ALIEN Series Scripts





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Each Alien film has gone through re-writes and edits. The final film version is rarely identical as the script it was made from. In some cases, such as Alien 3, several years and many screenwriters were employed in writing version so fthe film. This section details the history of the scripts for each Alien film, and provides some trivia and details as to their writing. If you have any additions, please email me .







The following information comes from the original early draft of ALIEN and the Collectors edition laserdisc. The Dan O'Bannon original script was completed in 1972 and was first called "Star Beast" before O'Bannon changed the title to "Alien". It was based on one of his unfinished scripts called 'Memory'. The supplementary disk summarizes that all the astronauts were men, their names were Standard, Roby, Melkonis, Broussard, Hunter, and Faust. The name of their ship was the Snark. Although not directly stated, I get the impression that the crew is more of an exploration/research team than the "space truckers" in the movie. As in the film they land on a planet after hearing a distress call and find an alien derelict, but here they only breathing masks are required to leave their ship and go outside onto the planet instead of full pressure suits. On the derelict they find the dead alien pilot, an empty "urn" (facehugger egg) and a triangular-shaped etching scratched into the control board. They leave, go back to the ship, then the disk refers to a portion of the script where the crew discovers a pyramidical structure like the scratched image on the derelict.



This pyramid is where the eggs are kept. The search party goes out, one man goes down into the egg chamber, which is flooded with oxygen. There, before he gets facehugged, he finds a "strange hieroglyphics carved into the walls." The crew realizes later that this is a representation of the alien's life cycle." The laserdisk says that everything pretty much happens the way it did in the movie except "the crew spends a lot of time speculating and analyzing." There are three more excerpts from the script, one a dialogue between two crew members discussing the relationship between the pyramid and the derelict and a second where we find out that the alien is turning its victims into new spores.



This last excerpt is O'Bannon's description of the full-grown alien as it attacks a crew member: "A six-foot monstrosity stands in the opening. Ghastly beyond imagination, squamous, covered with tenticles, it hops down like an over-sized bird and grabs Melkonis in razor-sharp tenticles."



Ron Cobb and Chris Foss did sketches, paintings and storyboards based on this version of the script, some of which are included on the disk. Dan O'Bannon's 1976 Early Alien Draft (197KB, html format)



Revised Final Draft June 1978 ALIEN script (186KB, txt format)











After his 1984 surprise smash 'The Terminator' James Cameron gained a certain level of clout in hollywood. Cameron was given the choice of doing a sequel to the film ALIEN or an updated version of Spartacus for FOX. IN 1983, Cameron a treatment for ALIENS, which is like a rough draft, outlining major plot and story points without a fully fleshed out dialogue. Camron's first draft, dating from 1985, is very similar to the actual filmed version. James Cameron's 1983 ALIENS treatment (88KB, rtf format)

- An AMR premiere from 2001!



James Cameron's 1985 ALIENS first draft (258KB, txt format)











Joss Whedon was brought in to pen Alien Resurrection by the producers. While his experience was limited in terms of writing a big budget picture, he had written roles for strong heroines (Buffy the Vampire slayer) and had done work on 'Toy Story' and 'Waterworld.' It is important to note that Jean-Pierre Jeunet also would modify the script during shooting of the film. Joss Whedon's ALIEN Resurrection Script #1 (140KB, txt format)



Joss Whedon's ALIEN Resurrection Script #2 (100KB, txt format)











In the early 1990's FOX did see promise in developing Alien vs. Predator, then a successful comic book series created by Dark Horse Comics . After reviewing a script treatment, FOX commissioned Peter Briggs to write a full screenplay. While it was never produced, the script became very popular, especially within Internet fan circles. For an excellent interview with Peter Briggs discussing his involvement with Alien vs. Predator, (Both his script and the 2004 movie) visit Bloody-Disgusting . A must read for any fan. Peter Brigg's Alien Vs. Predator Script (222KB, txt format) When interest was renewed in an Alien vs. Predator film in the early 2000's, a script for the film was commissioned by Fox and it was up to James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox , to deliver a new draft. However, John Davis (producer) decided to take the project in a different direction (not based on the comic book series, which DeMonaco and Fox had done.) The proposed storyline (from the now defunct 4Filmmakers website): "A man becomes a Predator after discovering a crashed Predator ship. His team of researchers use the Alien eggs to create an environment of conflict to lure the Predators back to study their technology and prolong his life." The date of the finished first draft was January 2002.



Paul W.S. Anderson was given the director's chair at about this time, and he started to write his own work into the movie. An interesting situation with the final writing credits now existed. From Wikipedia : "The writing credits submitted by the studio to the WGA recommended that Peter Briggs and Paul W.S. Anderson be credited for the story, while Anderson and Shane Salerno get the screenplay credit. Instead, the WGA denied any sort of credit to Briggs or Salerno, and instead gave co-story credit to original Alien writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett on the rationale that some story elements were based on a deleted scene from that film. Shocked at this decision, the studio offered Salerno an executive producer's credit, but he turned it down." Paul Anderson's and Shane Salerno's AVP: Alien vs. Predator script (299KB, rtf format)

Other Scripts



There are several fan scripts for ALIEN 5 and Alien Vs. Predator 2.

To give them a read, please surf over to the Fan Fiction area.





Miscellanous Trivia