Update...

Howdy.  Corrections and alterations are still going on.  I've started work on the Alien 3 cut scenes articles as they both need work before i continue with parts 3 & 4.  In Part one I've added a couple of video clips of scenes from the Alien 3 workprint.  This is so you, the reader, can see and compare the workprint footage with both the theatrical and assembly cuts of Alien 3.

http://weyland-yutaniarchives.blogspot.com/2010/06/alien-3-cut-scenes-part-one.html

I've still got to add at least two to three clips yet.  One being the opening sequence from the workprint and the list of differences.  The workprint clips have bad audio and picture quality due to being a multi generation copy of the workprint.  Lower generation copies do exist but are extremely rare to find.  Trust me I've been looking for years and I've only managed to find two people with better quality VHS tapes but neither would convert the workprint to DVD-R, make a VHS copy or wanted to trade as i didn't have anything they didn't already have.

Anyways, I'll slowly but surely keep at the alterations etc to each article.  Take care everyone and thanks for dropping by.

Adam.

On the 3rd of September my Dad passed away.  I know it's not something i should be sharing publicly but i don't care right now.  I've re-published the articles again and will continue the blog when i feel up to it.  Hope your all well and hope to catch up with most of you soon.

Take care,

Adam.

Blog on Hold

I know I've been making promises to finish particular articles and not doing all i can do is apologise.  At the moment i rarely get chance to sit down and add updates to this blog due to other commitments mainly my father and other family affairs.  Family comes first.  Sorry everyone.  I was planning on quitting this blog all together so i asked my good friend Vulaha what i should do and he suggested putting it on hold for the time being so that's what I'm doing.  Don't know how long it will be on hold for.

Thinking about it Vuls right.  Thanks to all those who have been e-mailing me and for the kind comments from readers over the months.

Good bye, thank you & take care everyone.  Will be back here again one day. 

Kind Regards.

Adam

Alien II: September 21, 1983 Treatment

 

You've heard about the Alien II treatment.  However, how many of you have read it?  To learn of this Treatments history, I recommend reading Aliens: The Illustrated Screenplay by Paul M. Sammon and visiting Valaquen's article: Making Aliens: Script

Instead of delving into the history of the Alien II treatment we're going to have a look at some of the things featured in it, which differ from the final draft of the Aliens script and other general little differences.

"First of all, we thought that Alien II sounded as if there was going to be 35 Alien movies, and that it's just going to go on and on and on until people are tired of it. That's not what the film is about -- just as Star Wars trilogy was not Star Wars 1,2 and 3. On the other hand, we didn't want to call it Ripley's adventure: ALIEN II, the way Rambo was first blood part II. We thought ALIENS would signify that this picture goes beyond ALIEN, but is related to it. I think it says it all."

- Gale Anne Hurd, Producer Aliens

Like in the final film Ripley is found by a salvage team in deep space.  In the treatment, after she is rescued, there is a nightmare sequence in which Ripley is on-board the Nostromo running down corridors.

After awaking from her nightmare Ripley asks for Doctor O' Niel.  There is no Carter Burke in the treatment and O' Niel has most of Burke's dialogue during most of the opening scenes.  The other interesting thing is Gateway Station is called 'Earth Satellite Station Beta'.

In the Aliens Special edition, you learn about Ripley's daughter and how she had passed away two years prior to Ripley being found.  This scene is also in the treatment but is completely different.  In this version, Ripley's daughter is still alive and is around 70 years old.  Because of her age and ill health, Ripley's daughter cannot visit her and has to contact her via a vid-phone  Ripley's daughter is not happy to see her.

In the Aliens Special Edition Ripley is sat in an artificial park.  Here, Ripley learns of her daughter's death from Carter Burke.  In the treatment, Ripley is taken to a man made 'Landscaped Atrium' by Dr O' Niel.  She sits under a tree watching Jones the cat and starts to cry.  Ripley then watches a Commercial Shuttle launch and just stares at it.  Like in the final film this takes place before the board of inquiry.

Before a decision is made about Ripley and her case, she is asked to wait outside.  There, she talks to O'Niel and reviews her situation as years has passed, technologies have changed and her skills are outdated.

In the treatment, there are more atmosphere processors than in the final film, at least 10, which are dotted around the planet.

In the Aliens Special Edition, Newt and her family come across the Derelict craft.  Anne and Russ, Newts mum and dad, go and investigate inside.  Time passes when Anne suddenly returns to their tractor with Russ, who has a facehugger on him.  That is where the scene ends in the film, with Newt screaming, but in the treatment, it continues a little further.  For starters when Anne returns to the tractor Russ isn't with her as she makes the mayday call to the colony  He's slipped into a hole inside the derelict and soon afterwards more members of the colony arrive to help search for Russ.  Anne shows the rescue team where her husband had fallen.  Peering inside they see the egg chamber.  The rescue team rappel down inside and soon discover Russ lying on the chamber floor with a facehugger attached to him.  One by one the eggs inside the chamber begin to hatch.

In the final film when Ripley is informed about the loss of contact with the colony it's both Burke and Gorman.  In the treatment, it's Dr O' Niel and Gorman.  When Ripley is asked to go back to the planet, it's Gorman, who pleads his case to her not Burke.

In the final film after Ripley awakens from her nightmare, she then contacts Burke.  In the treatment, it's Lt Gorman.

 

Some of the marines names and ranks are different in the treatment.  Spunkmeyer is called PFC Hay, Dietrich's character, the med-tech, is known as Corporal Lydecker.  Dietrichs' character is in the treatment but as a regular private making that four women on board.  There is no Private Crow.

In Aliens, Ripley wears a pair of Reebok hi-tops known as 'Bug-Stomers', Bishop is also wearing a pair.  In the treatment, Ripley wears a pair of hi tops but these are salvaged from the shuttle Narcissus.

During Ripley's briefing to the Marines, she is interrupted by Vazquez, who "...only needs to know one thing, where they are." In the treatment Ripley is in the mess hall when she is stopped by Vazquez and asked what her name is and what she is doing there.  Before Ripley can answer Vazquez cuts her off saying she only needs to know where the Alien is, so she can 'blow it away'.  The gun gesture comes later in the treatment.

In the Aliens Special edition during the Colony arrival, Hudson goes into a brag about how he's the ultimate bad ass and the Marines hardware.  In the treatment, this takes place before the Marines are briefed about their mission by Gorman and Ripley.

In the final film, Ripley discovers Bishop is an android after he's cut himself doing "the thing with the knife" with Hudson.  Ripley is not happy that no one told her about an android being on board.  In the final film, Ripley discovers Bishop is an android after he's cut himself doing "the thing with the knife" with Hudson.  Ripley is not happy that no one told her about an android being on board.

In the treatment Ripley catches up to Bishop and asks him why he was sent.  Bishop explains but Ripley won't have it.  She then goes off to find Gorman asking Bishop to be replaced by a human and explains about Ash.  Gorman says it's corporate policy to have an android on board.

In the treatment, Vazquez and Drake are stripping weapons.  Ripley is watching them when Vazquez notices and cocks her thumb blowing away an imaginary Alien.  Ripley isn't impressed.

While the Marines are preparing for the mission, Ripley's  beginning to feel like a fifth wheel and approaches Apone and Hicks asking if there is anything she can do to help.  Telling them she can drive the power loader behind her Apone tells her to "be my guest" and she mounts the loader.  Both Apone and Hicks look skeptical, which is soon changed when she shows her skills with the loader.

In the treatment, it's Hicks, who is inside the power loader loading heavy equipment onto the dropship.  He's having problems and so Ripley asks to step in and help.

In the film, some of the marines have Flame Throwers.  In the treatment, it's at Ripley's suggestion the marines carry them.  This is due to her experiences on the Nostromo.

In the final film, The marines are observed from inside the APC.  In the treatment, both Ripley and Gorman are observing from inside the Dropship.  From there Ripley sees all the acid holes and signs of struggle inside the colony  Ripley becomes uneasy and tells Gorman to pull his team out.  Gorman refuses as there might be survivors so Ripley suggests taking off and nuking the site from orbit.

TO BE CONTINUED...