The Digital Bits - Inside Aliens on Disc

[Continued from Part I]

DB: We know that one of the biggest issues you've struggled with here is the lack of participation by certain key people.

CL: Definitely the one issue with this project, other than legal problems, is the fact that some key players just didn't have the time or the interest in participating. And we're still talking to these people. We're still trying to get them on board, and I'll keep trying until the very last minute.

Obviously, the big person who's MIA is David Fincher. That pains me, because the whole reason I took on this project was to put his work in its best light, and to try to salvage as much as I could from the wreckage that the film ended up being. That said, I don't feel like it's for me to single-handedly rescue this film - not that I could, even though I wanted to. That's not what I'm going to do. But as a fan of Fincher and his work, I felt like I wanted to really try to show what his original vision was for this film - to show people what he wanted to do, and to preserve that for all time. But, without Fincher involved, that's not necessarily going to happen. We're going to show you what he was working on, and show you some of the alternate ideas he was working on. We're going to show you the footage he shot and later abandoned - you're gonna see all that stuff. But it's not going to have that extra level of authorship that it would've had, if Fincher been a part of this project.

Lauzirika examines outtake footage from Alien3.

Lauzirika examines outtake footage from Alien³.

DB: If Fincher had been a part of this effort, you'd get more of a sense of perspective. It wouldn't be just, "Here's what could have been..." or "Here's what was in progress..." It would have been, "Here's what I wanted to do. Here's why this ended up the way it did."

CL: Exactly. You know, there are very few directors out there who do commentary better than David Fincher. As a fan, I would just love to have him do a commentary for this, as much as I know he would've hated to do it. This, of all of his films, is the one that most needs his voice in terms of what went wrong… and what went right, perhaps. I know the overwhelming majority of his thoughts will be negative, but that's interesting. It's a cautionary tale for young filmmakers out there. People, who want to follow in Fincher's footsteps, want to know why his first feature film went wrong. It would be fantastic to see what he had to say about that.

DB: For fans, the question of what went wrong is not only a part of the history of Alien³, it's history that's never really fully been told before.

CL: We've gotten people to talk about it in the new interviews we've done, but I'm not sure we've gotten one hundred percent honesty from everyone. Again, it was an incredibly difficult project. Most people either don't want to talk about it, or they want to forget about it, or they have forgotten about it, or they want to whitewash the whole thing. We've only had a couple of interviews that I would really consider brutally honest. But my final cut of the documentary, which did go into some interesting detail and was initially approved by Fox, eventually scared the hell out of some Fox executives and lawyers. So they went and made several cuts without my participation, most of which made absolutely no sense to anyone working on the disc. I've actually taken my name off of the documentary because of it. I've disowned it and it's truly a shame because the primary reason I signed on for this project was to create an in-depth documentary on Alien³. So for those people who are expecting this DVD to really be the tell-all - all the dirt you've always wanted to hear about Alien³, it's not going to be that. It's not going to be Hearts of Darkness for Alien³. But it was that…before, much like the film itself, studio politics ruined it.

DB: Tell us more about each of the other directors for this series - the degree of willingness they've had to come back and revisit their films for the new DVD release.

CL: Obviously, Ridley Scott has been very helpful and enthusiastic. In fact, he's become more enthusiastic as the project's progressed. At first, he was busy working on Matchstick Men, his new movie, plus he was prepping another film that he's trying to get off the ground, called Tripoli. So he didn't really have the time to focus on Alien for a long while. But now that his schedule is starting to free up a little bit, he's been very helpful and supportive. He really wants to get in there and be part of the project. We recorded all new audio commentary with him twice, once by himself and then again with Sigourney Weaver. Considering what an incredible schedule he's got, the fact that he's so supportive of what we're trying to do… well, it's why I love working with him. Ridley isn't just a great director, he's a great person. He's really supportive of the way we're trying to immortalize not just his work, but the efforts of everyone who worked on all four of these films. Ridley was a slam dunk.

A true Quadrilogy moment. Alien director Ridley Scott (left) confers with Lauzirika about the DVD production, just as Aliens star Michael Biehn happens by down the hall (he's the one looking at the camera).

A true Quadrilogy moment. Alien director Ridley Scott (left) confers with Lauzirika
about the DVD production, just as Aliens star Michael Biehn happens by down
the hall (he's the one looking at the camera).

James Cameron… is also very busy. And he's busy doing things that don't seem to lend themselves to having him be available to participate in this DVD. I read an interview with him, related to Solaris, in which someone asked him what he's been up to since Titanic. And his reply was basically, when he's seventy years old, he can still make a movie. But he won't be able to go down to the bottom of the ocean. He's still in his prime right now, so now is the time for him to be doing all the adventurous stuff. And that's perfectly reasonable. It doesn't really help us on the DVD, but that's okay. He's done lots of interviews in the past and we can use those. We've been in contact with Lightstorm, his company, and they've been very helpful whenever they can. When I went to Lightstorm, I did a little bit of a pitch and said basically, "You know, the laserdisc has a lot of stuff on it, which is all fine. But it doesn't really have a human voice. I want to hear from everyone who worked on the film, not just read a bunch of notes." So I told Lightstorm that I wanted to go out and interview as many people as I could and they were very supportive of that.

Fortunately, at the eleventh hour - actually more like eleven hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds - Cameron finally came through for us with a commentary track. We went down to Lightstorm the day before he was going to leave on another expedition to the Titanic, and he gave us a fantastic solo commentary. I don't know why he was hesitant to do one before Solaris or the T2: Extreme Edition DVDs, but I think he's got the bug now. It was a very informative and entertaining track.

DB: You've mentioned that Fincher ultimately declined to be a part of this project, but how did you go about trying to get him involved in the beginning?

CL: I wrote a very long letter to Fincher, explaining exactly what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. I was very passionate about it. I basically said, "I'll do anything, just please be a part of this." I've never actually spoken with him directly, but I was told by his people that my letter at least got him to consider it, and they said they'd entertain the idea. So that's when we really dug in and started looking for material. Eventually, we found this long lost, one hundred and fifty minute cut of the film. So we sent it over to his office.

The thing you have to understand is, Fincher was circling around three different projects for his next film at the time. Of the four directors, he's probably the closest to actually going into production on something, so his schedule is tight. Plus, it was a very negative experience for him. This film was hell for him. So to come back and talk about it must be painful. If you look at his filmography on the Panic Room DVD, Alien³ isn't even on there, so he's obviously disowned the project. All these things kind of combined into a very polite reply from his office: "No, he won't participate, but good luck. You're free to do whatever you want, you just can't call it a director's cut."

I'd like to think my letter had some effect, but frankly, it may just be that he didn't care. But I wanted him to know that even if he didn't care, I would care. I would try to do the best I could - to put his work in the best light I could. Now, I don't know that we've done that. I think that what we have done is to capture a snapshot of the film in the state it was in before it really got interfered with in post production - before it got taken out of Fincher's hands. What I'm hoping, with this new version that's going to be on the DVD, is that you're going to see the film before it got completely corrupted in the editorial process.

DB: Alien³ was basically a flawed film from the very beginning, wasn't it?

CL: It was seriously compromised before the shooting even began. I don't know if it's an actual quote, but I seem to remember at one point hearing Fincher say something to the effect that, "The only way to do a director's cut of Alien³ is to burn the negative and start over." I know he mentioned once that, during the L.A. riots in '92, when some of the fires and vandalism was getting pretty close to one of the labs where the negative for Alien³ was stored, he kept hoping that it would get burned to the ground. [laughs]

DB: So the point of this new cut is to show people where the film was in post production, and where Fincher was going with it?

CL: Basically, the best way to look at this cut is, this is pretty much everything they shot originally - before the re-shoots, before the test screenings. This is kind of like the first assembly of the film. Now, it's a bit more polished than the actual first assembly…

DB: Because you're finishing the effects and the audio mix…

CL: Right. What you're seeing is a reconstruction of the direction the film was going. After this point, it started getting cut down and cut down, and then there were re-shoots. So this is the first cut of the film after development hell and after production hell, but before post production hell. As such, it's a very unusual piece of work. When you see this cut, you'll really understand how Alien³ ended up the way it did, because the film was literally being rewritten as they were shooting. And it shows. The film really feels cobbled together. It doesn't make for a very entertaining experience, but it's fascinating, if you're a fan of the film, to be able to see how it got so badly screwed up.

Boxes of film that have been pulled from storage to be cataloged for the Quadrilogy
production. There are close to two hundred boxes of just outtake footage from Alien³
alone. The room you see here is stacked, floor to ceiling, on all sides.

DB: How do you approach trying to put that cut together? Fincher says, "Go ahead," and you know there's a longer cut out there to use as a blueprint. Are you also looking at Fincher's notes, at editorial notes, are you looking at original scripts? What are you using to guide your efforts in this?

CL: Among the things we dug up early on were various drafts of the script, the shooting script and what's called the lined script, which what the script supervisor actually had on set and was using to make notes about which takes were going to be used. We also found some alternate cuts of certain sequences that were in these boxes, to use as reference to see how things had evolved and where they had come from. We went through all the storyboards, all the call sheets we could find. Basically, we took advantage of anything we could use to get a sense of how things were coming together and what the plan was for the way things would be put together.

That said, we really had to be careful, because we're not the filmmakers. The one thing I was always adamant about was that we're not in the business of revisionism. We're not going to make a cut that we think is a better cut. We're not going to tinker and play and have fun with someone else's movie. All we're going to do is to take it as close as we can to what we've ascertained, via all the documents we have and the research we've done, is the original vision of Alien³ before all the interference occurred in post. I don't know if we're a hundred percent in line with that, but it's not because we didn't try. It's because we didn't have Fincher's guidance, or we don't have the materials to do it more accurately. That's been particularly an issue with the effects shots that were abandoned back in the day before they could be finished.

DB: How many new effects shots for the films are being done?

CL: In total, there are about thirty effects shots. For Alien³, there are about eight or ten in all. These are a combination of CGI creature design for what's called the "Bambi burster" that comes out of the ox, and a couple of digital matte paintings for the opening scenes on the surface of Fiorina. Then there are a couple little bits here and there along the way.

DB: Can you tell us more about the major scenes in Alien³ that are being restored for this new cut?

CL: The first big sequence involves Ripley crashing on Fiorina in the EEV. Clemens finds the EEV floating off-shore, and Ripley's washed up on the beach. That's a sequence that was alluded to in the early trailers for the film, which show Clemens walking around on the surface. You get to see him carrying Ripley into the facility. All that is the first big chunk. Then there are a couple of subplots that were pretty much gutted from the theatrical version, the biggest one involving the prisoner Golic. He basically ends up worshiping the alien, calling it "The Dragon." He's a very simple-minded person, who starts killing his fellow prisoners so he can get closer to the alien.

DB: He's sort of protecting it, isn't he?

CL: That's right. And I get the sense that this is the stuff Fincher was really interested in, because there's a difference in the direction and the direction of the performance. It's much different than just seeing a guy in a monster suit chasing a bunch of bald guys around in the dark, you know? It's not typical of what you'd normally expect to see in a film like this. It would be the equivalent of watching Alien, and following Brett around for a day - it's an interesting little off-shoot, but the rest of the story doesn't rely on its inclusion.

There are also some more moments of Clemens and his relationship with Ripley. Then there's an extended action sequence that was heavily abridged in the theatrical version, in which Ripley comes up with a plan to scare the alien into a toxic waste dump. In the final version of the film, they try to do this, but they fail and the place blows up. Several of the prisoners end up getting killed, and the alien gets away. In this version, they actually capture the alien. For all intents and purposes, the alien is defeated and the prisoners go on about their business waiting for the transport to arrive and take Ripley away. Then, re-entering the story is Golic, who escapes and frees the alien, which leads to a whole set of other problems. It's mostly Golic's story that's being restored. The character was played by Paul McGann. He must have been crushed when he saw the final version of the film. He had such an interesting role. He was still in the final cut, but like ninety percent of his work was cut.

DB: You also mentioned that the "Bambi burster" scene is being restored?

CL: Yeah. The ox caravan that carries the EEV off the beach and into the facility - originally, one of the oxen was impregnated by a "super facehugger", which is also a creature you don't see in the theatrical cut. A super facehugger is basically a normal face hugger, but with extra armor, because it's carrying the seed for a queen alien. It's only been seen in a few photos. I think Cinefex magazine had some shots of it. You only see it in a long shot in the new cut, but it's there. That leads to the funeral scene for Hicks and Newt. In the final cut, it's basically a montage between the funeral and the dog giving birth to a "dog burster". In this cut, we cut to this dead ox instead of the dog, and what Fincher nicknamed a "Bambi burster" emerges. It's basically the same idea, just with a different animal. And it really doesn't make much sense when you think about it, because the ox is dead, so how is the alien gestating in the body of a dead animal? That's probably one of the reasons why it was cut. Also, there are more dog lovers out there than ox lovers, so seeing the dog go through this pain instead is more emotionally powerful.

DB: Before we move on to Alien Resurrection and Jeunet's participation, is the new cut of the original Alien basically going to be just the theatrical cut with the deleted scenes added back in?

CL: Here's the thing. The laserdisc and the previous DVD included deleted scenes that Ridley didn't participate in - he didn't get to edit them. This is the first time that Ridley is actually getting hands-on involved with the deleted scenes. So most of them are going to be scenes you've seen before, but they're cut in a different way. They'll be more polished. A few will be seamlessly integrated into the new, alternate cut of the film - the 2003 Director's Cut - and the rest will be included on the Alien supplement disc.

We had created a fully-expanded version for the DVD, with all the deleted scenes integrated back into the film. But very late in the game, once Ridley saw the whole thing and the prospect of a big theatrical re-release was looming large, he had a serious change of heart. He felt that this expanded DVD version was way too long, and decided that he wanted to create a more streamlined experience, especially if a whole new generation of moviegoers would be seeing it in theaters. So he brought Dody Dorn in, who edited Matchstick Men, as well as Memento and Insomnia, to cut the whole thing down. This was a bit of puzzle for me, because it was so late in the process and so much of the DVD had already been approved and finalized - this was a major curve ball to be thrown. As a longtime fan of the film, and as someone who is well aware of not only Alien's background, but also of both its place in film history and with its fans, I have to admit I expressed serious reservations about this - especially having it called The Director's Cut, which incorrectly implies that he wasn't happy with the original version. But it's Ridley's movie. It's his call.

So this is the first time you're going to see extra scenes not only back in the film, but approved by the filmmaker. And I will say that there are a few things you've never seen before. It's nothing big, but there are some cool little moments that haven't been released previous to this new DVD.

You'll also notice that some of the deleted scenes on Disc Two of Alien include a 5.1 track. Those were the scenes that were originally in the expanded version we had been working on, but were later dumped when Ridley and Dody re-cut the film. The deleted scenes in 2.0 were never under consideration for the expanded version. They were somehow incomplete, either because of missing elements or because some sequences were never shot in their entirety.

DB: We understand that Ridley's new 2003 Director's Cut of Alien is actually shorter than the original theatrical version, even with the restored scenes. Can you tell us, specifically, what's been cut from the original version and what's been added back in?

CL: The whole is not really shorter. It's just a hybrid of the original 1979 version and the expanded DVD version we had originally restored. And as a result, some scenes from both versions have been cut down a bit. Additions include the cocoon scene, the scene when Lambert slaps Ripley outside of the infirmary and the alien transmission scene, which now includes Ridley's preferred version of the transmission sound effect. It kind of reminds me of the sound effect that Luke and Ben trigger as they cross the entrance threshold of the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars, which comes as no surprise since Ben Burtt designed both sound effects. Omissions include Dallas' final session with Mother, Ripley's conversation with Ash about running the transmission through ECIU, and several little trims throughout. As a longtime fan of the film, I was sorry to see these scenes removed, but I just had to console myself with the knowledge that the original cut would still be there on DVD for purists like myself who love and cherish the original version.

DB: We've already covered Cameron and we know Aliens is the same extended cut that was on the previous release. So tell us about the new scenes being completed for Alien Resurrection, and Jeunet's involvement in the production of the new DVD.

CL: I met with Jeunet in Paris last October to interview him and to record his audio commentary. I told him what we had in mind, and showed him the deleted scenes we'd found. He seemed on the fence about a lot of it. He was very nice and supportive, but at the same time, he's very happy with the theatrical cut. So I don't know if he was completely sold on the idea of doing a special edition cut of the film. It was really when we got into the idea of restoring the footage, and doing a branched version, that he seemed a little hesitant.

The two biggest additions to Resurrection are an alternate opening and an alternate ending. The alternate opening is an incredibly complicated effects shot that Jeunet really wanted to do, but that Fox wouldn't pay for back in the day. When I told Jeunet that Fox wanted to finish it for the DVD, he was shocked. The alternate ending was something Jeunet didn't want to do, but Fox convinced him to shoot it. It shows Ripley and Call back on Earth after they've landed. It existed as just the actors in front of a green screen, which has now been replaced by an amalgam of the various concepts for the ending that were considered back in 1997 - a spaceship graveyard, post-apocalyptic Paris, etc.

So Jeunet wasn't a hundred percent behind it. But at one point during our first meeting, he said, "Okay, I trust you. Just let me see the result." So a few months later, as the effects shots were gearing up, I sent Jeunet an e-mail with all the details, letting him know who was doing the effects work and that we'd show him the finished shots for approval. Suddenly, I don't know if it was the language barrier or what, but he didn't understanding what we were doing. There was one day where a flurry of e-mails went back and forth between myself, Jeunet and Fox. Finally, Fox brought in a French interpreter and we explained exactly what we wanted to do. The result is that Jeunet basically said the same thing to us that Fincher did. "Go ahead and do whatever you want. But you can't call it a director's cut." So then it's my job to make sure we stay loyal to their original vision - to do all the research, to dig up as much conceptual art and pre-viz material as we can, so that we can get as close as possible to how they originally visualized the shots. But it needs to be stressed that these special editions of Alien³ and Alien Resurrection are merely alternate and partially enhanced versions of what once existed as a rough cut in the post production sequence. These versions are just a treat for fans, and in no way represent a filmic document of a director's compromised vision.

DB: Can you describe the alternate opening for us? What made it interesting or different?

CL: It was an incredible idea for a shot. It starts out with a close up on these viscous-looking teeth. You think it's an alien warrior. Then you pull out and you see that it's actually a tiny little insect crawling around on a joystick. A finger comes in and squishes it, and you see that it's some guy sitting in a cockpit drinking this Big Gulp. He pulls the straw out and sticks the bug guts on the end of the straw, then blows them right at the camera. There's a rack focus, so we see where the guts have presumably hit the cockpit glass, then we pull out and see that he's in this giant 'node' they called it, hanging underneath the command tower of the Auriga, which is the big scientific research vessel in Alien Resurrection. And the shot just keeps pulling out and pulling out, for like two minutes. I think it was meant to be used for the opening titles. But if you take the opening shot from Star Wars, with the Star Destroyer, it's like ten times that long. It's a fantastic shot, but I know why they didn't do it back then. It would have cost a bundle. Even with CG, it's difficult to pull off today. The final result, for the DVD, combines an original live action plate and some of the original pre-viz with all-new animation.

DB: So who's doing the new effects work?

CL: It's a handful of companies. We met with several effects houses and got bids from them all. There was a whole casting process for the effects work. The first one we spoke with was Svengali. One of the partners of Svengali is Rocco Gioffre, who is a pretty famous matte painter. He worked on Blade Runner. They were extremely enthusiastic about doing the work from the start. Then there's a company called Riot, who is handling a few of the composite shots. Riot also has a sister company called Encore, which is handling some of the CG character creation, and they've done a fantastic job. Then there's a fourth company called Frantic Films, up in Canada, which is handling the opening shot from Alien Resurrection. And then there's Modern Video Film, who've done some significant clean-up work and final effects tweaks. They've been our trusty safety net throughout.

DB: Can we assume that new high-definition transfers of the films are being done?

CL: The theatrical versions have been done, but they'll require grading and color timing. The new footage will have to be done. That's more Fox's domain, but I'll be involved in Alien and Alien³ for sure. In fact, I just went in with Ridley to time the theatrical version of Alien. Along the way, he looked at the deleted scenes and gave us some direction. It's a bit darker and more moody now. As far as the other films, we've delivered our cut lists, of what needs to be pulled and how it should be edited together, so then Fox goes through boxes and pulls out the neg. They take the original negative and create an I.P. to use, and that gets transferred to video. Then that goes to Modern Video Film, which is where they're doing the tape-to-tape transfers and final color timing. The new edit is assembled from that based on the cut lists we've given them. At this point, just about everything has been on-lined and delivered. There are just a few fixes and tweaks left to do on Alien.

DB: Is there anything else you'd like share with regard to your work on the special editions?

CL: I think the thing I most want DVD fans to understand, particularly with regard to the interviews and commentary, is that if we don't have someone on the disc, it's not because we didn't ask. We asked everyone we could find - we went right down the list. But if they're not there, chances are it's because they said no.

DB: That doesn't just apply to interviews and commentary, does it? It could be any feature. A piece of footage or a documentary or whatever. You start out wanting all of that stuff, but for whatever reason, you just can't include it.

CL: There's no reputable DVD producer I know that would try to put together a disc and intentionally leave stuff off, or not try to find material that they know exists. If it's not on the DVD, it's either because it got rejected for legal reasons, or the director doesn't want it on, or it simply can't be found, or it physically doesn't fit on the disc. There's any number of reasons why things might not be included. That's just part of the challenge of DVD production. And it's getting tougher and tougher all the time.

DB: A lot of Aliens fans are probably hoping to see the infamous "Burke Cocooned" scene that was shot but not included in the final cut of the film. What's the status of that?

CL: Jim Cameron never wants that scene to see the light of day. Having now seen it myself, I sort of understand why. But I tried to get it on the DVD, I swear! [laughs]

Seriously, sometimes you just get lucky and the stars line up and everything works out. Filmmakers dig into their boxes and give you tapes of amazing stuff you never knew about. And sometimes that doesn't happen. The reality is, you do everything you can as a DVD producer to create the definitive disc. I'm pleased with much of the Alien Quadrilogy in that respect. In terms of supplements, everything on the first eight discs will be pretty much all new material.

Someday, when HD-DVD or whatever's next comes along, and you can fit fifty hours of content on a single disc, will some future supplement producer top what we've done with this project? Maybe. Probably. Someone, someday, will probably include all the dailies ever shot, a photo gallery of a hundred thousand still images - you name it. At some point, there will be probably entire virtual libraries of literally everything that was ever produced for a film. But given the technology and limitations and the resources available today, we're giving you everything we possibly can on this nine-disc set. I'm not kidding when I say this - we've completely maxed-out the technical capabilities of the DVD format with this set.

DB: We should also point out, knowing you as we have now for so long, that you're as much a fan of this material as anyone.

CL: Absolutely. And it's fans of these movies who I'm really doing all this for. As both a DVD producer and a fan, I want to create a disc that I'll want to own and have at home and watch myself. Did we get absolutely everything and everyone into this box set? No. Did we blow away everything that's come before? Yes, I think we did. And hopefully the next supplement producer to tackle the Alien films down the road will do an even better job. The bottom line is, it's about the films. It's about the filmmakers. And it's about the fans. So long as the technology and the presentation and quality of the material keeps improving… everybody wins.

Ridley Scott enjoys a light moment during the recording of his first
audio commentary for the Alien Quadrilogy.

Lauzirika looks on as Alien star Sigourney Weaver chats with Ridley Scott during another audio commentary session.

Lauzirika looks on as Alien star Sigourney Weaver chats with Ridley Scott
during another audio commentary session.

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There you have it - a glimpse behind-the-scenes at one of the biggest special edition DVD projects to date, Fox's nine-disc Alien Quadrilogy, straight from the producer himself. As you can see, realities of DVD production and the technical limitations of the format make for an incredibly complicated process. Not everything turns out the way it's planned. But, as we think you'll see by the details that follow here, the result should be worthy of the effort.

As it stands now, each film is THX certified and is presented in anamorphic widescreen video, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Alien and Alien Resurrection will also include DTS 5.1 audio (disc space limitations prevented the inclusion of DTS on Aliens and Alien³). When you start the movie discs, you're given the choice of viewing two different versions of each film via seamless branching. In the case of Alien, you'll find the 117-minute theatrical version and Ridley Scott's new, 115-minute director's cut (which will be shown in theaters later in 2003). Aliens will include the 137-minute theatrical version and James Cameron's 154-minute special edition cut. Alien³ features the 114-minute theatrical version and the new, 155-minute restored work print version created just for this DVD release. And Alien Resurrection will include the 109-minute theatrical version and a new, 119-minute extended cut, again created just for this DVD release.

New video introductions have been created to place in proper context the alternate cuts of Alien, Aliens and Alien Resurrection. In addition, each movie disc will include a newly-recorded audio commentary track featuring members of the cast and crew for each film. The participants include (but are not limited to) Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Sigourney Weaver, Terry Rawlings, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn, Gale Anne Hurd, Stan Winston, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Jr., Richard Edlund, Paul McGann, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Leland Orser and Pitof.

Each film also has a second disc of newly created supplemental material. The supplemental disc for Alien includes Dan O'Bannon's first draft of the screenplay, galleries of conceptual art (from Cobb, Foss, Giger and Moebius, and others), cast, set and production photos, creature design art, poster art, visual effects stills, premiere photos, a storyboard archive, a gallery of Ridleygrams, Sigourney Weaver's screen test (with optional director's commentary), a multi-angle breakdown of the Chestburster scene (viewable with production audio or director's commentary), seven deleted scenes and a three-hour documentary entitled The Beast Within: The Making of Alien, composed of several shorter featurettes with a "play all" option (these include Star Beast: Developing the Story, The Visualists: Direction and Design, Truckers in Space: Casting, Fear of the Unknown: Shepperton Studios, 1978, The Darkest Reaches: Nostromo and Alien Planet, The Eighth Passenger: Creature Design, Future Tense: Music and Editing, Outward Bound: Visual Effects and A Nightmare Fulfilled: Reaction to the Film).

The Aliens supplemental disc includes James Cameron's original treatment for the film, galleries of conceptual artwork, cast, set and production photos, continuity Polaroids, photos of the vehicles and weapons, creature design stills from Stan Winston's Workshop, visual effects photos, photos of the music recording and the premiere, multi-angle pre-visualizations and another lengthy documentary (well over three hours long) entitled Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens, composed of several shorter featurettes with a "play all" option (these include 57 Years Later: Continuing the Story, Building Better Worlds: From Concept to Construction, Preparing for Battle: Casting and Characterization, This Time It's War: Pinewood Studios, 1985, The Risk Always Lives: Weapons and Action, Bug Hunt: Creature Design, Beauty and the Bitch: Power Loader vs. Queen Alien, Two Orphans: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn, The Final Countdown: Music, Editing and Sound, The Power of Real Tech: Visual Effects and Aliens Unleashed: Reaction to the Film).

The supplemental disc for Alien³ will include a storyboard archive, time-lapse set construction footage, a multi-angle look at E.E.V. bioscan video, galleries of conceptual artwork, set and production photos, ADI workshop photos, visual effects photos of the vehicles and creatures, creature design stills, and another documentary entitled The Making of Alien³, composed of several shorter featurettes with a "play all" option (Development: Concluding the Story, Tales of the Wooden Planet: Vincent Ward's Vision, Pre-Production: Part III, Xeno-Erotic: H.R. Giger's Redesign, Production: Part I, Adaptive Organism: Creature Design, Production: Part II, Post-Production: Part I, Optical Fury: Visual Effects, Music, Editing and Sound, Post-Mortem: Reaction to the Film).

The Alien Resurrection supplemental disc includes Joss Whedon's first draft of the screenplay, galleries of conceptual artwork, production and visual effects photos, Mark Caro's artwork, ADI workshop photos, multi-angle pre-visualizations and rehearsals, makeup test footage and a storyboard archive, along with yet another lengthy documentary, entitled One Step Beyond: The Making of Alien Resurrection, composed of several shorter featurettes with a "play all" option (including From the Ashes: Reviving the Story, French Twist: Direction and Design, Under the Skin: Casting and Characterization, Adaptive Organism: Creature Design, Death from Below: Underwater Photography, In the Zone: The Basketball Scene, Unnatural Mutation: Creature Design, Genetic Composition: Music, Virtual Aliens: Computer Generated Imagery, A Matter of Scale: Miniature Photography and Critical Juncture: Reaction to the Film).

Finally, the ninth, bonus disc encapsulates both new and previously released material. Among other things, this includes complete archives of the supplemental content from the Alien and Aliens special edition laserdisc editions, The Alien Evolution documentary (64 minutes), a 1979 promotional featurette called Experience in Terror, an all-new featurette called Aliens in the Basement: The Bob Burns Collection, a question and answer session with Ridley Scott, an advance preview featurette for Alien³, theatrical trailers, teaser trailers and TV spots for all four films in the series, a gallery of Dark Horse Comics artwork and DVD-ROM script-to-screen comparisons.

Preliminary cover art for Twentieth Century Fox's Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.

Preliminary cover art for Twentieth Century Fox's Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.

Cover art for Fox's Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.

So now we've gotten you all worked up about the Alien Quadrilogy, which won't be available at your local video store until sometime in mid-December 2003. If you're still eagerly awaiting its release as you read this book, never fear - the box set should be worth the wait. And there are lots of other great DVDs to keep you busy in the meantime. Rest assured, your friends at The Digital Bits have plenty of recommendations for you (well over a hundred, in fact).

So turn the page and let's start checking them out, shall we?

[Editor's Note: As this isn't the actual book, there's no page to turn and read further. However, if you click on to Part III, we present the four sidebar texts that accompanied this interview in the book, and which further illustrate aspects of the Alien Quadrilogy's production. And you can read our original review of the Alien Anthology DVD set here. Don't forget, we'll also be posting an update on the new Blu-ray set in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to watch for it.]