Terry Gilliam Bashes The ALIEN Franchise and Says He Turned Down The Opportunity To Direct One

A few weeks ago, director Terry Gilliam expressed his hate for the superhero film genre. He's not stopping there though. He's now bashing the Alien franchise and even opened up about the time that he was offered the opportunity to direct one of the sequels to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic. During an interview with RogerEbert.com, he explains why he turned down the opportunity, saying:

"I got offered an Alien sequel because I was hot at that time, as a result of Time Bandits and Fisher King, and I just don’t want to do films like that. They are factory jobs, working for a studio. My last factory job was on the Chevrolet assembly plant in Los Angeles, during my junior year of college, night shift on the line. Never again."

I assume he was offered to direct Alien 3, which ended up being helmed by a young David Fincher. That certainly wasn't the best movie, and turning it down definitely wasn't going to hurt his career. Gilliam went on to double down on his distaste for the first Alien film, as he went on the following rant:

"Alien is just a ghost train where something jumps out and you don’t know who’s going to die next. When I watched the first Alien, all I kept saying was, 'just kill them all and be done with it,' because you just know that they’re all going to die along the way. In the end, Sigourney Weaver, who we’ve established is a really tough military officer, is running around in her underwear trying to find a cat. Give me a f-king break. There are some great moments in it, but the shot that should’ve never been in the film is the one at the end showing the alien getting blown out of the airlock. You see the alien, and it’s just a guy in a rubber suit. Up until then, you only saw bits of the alien, and it seemed to be huge and vast and terrifying. That was so clever. It was like the shark in Jaws. I told Ridley, 'You don’t want that shot of the alien at the end. Cut it!'"

Despite Gilliam's harsh words, fans loved those first two films, then the rest of them are debatable. I'm sure one day we'll see another Alien film, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. However, there is an Alien inspired TV series rumored to be in the works! That could be interesting if anything comes of it. 

What are your thoughts on what Gilliam had to say about the Alien franchise? Would you have liked to see him direct an Alien film?