While already not the most beloved installment in the franchise, Alien Resurrection director Jean-Pierre Jeunet offers his blunt thoughts on Joss Whedon’s criticisms for the film. The fourth movie in the long-running sci-fi/horror series picked up 200 years after the events of Alien 3, in which Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley sacrificed herself to prevent Weyland-Yutani from getting their hands on a Xenomorph queen embryo. Alien Resurrection sees Ripley cloned with the queen embryo in tow, now a hybrid of her human host, and resulting in a new onslaught of terror aboard a space vessel full of mercenaries and military scientists.
With a cast that also included Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman, Gary Dourdan, Chucky actor Brad Dourif, and Michael Wincott, Alien Resurrection hit theaters in late 1997 to generally mixed reviews from critics, with some praise aimed towards its direction, Weaver’s performance and its visual effects, while its plot and screenplay were criticized. As the film went on to make over $160 million against its $70 million production budget, 20th Century Fox initially eyed a fifth movie with Whedon returning to pen the script, whose story would be set on Earth, though Weaver declined to return over disinterest in the story. Though audience reception has warmed for the film in the years since it came out, one creative has proven adamant in their dislike for Alien Resurrection, and the man behind the sequel is sharing his thoughts.
While speaking with The Independent for the 25th anniversary of the film, Jean-Pierre Jeunet reflected on Joss Whedon’s Alien Resurrection criticisms. The director expressed his lack of interest in the Avengers filmmaker’s feelings on the movie, while also slamming Whedon’s own approach to making his movies. See what Jeunet said below:
I know Joss Whedon said some bad things about me. I don’t care. I know if Joss Whedon had made the film himself, it probably would have been a big success. He’s very good at making films for American geeks – something for morons. Because he’s very good at making Marvel films. I hate this kind of movie. It’s so silly, so stupid.
Would Joss Whedon Directing Alien Resurrection Have Worked?
Whedon’s Alien Resurrections criticisms are a point of infamy for fans of the filmmaker and the franchise as a whole, with the former Avengers director slamming the decision to change his original ending, and for doing “everything wrong that they could possibly do.” Given Whedon was only a few years past the critically panned Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, on which he would improve with the beloved Sarah Michelle Gellar-led TV show, it’s understandable both he and fans of his would have felt that any deviations from his material likely undermined the film. However, it does beg the question of whether Alien Resurrection would have worked with Whedon in the director’s chair in favor of Jeunet.
Interestingly, Jeunet had felt that making a sequel to Alien 3 was a bad idea prior to signing on for Alien Resurrection, though would come around to the idea when presented with the opportunity for more creative freedom. Given Whedon had yet to actually make his directorial debut, feature or TV-wise, before the film was made, it seems going for a director with proper experience in the genre would ultimately have been the better call, namely one who initially found disinterest in continuing the Alien franchise forward, as that would be a motivator for Jeunet to craft something genuinely original within the increasingly stale series for the time. Jeunet’s blunt response to Whedon’s criticisms for Alien Resurrection not only offer a humorous brushing off of the writer’s feelings, but are sure to ring true for those who ultimately came to enjoy the sequel, which is currently streaming on Starz.
Source: The Independent
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