Alien 3: Sigourney Weaver Reflects on Controversial David Fincher Sequel

Sigourney Weaver says she felt the studio's lack of support for the Alien sequel.

By Nicole Drum

The Alien franchise is going strong with the recent release of Alien: Romulus but looking back at the franchise's 45 year and six film history, there is one film that sticks out as being perhaps the most controversial. That film would be 1992's Alien 3. The third installment in the franchise, Alien 3 saw Sigourney Weaver reprise her role as Ellen Ripley and was directed by David Fincher in his feature directorial debut, but the production was a troubled one — and Fincher himself has since disowned the film. Now, Weaver is reflecting on the sequel, noting that she could feel the lack of studio support Fincher received.

"Well, I could feel that David had to get on the phone and fight every day for us to shoot what he wanted to the next day. And I'm sorry that he didn't get a chance to make the script his own before we started," Weaver told Deadline. "That makes filmmaking very difficult. I recall that Vincent Ward's original script had been about monks in a monastery and Ripley was in a coma for half of it. So, I keenly felt the lack of studio support. That was a transition moment where studios stopped being about 'let's make great films' and started being about 'let's not lose money.' They had the great idea to put David Fincher aboard for his first film, but t hen not to support the guy was very idiotic. It helped shooting in England so we could get on with things to an extent."

She also said that loved working with Fincher and that she feels we made a good film.

"I heard recently that David has disowned the project and I'm sorry about that because I loved working with him, and I think we made a good film," she said. "I'm glad he got a chance to do his version. It was a great ensemble."

What's Next for the Alien Franchise?

While Alien 3 was a bit of a rough spot for the Alien franchise, the long-running franchise continues. The latest installment, Alien: Romulus, is currently in theaters and stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie's Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), Aileen Wu. Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don't Breathe) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don't Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. 

Alien is also headed to the small screen with Noah Hawley's television series Alien: Earth set to premiere on FX in 2025. Alien: Earth is set to serve as a prequel to the original 1979 Alien film from Ridley Scott. There aren't a ton of details about the series just yet, though Hawley has previously teased that it will be a departure from the standard format of Alien movies and that Alien: Earth is bringing the threat of the xenomorph to our home planet.

"Look, a two-hour movie, you can set it up and then it's just about, 'Are they going to survive?' But if you're making a series, 'Are they going to survive?', you can't sustain it. Even if you have 60% of the best action-horror on television, you still have 40% of 'What are we talking about?'" Hawley explained. "I had some conversations early on with Peter Rice, who used to run all of television at Fox and then the first couple of years at Disney, where it was like, 'The thing with Alien is, it's always trapped in a spaceship, trapped in a prison. What if it wasn't that?'"

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"What is this moment on Earth, technology-wise? And where are we? And the question science-fiction always tends to ask is, does humanity deserve to survive? So that seems like a really interesting question to continue to explore," he added.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.

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