James Cameron Once Shared ‘Alien vs. Predator’ Ruined His Possible ‘Alien’ Movie With Ridley Scott
Movie legend Ridley Scott and Avatar director James Cameron both played a part in making the Alien franchise the iconic films they are today. There was speculation about the two teaming up to revisit the successful series. But Alien vs. Predator stood in the way of that team-up.
How ‘Alien vs Predator’ ruined a potential Ridley Scott and James Cameron ‘Alien’ sequel
Alien vs. Predator was the fifth film in the Alien franchise. As the title suggests, the feature would pit two classic sci-fi horror creatures together in a blockbuster cinematic bout. It was a premise that Scott was against from the beginning.
“I think Alien vs. Predator was a daft idea,” Scott once told The Hollywood Reporter. “And I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast. And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel, if you like.’”
Before Alien vs. Predator, however, Scott was somewhat mulling over the possibility of returning to the franchise with a sequel. The fifth film would’ve seen him working alongside Aliens filmmaker James Cameron.
“I don’t remember the timing exactly, but I might have been making The Abyss at that time, also for Fox. What came up was the idea of doing Alien 5,” Cameron once wrote on a Reddit AMA. “And at one point I pitched that I would write it and produce it, and Ridley would direct it, and we had lunch talking about this, and we were in violent agreement, then nothing happened.”
Cameron confided that he also didn’t like the idea of an Alien vs. Predator movie. Ultimately, the film squashed any further talks of Cameron doing an Alien film.
“What happened was Fox went ahead with Aliens vs. Predator and I said, ‘I really don’t recommend that, you’ll ruin the franchise, it’s like Universal doing Dracula versus The Werewolf, and then I lost interest in doing an Alien film,” Cameron said.
Ridley Scott felt it was a pity that ‘Alien’ became a franchise
Scott never intended for Alien to become the franchise that it is today.
“Interestingly enough, I was never asked to do the sequel,” Scott said. “Maybe because I was such a tough guy when I was doing it they didn’t want me back. But I was also in the habit of not wanting to do a sequel then either. So I would never have done it.”
The Alien franchise continued on without his input for a long time with directors like Cameron and David Fincher inheriting the series. Although Scott wasn’t receptive of the sequels, he understood why they happened.
“I think it’s a pity! But listen, it’s all about revenue at the end of the day. The studios have to do the things they have to do to drive revenue. I’m not naive. I know that’s why they do it and that’s what they have to do. If you have a business, you have a bottom line,” he once told Total Film. “And the bottom line is getting harder and harder because the cost of movies is getting bigger and bigger.”
James Cameron once named the ‘Alien’ movie he absolutely hated
The outspoken Cameron didn’t mince words when it came to one Alien movie. In a 2003 interview with BBC (via IndieWire), the acclaimed director shared that he didn’t care much for Fincher’s Alien 3. So much so that he hoped he could redeem everything he believed went wrong with the sequel.
“Hated it. Simple as that,” Cameron said. “I hated what they did…. I couldn’t stand Alien 3 – how they could just go in there and kill off all these great characters we introduced in aliens, and the correlation between mother and daughter? It stunk, but hopefully I’ll get a chance to rectify all that. We’re looking at doing another one.”
Cameron even considered the possibility of reuniting with The Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger for his sequel.
