In space, no one can hear you scream about studio interference.1979's Alien ushered in a new era of sci-fi horror that few movies have ever matched. And it's kind of a miracle it exists and is so exemplary on every level, considering the final product is a hodgepodge of rewrites and clashing personalities. When Dan O'Bannon pitched his original 1976 screenplay (then called Starbeast), it featured an all-male crew with names like Chaz Standard and Martin Roby, no secret robot characters, and a different tonal approach. At the time, O'Bannon had a great concept (contained space horror), but wasn't getting much interest. Then Star Wars launched a renewed fervor for space movies.What transformed O'Bannon's script into the film that launched a franchise was a contentious rewrite process driven by screenwriters/producers Walter Hill and David Giler. - YouTube www.youtube.com Hill and Giler's RewritesAs O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett (who had story credit on the first script) shopped their project, they caught the interest of Brandywine Productions, the production company run by Hill and Giler. They didn't love O'Bannon's original script and decided to revise it before taking it over to 20th Century Fox, where they had a deal.The friction was immediate. According to Shusett, Hill and Giler "weren't good at making it better, or, in fact, at not making it even worse," because they had little background in sci-fi writing.Visually, the scripts could not be more different. O'Bannon's draft contained illustrations. The rewritten draft famously looks a little bit wonky for a...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Today