Terry Gilliam has revealed that he turned down the chance to direct an Alien sequel and also said that he isn’t fond of the franchise.
Alien is one of the most iconic film franchises in history and the first two movies, Alien and Aliens, are considered to be all-time classics of the sci-fi genre. Director Terry Gilliam isn’t a big fan, however, not just of Alien but of studio movies like it.
Speaking to RogerEbert.com, Gilliam revealed his distaste for these films and that he also turned down the chance to direct a movie in the Alien franchise: “I got offered an Alien sequel because I was hot at that time, as a result of Time Bandits and Fisher King, and I just don’t want to do films like that. They are factory jobs, working for a studio. My last factory job was on the Chevrolet assembly plant in Los Angeles, during my junior year of college, night shift on the line. Never again.
“Alien is just a ghost train where something jumps out and you don’t know who’s going to die next. When I watched the first Alien, all I kept saying was, ‘Just kill them all and be done with it,’ because you just know that they’re all going to die along the way. In the end, Sigourney Weaver, who we’ve established is a really tough military officer, is running around in her underwear trying to find a cat. Give me a f-cking break.”
Gilliam didn’t have only bad things to say about the original Alien, however: “There are some great moments in it, but the shot that should’ve never been in the film is the one at the end showing the alien getting blown out of the airlock. You see the alien, and it’s just a guy in a rubber suit. Up until then, you only saw bits of the alien, and it seemed to be huge and vast and terrifying. That was so clever. It was like the shark in Jaws. I told Ridley, ‘You don’t want that shot of the alien at the end. Cut it!’”
These are certainly interesting comments from Gilliam and pretty controversial regarding the initial Alien. But what do you think? Was Gilliam right to stay away from Alien and films like it?
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