<![CDATA[Poor David Fincher.]]>Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Alien³

wildj7 — 9 years ago(January 02, 2017 10:11 PM)

Poor David Fincher.
Everyone seems to blame him for this mess but it wasn't his fault.
The movie went through several production changes, several scripts rewrites, other directors and producers signing on the project and then quitting or getting fired plus a Writers Guild of America strike, all in the years between 1987 and 1990, before Fincher was brought on.
Some of the directors and writers previously attached to this project during this period of production hell and who also did some work on the early drafts were Renny Harlin, David Twoty and Vincent Ward.
There was even discussion at one time of having James Cameron do this film and if not Cameron, Ridley Scott.
Then during the production and filming of the movie, the 20th Century Fox studio executives kept making changes to the script or showing up on the set unannounced and changing the budget.
Furthermore, when Fincher was signed on and production began, he had to make do with an unfinished script and many unfinished and abandoned sets that were built for the previous script drafts of the movie, hence why some of the sets in the final movie looked out of place.
Fincher had good intention and by the time he finished shooting the film with the big mess he had to work with, 20th Century Fox took his material and cut it to pieces which resulted in the theatrical cut.
I just watched the Director's Cut aka the Assembly Cut which added 37 minutes of footage that was left out of the theatrical cut.
It does makes the movie a bit better than the theatrical cut but it's still a mess and I reiterate once more, don't blame Fincher for this hot mess of a movie, the weakest entry in the Alien Franchise.
By the way the first original script had the movie set on Earth with both Michael Biehn returning as Hicks and Carrie Henn returning as Newt and having it end with an open ending leaving room for a 4th film again with Hicks returning for the 4th film, and both movies were supposed to be filmed back to back to save money on the budget; but some morons at 20th Century Fox decided to change it.
Here's the original teaser trailer:
This final version of Alien is still better than one of the scripts that were proposed and tossed out: an Alien in a monastery in space with monks.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/topic/212540/poor-david-fincherRSS for NodeWed, 13 May 2026 13:35:40 GMTFri, 01 May 2026 13:58:27 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:34 GMT]]>K-B-M — 9 years ago(January 21, 2017 03:05 AM)

The director's cut was pretty decent.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786373https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786373Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:32 GMT]]>Enigma805 — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 02:20 AM)

You make a good point about Alien 3 being The movie the studio wanted.
You are spot on. There is no way the studio would want this style. They would have wanted something like Aliens that would appeal to the masses.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786372https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786372Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:31 GMT]]>InTheHub — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 11:52 PM)

Fincher wanted one alien.
He Got It.
Fincher wanted to shave all the actors heads.
He Got It.
Fincher wanted to change the ox to a dog.
He Got It.
Fincher wanted Ripley to die at the end.
He Got It.
Fincher wanted to remove the Golic/Alien storyline.
He Got It.
I have yet, in 16 years of hearing about how "Fincher didn't get" what he wanted to hear one single god damn example of something he didn't get to do.
His "vision" wasn't compromised, because he didn't have a "vision". He was hired at the last minute to direct a film that didn't even have a finished script and was subject to change based on the studio wants.
I don't give a damn if he had a rough experience shooting the movie, egos can clash, but nothing in any of the behind the scenes suggests he didn't have control. He did have control. Alien 3 is not the kind of film the studio would have wantedIt was the kind of film Fincher and Sigourney wanted.
They keep defending Fincher and then actually listing the bad decisions as his, it's actually pretty funny.
"It was so unfair for David to lose this whole middle section of the film"
"It was Fincher's decision to remove this"
Okay.
"See it with someone you loveGo by yourself"

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786371https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786371Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:30 GMT]]>Enigma805 — 9 years ago(January 21, 2017 02:12 AM)

Where did you get this information? I have heard Fincher made it a mess. He wasted ridiculous amounts of money and was so overbudget Fox had to get involved and enforce cutbacks to stop him wasting money.
Plus he was constantly fighting with the actors making them do re-run after re-run which in turn put them over time and further overbudget.
Fincher has later become a respectable director but this project was to bif for him at that time of his career and he simply wasn't up to it.
Fox did make a massive error on this movie and that was letting an inexperienced director in charge.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786370https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786370Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:29 GMT]]>gbean2397 — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 07:30 PM)

I wholeheartedly agree, Fincher
musn't
be blamed for this movie, it's just one of many studio-mandated "products" that had a release date looming on the horizon. It's the Fox executives that should take the blame, Fincher was essentially a victim of their disastrous endeavors. They
really
treated him, undeservingly, like beep throughout the shoot. But I believe the bright side of all this, is that after this film, Fincher went on to make many amazing films, especially
Se7en
(I even love,
LOVE
his film
Zodiac
, such an underrated gem).

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786369https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786369Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Poor David Fincher. on Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:28 GMT]]>LetThemEatCake01 — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 10:25 PM)

actually, this film is great despiTE Fincher.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786368https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1786368Fri, 01 May 2026 13:58:28 GMT