To kick off 2024, we will be starting our latest franchise review beginning with the 1979 Ridley Scott classic ALIEN starring Sigourney Weaver. How does this film hold up all these years later and is this possibly the best sci-fi horror film of all time? Let’s find out!
While studying as a film student at the University of Southern California, screenwriter Dan O’Bannon got his start making movies when he worked on a project with fellow classmate John Carpenter on a horror-comedy called “Dark Star.”
After that film started to generate some buzz, O’Bannon decided he wanted to do another science-fiction film with a more realistic looking alien that leaned much more into horror than comedy. He soon teamed with writer Ronald Shusett to come up with a story that they titled “Star Beast” about an alien boarding a ship filled with an unsuspecting crew that had no idea what they were up against.
After the script was finished, they started pitching the idea to studios around town as “Jaws in space” but nobody was biting. It wasn’t until after “Star Wars” was released in 1977 that major studios decided to double down on sci-fi films and O’Bannon’s script finally started getting attention.
Walter Hill joined as a producer but several directors passed on the project until they finally came around to Ridley Scott after seeing his work on the film “The Duelists.”
Set on the starship Nostromo, a seven person crew is awakened from a deep slumber with a mission to investigate a distress signal that could indicate possible alien life on another planet. What they find and what comes back with them is more horrific than anything the could ever imagine…
In the latest episode of Rewind of the Living Dead, we travel to space where no one can hear us scream as we kick off our latest franchise deep dive by reviewing the 1979 sci-fi horror classic “Alien”….
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