Joss Whedon Discusses His Crappy ALIEN: RESURRECTION Film
I remember getting my hands on Joss Whedon's script for Alien: Resurrection back in the mid 90's and I thought it was great! I was so excited for the movie that was going to come out, then I saw it, and it sucked ass. They ended up changing a lot of stuff, but Whedon's script was still good. He ended up getting a story credit on the film to which he says, "There is always going to be a shitty Alien movie out there. A shitty Alien movie with my name on it."
In a recent interview with Total Film Magazine the Avengers director talked about Prometheus and reflects on his own contribution the franchise saying,
Yes, I did see Pro-meaningless," he joked. "In all seriousness, Alien: Resurrection was, I thought, the lowest I could ever feel. And then they cancelled Firefly. 'Yup, there you go. That's me feeling even lower.' Let me quote King Lear - 'The worst is not, so long as we can say, ''This is the worst.''
He went on to discuss some of the characters he came up with for the story, and how the casting of the characters threw everything off...
Casting is storytelling, I wrote two characters for Alien: Resurrection and their arc was that you would not know what way they were going to go. One of them turned out to be insane - and what do they do? They call Brad Dourif. So there is no plot twist. Brad is a very good actor but he has been pigeonholed into these roles. Then they cast J.E. Freeman as a thug - and his character was also supposed to be a mystery. So there you go again - the mystery is gone. Those are just a couple of examples because there are thousands of them when it comes to Alien: Resurrection.
Even though the director has seen a lot of success since that movie he explains that he'll never forget his terrible experience with the Alien film,
Yeah - you don't ever get over it. When you are making a movie you are making something that is going to last forever, especially now with the internet. So there is always going to be a shitty Alien movie out there. A shitty Alien movie with my name on it.
You might lose a little respect for Whedon with this next statement because he admits to being a Paul W.S. Anderson fan...
I actually like the first Alien vs. Predator. I'm a Paul W. S. Anderson fan.
I just hope he's joking!