William Gibson's Alien 3 script becomes a facehugger worthy comic
Fans finally get the Alien 3 story they've been waiting for after more than 30 years... in comic book form.
I've been a hardcore Alien fan ever since I first laid eyes designer H.R. Giger and director Ridley Scott's sci-fi nightmare vision of aliens, facehuggers and the one woman who could defeat them all -- Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver since 1979's Alien).
Both Alien and 1986's sequel, Aliens, were the kind of films that made me happy to be stuck on earth instead of running for my life on a mining spaceship or a remote terraforming colony. But 1992's Alien 3 -- directed by David Fincher -- always felt like a disappointment.
But maybe fans like me will get a better way to experience Alien 3 with cyberpunk author William Gibson's original film script being made into comics from Dark Horse Comics.
The Alien 3 film excludes any survivors (Corporal Hicks, little girl Newt, and android Bishop) from the previous films except for Ripley and of course, a rogue facehugger who are unfortunately trapped on an abandoned, all-male prison colony complete with a creepy alien-dog hybrid wandering around the facility.
Here's another look at the upcoming Alien 3 comic that follows William Gibson's original movie script.
Alien 3 wasn't a big hit with the fans who were confused as to why Ripley was left to her own devices to deal with a bunch of sociopaths who ended up being a lot more dangerous than the aliens themselves.
Alien 3 was nothing like the original screenplay written by Gibson in 1987. In his version, Ripley was in a coma for most of the movie -- probably because the studio wasn't sure if Weaver would reprise her role. Gibson's script had Corporal Hicks and Newt as the leads in a Cold War era horror story instead. You can read his screenplay yourself online.
Thankfully, Dark Horse Comics has decided to produce Gibson's script as a comic called William Gibson's Alien 3 #1 (of five), with art by Johnnie Christmas, colors by Tamra Bonvillain and and various variant comic book covers by James Harren, Daniel Warren Johnson, Paolo Rivera, Tradd Moore, and Christian Ward.
"Following the deadly events of Aliens, the Union of Progressive Peoples intercepts the spaceship carrying the hibernating bodies of Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop," according to the Dark Horse announcement last week about the upcoming comic. "But unbeknownst to them, they have also picked up another deadly passenger whose discovery will unleash a race between two governments to weaponize the xenomorph in this horrifying and poignant Cold War-themed thriller."
Hadn’t expected to be cheered up by publishing news today, but then I didn’t know that this brilliant Johnnie Christmas adaptation of my unproduced Alien III script would finally be announced! https://t.co/mXBCGBiXNM
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) July 12, 2018
This is great news for those of us dying to see what Alien 3 could have been if Gibson's script had been treated with more respect.
"Hadn't expected to be cheered up by publishing news today, but then I didn't know that this brilliant Johnnie Christmas adaptation of my unproduced Alien III script would finally be announced," Gibson tweeted on July 12.
The comic's art will be created by Johnnie Christmas, with colors by Tamra Bonvillain and and a slate of variant covers by James Harren, Daniel Warren Johnson, Paolo Rivera, Tradd Moore, and Christian Ward,
William Gibson's Alien 3 will go on sale on November 7, 2018.
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