Sigourney Weaver: 'Alien vs. Predator' 'Really Depressed Me'
Alien vs. Predator gets no love from Ripley.
The 2004 crossover movie is a particular sore point in Alien franchise history for Sigourney Weaver, who revealed that she felt depressed when she heard that AVP was going to be made and that it killed any chance of Ridley Scott making a planned sequel.
Speaking at London Film and Comic-Con on Monday, the Radio Times reported that Weaver said: “I heard that Fox was gonna do Alien vs. Predator, which really depressed me because I was very proud of the movies.”
She added: “I’ve nothing against building a movie on a video game, but at the time it was, as Jim Cameron said, I think publicly, ‘Why would you want to do that’? It’s like making Alien meets the Wolfman.”
AVP was made by British director Paul W.S. Anderson, and although it made a decent return at the box office, it was generally disliked by fans and critics alike. A further sequel, Alien vs Predator: Requiem, was released in 2007.
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Weaver also said that AVP put an end to any hopes of Scott making a further Alien sequel, with the director dropping out altogether. Scott would go on to direct the Alien prequel Prometheus in 2012. “I think it caused more problems than it was worth,” Weaver said.
Regarding the upcoming sequel directed by Neill Blomkamp, Weaver was more enthusiastic, especially given the South African director’s love for the early chapters in the franchise. “I’m so excited about Neill — because Neill is like you guys! He broke the tapes of these movies when he was a kid, he watched them so much,” she told the London fanboy event, adding: “I love the fact that’s Neill’s fulfilling his childhood dream of what he hopes will be the popcorn movie, the Alien popcorn movie that he wanted as a kid to see.”
Weaver also briefly hinted at what to expect from the fifth Alien movie, namely that Ripley will finally catch a break and get a sort of happy ending. “Well — it’s certainly something we’ve discussed,“ she said. "I agree, she’s had kind of a crap life. Many interruptions.”
Related: Director Neill Blomkamp on New 'Alien’ Film: It Will Ignore Last Two Sequels