien and Predator, and who maybe sees some of the potential in the original Dark Horse Comics for these stories (now Marvel comics).
The filmmaker who takes this on will also need to see the poor reviews on the prior movies as an opportunity to do it better this time around. One of the names bound to be brought up is Ridley Scott, who made Prometheus in 2012, which is now the earliest time point in the Alien storyline. Naturally, he’s a filmmaker with a lot on his plate, but if Ridley Scott could be convinced to take Alien Vs Predator on, audiences would likely have a lot more confidence in this new take.
