RE: The New AvP 2 preview...
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Sep 15, 2007 10:55
The recent interview from MTV:
SANTA MONICA, California — You might not think " Alien vs. Predator" fans have much in common with Paul McCartney, but these days, both are singing the same tune:
" I' ve got to admit it' s getting better, a little better all the time — it can' t get no worse."
Type the words " Alien" and " Predator" into Google, and three thoughts on the state of the franchise become clear: The fans consider 2004' s " AVP: Alien vs. Predator" to be a mockery of all they hold dear; they maintain hope that some filmmaker, someday, will capture the magic of the comics, novels and video games that established the brand; and finally, that the new red-band trailer for December 25' s " Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem" kicks some serious ass.
" The studio knew that, although the last movie made a lot of money, it didn' t really resonate solidly with the fans," admitted Greg Strause, one-half of the filmmaking duo billed as the Brothers Strause. " To get the same people back into the theater a second time, it was gonna be a bit of an uphill battle."
" We really have to prove to the fans," added his brother Colin, " that this movie' s gonna be very different from the last one."
On August 24, the first-time filmmakers renowned for highly regarded music videos (Red Hot Chili Peppers' " Californication" ) and movie effects (" Titanic," " 300" ) launched their initial attack. " Hence, the red-band trailer comin' out," grinned Greg, leaving the edit bay to grab a quick hamburger with his brother.
The duo recently spent a weekend sneaking into theaters and watching the blood-drenched, adults-only clip play in front of shrieking fans — assuring them that they' re on the right track with their sequel.
" We wanted to [go R-rated] with it," added Colin, who not only wears the same sunglasses as his 1-year-older brother, but even orders his burger the same way. " I mean, we chest-burst a little kid!"
" Yeah, he dies," Greg confirmed of the ill-fated child. " Onscreen, and very painfully. It' s pretty f---ed up, but breaking some of the rules is a good thing here."
Given the go-ahead to make their hard-R flick, the Brothers Strause are steering clear of the PG-13 traps that rendered their predecessor so despised that an " AVP" podcast recently declared, " The only thing [director] Paul [W.S.] Anderson did correctly was bring people closer together in their community hatred of him."
" I don' t think anyone wanted us to talk to him," Colin laughed, confirming that they haven' t met with Anderson. " This movie works even if you didn' t see [Anderson' s]."
With that, the duo gave us an exclusive peek at several minutes of intense footage, as well as a breakdown of their franchise renovations.
Say Hello To The Predalien: After bursting from a Predator' s chest at the end of the first flick, " Requiem" picks up with an Alien/Predator hybrid slaughtering several Predators. " The Predalien wreaks havoc and causes a different Predator ship — it' s actually a Predator scout ship in this case — to crash on Earth," Greg explained. " You see a bunch of Predators get whacked at the beginning."
The Big Bad Wolf: " Basically you' re following this one Predator — the star of this movie," Greg said of the hunter in pursuit. Added Colin, " We call him the Wolf internally because basically he' s Harvey Keitel from ' Pulp Fiction.' He' s the cleaner. He shows up and he' s not there for the trophies. ... If anybody gets in his way, he' ll just cut ' em in half."
Cleaning Supplies: " At [an early] point in the movie, [the Wolf] takes a gun off of a dead Predator, and so he has double shoulder cannons," Colin explained. " There' s also a cleaner case where he stores all his new weapons. It has an implosion bomb that he uses for imploding the crash ship to basically get rid of it. ... That' s a new type of bomb he has."
Death To The Working Class: Avoiding the billionaires and adventurers of the first flick, the soon-to-be battlefield of Gunnison, Colorado, is populated with working-class characters similar to the early " Alien" films. " You' ve got a small-town sheriff [John Ortiz, ' Miami Vice' ] who everyone doubts a little bit," Colin explained. " We' ve got a brother story between Steven Pasquale [' Rescue Me' ] and Johnny Lewis [' The O.C.' ] ... There' s also a mom [Reiko Aylesworth, ' Mr. Brooks' ] returning from the war and trying to get reunited with her family and re-establishing her relationship with her daughter." Added Greg, " She gets very Ripley-esque; she' s a tough chick."
Whip It Good: One of the " Wow!" moments in the trailer comes when the Wolf quite literally whips out his new weapon. " [When weapons were being designed,] there was this one picture of a Predator with a bullwhip," Greg recalled. " We were like, ' Sh--, this has to be in the movie! This is the coolest thing I' ve ever seen!' The concept is that maybe it' s been made out of pieces of an Alien tail, so it has these serrated edges. ... If this whip tightens around you, it functions like a chainsaw blade and cuts you in half."
Predator, Heal Thyself: " The med kit' s also back because he gets kinda f---ed up in one part," Greg said of a for-the-fans déjà vu moment with the Predator. " You get to see him do the whole med-kit scene where he' s healing himself, which we didn' t have in the last movie."
She' s Got The Look: " The Predalien wants to hunt and reproduce," explained Colin, confirming that while there won' t be an Alien queen in the new flick, the Predalien serves essentially the same purpose. " She' s got a big queen head." Added Greg: " The main concept is that a Predalien should still be primarily Alien [with] very strong Alien features but with Predator mandibles and Predator dreadlocks. It walks a little more upright than a normal Alien does, but it also has the tail. It uses that tail quite a bit, and it' s got a much bigger tail than a normal Alien." The brothers confirmed that the Predalien won' t use Predator weaponry.
About Face: " We' ve also completely redesigned the Predator' s face," Greg said of what the Wolf will look like when he takes off his mask. " This Predator has some Alien acid-blood scarring on his face." Added Colin, " One of his mandibles has been melted off, which is a throwback to the one Predator called Broken Tusk in the comics. ... A whole side of his face looks like Freddy Krueger. You can tell this guy' s been through a million battles. ... His mandible design is very much like ' Predator 2' ; he has multiple fangs on each mandible. ... We added a lot of these extra horns on the crown of his head as well."
The Voice Of Aliens Past: " One of the cool things is we got Fox to go back and digitally remaster the original recordings of the Aliens from ' Aliens,' " beamed Greg. " All of [James] Cameron' s sound elements have been digitally remastered — the shrieks, the computer sounds — because we wanna tie it into ' Aliens.' ... The Alien design is also a throwback to Cameron' s version. It' s different, but it' s inspired by the warrior Alien."
Save It For A Rainy Day: " The whole final battle between the Predator and the Predalien is pretty damn cool," Greg said. " [' Requiem' ] is like two different films. The first half of the movie is one tone, and the second half is when the rain' s coming down ... [and] it kicks into higher gear and has more of an action thread."
Leave Your Foam Finger At Home: " We got rid of all the armor on the Predators because those guys [in ' AVP' ] literally looked like football players," explained Greg. " We were like, ' The Predator in the first two movies didn' t need armor!' "
After their meal, the Brothers Strause went back to the edit bay to screen two scenes: one in a morgue that ends with the Predator dissolving an Alien' s face with liquid from a blue-lit container, and another with the civilians stocking up at a gun store and listening on a radio while the National Guard are taken apart by Aliens.
" I' d like to do another one but I' d like to do it in space. The next one either has to be more of the bridge after this and before ' Alien,' or you could do something after ' Aliens,' " Greg said, getting back to work. " We have a pretty finite ending to this, but we have a cliffhanger per se; it' s a setup."
Check out everything we' ve got on " Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem."
Games are your best friend as long as you don' t start talking to them.