20 Things You Didn't Know About Alien 3
7. Hicks Was Meant To Be The Main Character
With the studio unsure if Sigoruney Weaver would return to the franchise, William Gibson wrote a script that focused on Hicks and Bishop. In this draft, the pair would land on a space station where scientists were breeding Xenomorphs to serve as bio-weapons. Although Gibson's draft was canned, elements from it were incorporated into Alien: Resurrection.
The studio still tried to implement Hicks in Alien³ by making him appear in a dream sequence but this idea was dropped. In the end, Hicks only appears in a pixelated photograph for a few seconds. Because the studio couldn't use the actor's likeness without his consent, they had to pay Michael Biehn for this shot. Biehn found it hilarious that he was paid more to appear in the film as a grainy photograph than for his entire performance in the previous film, Aliens.