12 Alternative Versions Of Sci-Fi Movies We Didn't Get To See
2. Alien 3 (The Wooden Planet, Mad Monks Remix)
It sometimes seems like everyone and their mother tried
their hand at the third instalment of the Alien series, and the only thing agreed
upon en masse is that David Fincher’s eventual bleak 1990 entry into the
franchise could have been far better no matter which of the alternative concepts
the creators went with (sorry, Dave).
There was William Gibson’s ambitious script which we’ve discussed at length before here on WhatCulture, but Vincent Ward created another equally strange and immersive vision for the future which deserves to be spotlighted.
The spec script had a wooden planet which was home to fanatical monks as its setting, wherein a stranded Ripley would have to win over the paranoid zealots who presume she’s an agent of the devil—which is exactly who they think the titular xenomorph is.
Eventually culminating in Ripley getting CPR to rid her of a chestburster, very little of this bonkers script made its way to the finished film, and it’s hard to watch the flick without wondering what visions of “monk communes vs aliens” we missed out on.