In space, nobody can hear you scream. Speculate, though? Sure! Knock yourself out with the speculation! Nobody's gonna stop you from speculating, not even in the vacuum of space! The Alien franchise looks like it emerged fully formed, with its groundbreaking female protagonist, severe but sensical genre shifts, and a xenomorph plucked straight from your nightmares. Really, though, the life cycle of the Alien films has much more in common with that of the titular monster. It's violent, messy, and almost resulted in the death of John Hurt. Ever since screenwriter Dan O'Bannon had twenty-some pages of a project called Memory where some space-farers wake up from cyro-sleep due to a distress call on a nearby planet but couldn't figure out where to go next, the franchise has been in a state of flux. From the haunted house horror of Alien to the hoo-rah action of the sequel, from the downbeat prison drama of the third film to whatever Alien: Resurrection is supposed to be, these movies have gone through some pretty seismic changes between each instalment. But if half of the planned sequels had gone ahead, man, you wouldn't know the half of it. Alien 3... but it's set on a planet made of wood, populated by monks! Alien 5, by Joss Whedon! Something called Star Beast, which is a way less snappy name (but just as descriptive!) Here are ten amazing unmade Alien films.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
