Alien - Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson
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Alien - Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson

The first-draft Alien screenplay by William Gibson, the founder of cyberpunk, turned into a novel by Pat Cadigan, the Hugo Award-Winning "Queen of Cyberpunk." William Gibson's never-before-adapted screenplay for the direct sequel to Aliens, revealing the fates of Ripley, Newt, the synthetic Bishop, and Corporal Hicks. When the Colonial Marines vessel Sulaco docks with space station and military installation Anchorpoint, a new form of Xenomorph appears. Written by Hugo Award-winning novelist and "Queen of Cyberpunk" Pat Cadigan, based on Gibson's never-produced first draft. The Sulaco--on its return journey from LV-426--enters a sector controlled by the "Union of Progressive Peoples," a nation-state engaged in an ongoing cold war and arms race. U.P.P. personnel board the Sulaco and find hypersleep tubes with Ripley, Newt, and an injured Hicks. A Facehugger attacks the lead commando, and the others narrowly escape, taking what remains of Bishop with them. The Sulaco continues to Anchorpoint, a space station and military installation the size of a small moon, where it falls under control of the military's Weapons Division. Boarding the Sulaco, a team of Colonial Marines and scientists is assaulted by a pair of Xenomorph drones. In the fight Ripley's cryotube is badly damaged. It's taken aboard Anchorpoint, where Ripley is kept comatose. Newt and an injured Corporal Hicks are awakened, and Newt is sent to Gateway Station on the way to Earth. The U.P.P. sends Bishop to Anchorpoint, where Hicks begins to hear rumors of experimentation--the cloning and genetic modification of Xenomorphs. The kind of experimentation that could yield a monstrous hybrid, and perhaps even a Queen. ALIEN 3 TM & © Twentieth Century Films. All rights reserved.
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Reviews

Photo of Jeff
Jeff@stormwarning
4 stars
Jan 3, 2023

An alternate draft of an Alien³ screenplay? By William Gibson? Adapted by Pat Cadigan? Yes please! Although I found some of the action a little hard to follow at times, it’s as exciting as you’d imagine, given the story’s pedigree. Way less Ripley (apparently Sigourney Weaver wasn’t confirmed to return at the point the screenplay was drafted) but plenty of Bishop & Hicks, with the requisite Company stooges, rookie Marines, and hapless researchers and technicians; plus a whole communist space station for a Cold War vibe to Aliens’ Vietnam. I was initially put off by the many references to the previous film, but it’s part of Hicks’s PTSD which puts a tragic spin on it. Between Hicks trying to hold it together while keeping the group together, Bishop dealing with a shoddy repair job, and the newest twist to the alien threat, this is something I would have loved to see on the big screen (although there are echoes of this in the subsequent Alien and Prometheus films).

Photo of Pierre Nel
Pierre Nel@pn
4 stars
Dec 28, 2022
+1
Photo of Stefan Kuznetsov
Stefan Kuznetsov@neosloth
3 stars
Jul 3, 2023
Photo of Garrett Jansen
Garrett Jansen@frailtyy
4 stars
Aug 17, 2022