Alien 3is often considered to be the worst film of theAlienfranchise, and also director David Fincher’s weakest work (it almost made him quit Hollywood). On Rotten Tomatoes, it has both the lowest critics score and audience score of any film in the main franchise, including the divisive latter entries,PrometheusandAlien: Covenant. It was very dark (literally, in the photographic sense), lacked the action of the other films, and had twists on the mythology and narrative choices that most people disliked, though some have come around over the years to appreciateAlien 3. It was almost a completely different film, however, when filmmakerRenny Harlinwas attached to it.
Harlin is no stranger to franchise films, having directedA Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Die Hard 2, andExorcist: The Beginning, along with the cult classic action moviesDeep Blue SeaandCliffhanger. He was attached as the director ofAlien 3for an entire year, going back and forth with the studio over their conflicting ideas — Harlin had his, they had theirs. Ultimately, in a bold move for a 29-year-old filmmaker, Harlin stepped away from the project over the direction the studio wanted to take. He explained this toDen of Geekin 2009:
“When the idea ofAlien 3came to me, I felt that it was an incredible honor. I felt like Ridley Scott had made a masterpiece withAlien. Jim Cameron had made a masterpiece withAliens. And I felt, ‘Okay if I can take it to another level, then maybe I have a chance of making a masterpiece as well.’ And so I eagerly took the challenge, and I had offices on the Fox lot and I felt very excited. But then, as we’re developing the script, opinions between the studio and I were completely different.They basically wanted to make a movie that was just likeAliens– same kind of guns, just different place.”
“And they, for some reason, had this idea that they wanted it to take place on a big prison ship. And I didn’t get it.I said, ‘Who cares about a prison ship?'” continued Harlin. “The whole basic idea of theAlienmovies is that, in the first one, it is a bunch of blue collar guys and women who could be truck drivers. It’s totally relatable. And in the second one, it’s a war movie, and it’s these soldiers with Ripley going to battle these aliens, and there’s this little girl who represents humanity there. So again, very relatable. But if you doAliensin prison, it’s like, ‘Who cares about the prisoners, let them die.'”
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Renny Harlin’s Original Idea for Alien 3
Harlin is now directing an epic horror trilogy based onThe Strangers,and the first film,The Strangers: Chapter 1, was recently released into theaters on July 27, 2025. While doing press for the film, Harlin was asked again aboutAlien 3, which is more topical now that anAlienTV series is in development, and a new film in the franchise,Alien: Romulus, is hotly anticipated. Harlin toldSlash Filmthat in the thirdAlienfilm, he wanted to bring the fight to Earth. He explained:
“The concept of having these creatures on Earth, for the studio, it felt scary and unattainable. For me,it was the natural evolution. We’ve had theAlienwith the truck drivers in space, we’ve hadAlienswith the Marines in space, and where do we go next?Let’s bring the aliens on Earth and have them going through the cornfields. I had the poster already in my mind, with the farmhouse and the cornfield in moonlight, and they are going through the cornfield.”
To this day, I think it would’ve been a ginormous hit movie, because it would’ve been the first time anything like that was done.
“But for whatever reason,” continued Harlin, “the studio felt like, ‘Ah, the audience won’t buy that. So let’s put the aliens on a prison ship.’ A prison ship? How am I going to relate to a prison ship? But that’s ancient history. I’m not blaming anybody.”
“So for about a year we just went back and forth with these ideas and finally when we had this script of a prison ship and aliens,I said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do this.’ And it was a very crazy and scary thing to do. I was 29 years old, I was dealing with a huge studio, which was my dream, and I quit. But I went on to make other movies with Fox, and David Fincher ended up doingAlien 3, and, of course, he’s now doing fantastic. But not necessarily because ofAlien 3.”
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The Turbulent Production of Alien 3
The studio eventually got what it wanted, but it took a lot of headaches and time as a result. The acclaimed cyberpunk author William Gibson (Neuromancer, The Peripheral) was tasked with developing a script for the third film in the franchise. He wasn’t happy with Harlin’s vision though, sarcastically summarizing it as, “Space commies hijack alien eggs — big problem in Mallworld.” He eventually quit, but his version of the script is available and was even turned into an audiobook.
From there,Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) was tasked with writing a script; he quit after two months, disowning his work due to studio interference and micromanagement.Next was David Twohy(Timescape, The Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black), whose ‘prison planet’ script was deemed too derivative by Renny Harlin, and didn’t feature Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. Harlin split and Twohy continued to develop the script.Fox hired a new director and writer (Vincent Ward and John Fasano), and Twohy left.
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Ward and Fasano’s idea was an extremely original take, which finds Ripley’s escape pod crashing near a very spiritual Luddite community of monks. She’s brought a Xenomorph with her, which the monks believe to be the Devil. The production was considered too difficult and artistic, and Ward refused to accept the studio’s required changes, and was fired.Larry Ferguson (Beverly Hills Cop 2, Highlander) was hired, but Sigourney Weaver hated his depiction of Ripley.
Ultimately, Weaver demanded that the writers ofAliens,Walter Hill and David Giler, have the final say on the script forAlien 3. They reworked Ward and Fasano’s script, and when David Fincher was hired (based on his excellent track record of musice videos), he adjusted a few things. From there, the production was exhausting for everyone involved, and Fincher has generally disowned the film. If Renny Harlin was allowed to make his original version, who knows how different film history would be, from Harlin and Fincher’s careers to theAlienfranchise and sci-fi itself.
