Ridley Scott’s classic horror, Alien, turns thirty this year. So what better way to celebrate than by desecrating its memory with a pointless remake?
At least, that was our initial reaction when we heard, thanks to our chums at Bloody Disgusting, that Fox might be planning an Alien remake, with commercials director Carl Erik Rinsch at the helm.
However, before you test the old theory that in space no-one can hear you scream by yelling 'Noooooooooo!' so loud that the guys on the International Space Station tell you to shut it, there is some additional info that means that might calm you down. It certainly worked for us.
First of all, Ridley Scott is attached as producer. As is Tony Scott. And some guy named Michael Costigan. But it’s the presence of the Alien creator that means that this might not be a total slap in the face for the original movie.
Secondly, Rinsch may be a commercials director, but then so was Scott. And both men are capable of visually stunning work (click here for Slashfilm’s compilation of seven of Rinsch’s effects-heavy ads).
And last, but by no means least, the remake may not actually be a remake, nor a reboot, but an origin tale. Could we be getting, at long last, the story of how the Aliens came to land on LV-426, along with that massive ship and its elephantine driver with the giant hole punched in his sternum?
Now bear in mind that this is very much still at the rumour stage. However, in a way it makes sense for Fox to take another stab at the Alien franchise. After all, the company is currently doing the same with Predator, with Robert Rodriguez’s Predators set for next year. If both franchises can be relaunched around the same time, that should be worth more to them than an assembly line of increasingly mediocre, increasingly low-grossing **Alien Vs Predator **movies.
And, if the worst happens, then we’ll always have the originals.