That was a little too out-there for the Fox executives, too, with the rushed nature of Red's script probably not helping matters. This was around the time they envisioned producing two sequels simultaneously, which they gave up on when Red diverged from their story map too radically. Then Twohy got his turn, which nobody much liked either. Which is when they turned to Vincent Ward. The visionary director of What Dreams May Come and Map Of The Human Heart initially resisted, sure that he wasn't interested on working on a sequel. Eventually the studio managed to pique his interest (probably with bags full of money), and he developed a pitch involving Ripley's escape pod crash landing on a monastery-like satellite. Yay! Ripley's back! And she's returned to one of the weirdest Alien ideas to ever get greenlit, with the whole film set on this planet populated by Luddite monks. Which is made of wood. A planet made of wood. This one got so far into production they actually built all these wooden sets, with the monks believing the xenomorph is some sort of religious trial for their sins.
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/
