Ridiculous Reason Original Alien 3 Script Was Rejected by Fox

The cinematic journey of Alien 3 remains one of the most tumultuous in film history. Initially helmed by director Renny Harlin, the film was meant to take the franchise in a bold new direction, but Fox had other plans.

Harlin said his unmade ‘Alien 3’ was literally worlds apart from the 1993 version that failed to perform at the box office. explained Renny Harlin in an interview, emphasizing the stark contrast between his vision and the final product. Harlin’s pitch included an Earth setting, a monumental shift from the space-centric locales of its predecessors.

Sticking Points with Studio Executives

The concept of having these creatures on Earth, for the studio, it felt scary and unattainable. For me, it was the natural evolution. We’ve had the Alien with the truck drivers in space, we’ve had Aliens with the Marines in space, and where do we go next? Let’s bring the aliens on Earth and have them going through the cornfield.” Harlin elaborated further about his idea to bring Xenomorphs to our home planet. This ambitious outlook didn’t align with Fox’s more conservative approach.

So let’s put the aliens on a prison ship. Harlin resignedly admitted, “A prison ship? How am I going to relate to a prison ship?” This decision points to Fox’s insistence on safe bets rather than groundbreaking narratives.

Rewriting History: From Earth to Space Prison

Eventually rejected by Fox, Harlin’s vision faced myriad other potential rewrites. Some ideas persisted through various script iterations before landing squarely into David Fincher’s lap—his own troubled debut. Before him, several noted screenwriters like William Gibson, Eric Red, and David Twohy had all tried their hands at crafting suitable continuities for ‘Alien 3’.

Impact of Production Turbulence

The end product released under Fincher’s direction faced divisive critiques, with some excoriating its deviation from Cameron’s action-packed ‘Aliens’, while others found praise in its daring tonal shifts. Nonetheless, critics and audience reception of Alien 3 upon release was mixed, primarily frowning upon its seemingly anticlimactic design choices.

This production headache extended beyond mere screenplay tweaks—it played a role in what director Harlin called an irreconcilable dissonance with the studio.I quit politely…because I couldn’t stand the idea. It was a very crazy and scary thing to do, he reflected.