Despite her return to the series in Alien: Resurrection, Sigourney Weaver famously had her character Ellen Ripley killed off in Alien 3. It has always been noted that Weaver had three requirements to do the film — that she could make love to an alien, that she could not use a weapon, and that she could die. The final part happened, but we might know entirely why it happened, thanks to an appearance at Sunday’s London Film and Comic-Con.
According to Radio Times, Weaver was asked if it was her idea to kill off Ripley, which led into a discussion that probably had many video game fans feeling sore (but not as sore as the actual movie did):
“Well, yes – because I heard that Fox was gonna do Alien vs Predator. Which really depressed me because I was very proud of the movies…
“I’ve nothing against building a movie on a video game but at the time, it was, as [Aliens director] Jim Cameron said I think publically, ‘why would you want to do that?'” Weaver recalled. “It’s like making Alien meets the Wolfman.”
It’s a bold decision and clearly the right decision. Alien vs. Predator would eventually turn out to be junk when they finally made it. She also revealed that the potential team up is a reason that Ridley Scott ran from the idea of doing an Alien sequel:
“In fact Ridley Scott was about to direct a third one, until this was announced, and he dropped out,” she said, “because he also wanted to do an Alien sequel…
“I think it caused more problems than it was worth,” Weaver concluded.
Some things should just stick to the realm of video games and fan fiction. Or maybe we should just lock up Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson until they agree to stop making video game films. They’re ruining more than just the films they’re creating! As for Weaver, she’s got nothing but glowing praise for the franchise now, especially Neill Blomkamp.
(Via Radio Times and Entertainment Weekly)