Apr. 29, 2009 | Movie News, Movies, Science Fiction | |

Alien prequel should Jockey for position

Predator and Alien look to be finally heading down the right path – in their own separate ways. News out of Hollywood this week has given fans of the two iconic sci-fi creatures hope they will again get to see them flourish like never before, in their own stand-alone blockbusters.

The powers that be had two cracks at the whole Aliens v Predator thing and pretty much botched it on both occasions. First we got the feeble AVP in 2005, and then the better but still very run-of-the-mill AVP: Requiem in 2007.

Pitting the two aliens beings against each other was an interesting concept at first, but two strikes on the big screen and they’re out. And fair enough.

Both films were set on planet Earth, which was all a bit ho-hum, especially when it comes to the race of dread-locked alien game hunters that are so ugly they all have to wear masks and whose only other two appearances on the big screen – Predator 1 and 2 – have also been here.

But, while those two releases may have signalled the death-knell for both characters as far as feature film treatment goes, it could be anything but the case.

Some heavyweight hitters may be about to step up to the plate to try and breath some new life into the ailing duo.

IESB.net recently spoke to the co-chairman of Fox Tom Rothman at the world premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Arizona, and revealed some very interesting news on the Alien front.

And it involves the director of the original 1979 sci-fi/horror, the one and only Ridley Scott, and a possible prequel.

“There’s been some talk … Ridley is right now working on Robin Hood, but I think he’s toying with the idea and that would be great for us,” Rothman said.

“I mean, it’s always been a matter of, really, if you can get the originator to do it that would be the greatest thing, so I’ve got my fingers crossed, all of them.”

A Scott-directed Alien prequel is the stuff of dreams.

I love the original and probably the James Cameron sequel Aliens even more, but one of the things that has always intrigued me the most was the scene involving the derelict alien spacecraft on the moon LV-426 (later the colonized setting for Aliens).

It could in fact be the most pivotal moment in the entire Alien series.

alien space jockey1 Alien prequel should Jockey for position

Crew members of the commercial ship the Nostromo investigate after receiving some type of distress signal from the alien vessel. There they discover the fossilised remains of an extraterrestrial being nicknamed the ‘Space Jockey’ or as Cameron later dubs the ‘Big Dental Patient’.

It’s also where Kane (played by John Hurt) finds a chamber containing large eggs and is then ‘impregnated’, before famously ‘giving birth’ on the dinner table.

An obvious a victim of the same fate, there has been many theories about the ‘Space Jockey’ over the last three decades, all very intriguing, and some of which would hopefully be explored in any prequel, especially one with Scott at the helm.

Good old wikipedia has a page on the ‘Space Jockey’, and reveals the following …

As the derelict ship contains several thousand alien eggs, Scott suggested in his Alien DVD commentary the Space Jockey’s ship was a ‘bomber’, in which alien eggs could be dropped on an enemy planet, and the aliens would proceed to kill the population as they spawned.

According to Cameron, the Space Jockey’s craft picked up alien eggs and the pilot became infected by the dangerous cargo; the ship landing on LV-426.

In Alan Dean Foster’s Alien novelization, the Space Jockey’s race is described as a noble people and hopes that mankind will encounter them under more pleasant circumstances. It also states they were larger, stronger and possibly more intelligent than humans. Foster’s novelization states that the Jockey was trying to warn humans away from the aliens.

Also, in Steve Perry’s Earth Hive novel set in the ‘Alien Universe’, the Space Jockey’s race are referred to as collectors because they collect Xenomorph (Alien) eggs, while in Michael Jan Friedman’s Aliens: Original Sin, the race is referred to as the Mala’kak, and in the comic book The Destroying Angels, the Aliens caused the species to become extinct 1.6 billion years ago.

Mark Verheiden’s Aliens graphic novel depict the Space Jockey’s race as malevolent; they refrain from attacking humans due to their immense hatred of their common enemy, the Xenomorphs, and they intend to wipe out and/or enslave humanity once their war with the Xenomorphs is over. In the series, a Space Jockey-like creature communicates telepathically with humans.

Personally, I hope they play a big role in any prequel if it sees the light of day.

Now, I also mentioned Predator at the top of the post, well … stay tuned for more. Looks like we will be seeing Predators…

SOURCES:

IESB.net

Wikipedia