Alien 5: Development Hell

Talk of a fifth film has been around ever since the theatrical release of "Alien: Resurrection" in Fall of 1997. There were two places for the franchise to go: Earth invasion or the alien home-world. The fourth film hinted strongly at the Earth invasion story-line, but since the film wasn't well-received, those plans meant nothing. Fans and movie-goers alike have always been more interested in seeing the alien home-world or rather exploring the origins of the species which was very lightly touched upon in the original film.

Three decades ago, Dan O' Bannon and Ronald Shusett created the blueprint of what became "Alien" in 1979, a ground-breaking sci-fi/horror film that terrified its audiences and became a box office hit. In 1986, James Cameron picked up where Ridley Scott left off with "Aliens" which became an even bigger success and has become one of the most critically-acclaimed sequels of all time. For the next five years, the 'Alien' franchise faced a crisis as 20th Century Fox juggled with many directors, writers, scripts, and lots of money to conceive a successful third film - the result of that in 1992 was a disaster which, over the years, has gained more acceptance, thanks partly to the two and a half hour long assembly cut released in 2003. Then came the abomination of a fourth film which was "Alien: Resurrection", it was labeled as the sequel that would redeem the franchise and put it back on the right track; it had a great concept, it had potential, and it received a lot of positive buzz and gossip over the five years leading up to its theatrical release. Like "Alien 3", however, it failed.