| Paul W.S. Anderson on ALIEN VS. PREDATOR |
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| Wednesday, 01 September 2004 | |
 A satellite picks a heat bloom coming from a remote island in Antarctica that leads to the discovery of an ancient pyramid buried under the ice. The Weyland Corporation, owned by billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland, gathers an international team of archaeologists, scientists and security experts and sends the team into the frozen continent. There, they make a terrifying discovery. These ancient artifacts tell the tale of two alien races at war and the human race the cattle between the two. This incredible and horrific adventure is led by environmentalist and adventurer Alexa ìLexî Woods. What they discover 2000 feet below the frozen surface is a pyramid bearing a mixture of Aztec, Egyptian and Cambodian cultures. Inside the pyramid they find a matrix of chambers so technologically advanced that it becomes obvious that an extraterrestrial influence has been at work there for thousands of years. The chamber walls reconfigure unexpectedly, trapping members of the team and cutting them off from their colleagues. Moving from chamber to chamber, the horrific truth finally reveals itself: Predators have been keeping alive a captive Alien Queen who lays eggs at 100 year intervals. Young Predators warriors are tested by fighting the Alien offspring. The team stumbles into the middle of an incredible rite of passage ñ and a war between Aliens and Predators. Nearly a quarter-century after the debut of the film ìAlienî comes ALIEN VS. PREDATOR (AVP). Taking almost a decade long journey to get to the screen Twentieth Century Fox considered various storylines until writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson came up with the idea of setting the story on Earth, in contemporary times. Andersonís new mythology for AVP has the Predators visiting Earth thousands of years ago, when they were worshipped as gods, by cultures like the Aztecs and Mayans. With such a formidable cast and team of artists behind him, writer and director, and Alien and Predator film fanatic, Paul W.S. Anderson realized a dream by helming a picture bringing the two screen icons together. A native of Newcastle, England, Paul W.S. Anderson left his home to study film at Warwick University, where he graduated with a degree in Film & Literature Studies in 1986. He wrote the first draft of ìShoppingî while still a student and he stayed in Warwick where he became the youngest student to complete an MBA, in 1988. Following graduation, Anderson was a principal episode writer for ìEl Cid,î a TV police drama. He also wrote and directed a short film entitled ìSpeed,î shot in his native Newcastle, and an award winning documentary about spin bifida called ìThe Spiral Cage.î His directorial debut, ìShopping,î which was financed by Channel Four, starred Jude Law and Sadie. In 1992, Anderson co-founded Impact Pictures Ltd. with his partner Jeremy Bolt, and is based in both Los Angeles and London. Andersonís second feature was the action-adventure ìMortal Kombat,î and his third movie, ìEvent Horizon,î starred Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. In 1998, Anderson returned to the States to direct ìSoldier,î produced by Impact. The sci-fi action film starred Kurt Russell and Jason Scott Lee. Anderson wrote, produced and directed ìResident Evil,î an adaptation of the best selling video game, starring Milla Jovovich. Anderson wrote and produced the sequel, ìResident Evil: Apocalypse,î which will be released in the fall of 2004 and is directed by Alexander Witt. FEARSmag: Being weíve spoken in the past about several of your other projects, its clear youíre not simply a writer, director, and producer, youíre a fan. In taking on a project like ALIENS VS. PREDATOR (AVP) how do you balance your expectations of the film with that of the fans? Paul W.S. Anderson: I think if youíre dealing with two existing franchises itís obviously very important to try and deliver on the expectations. However, you also have to make sure that the movie you make doesnít in anyway contradict the existing mythology thatís been setup by the existing franchises. One of the things I believe you have to be very aware of is what has already happened in the universe of Alien and the universe of Predator. And also, to a lesser extend, whatís also happen in the mythology thatís been setup by the Dark Horse Comic Book franchise. So you definitely need to be aware of those franchises and the rules of them, and the narrative that has taken place, was something that we were extremely aware of when we set out to do AVP.  FEARSmag: I was skimming through the press notes and was struck by the fact that it says that this was something that you began thinking about nine-years ago. It almost seems about as long as 20th Century Fox has been trying to get this project going. What kinds of ideas and concepts have you been personally brewing over that time to bring to this story? Paul W.S. Anderson: I was struck when I saw ìPredator 2,î obviously where the germ of this idea came from. Itís was cool that not only was the Alien skull in the Predatorís spaceship, which lead to the idea that these two have fought at some point, but also the idea that when Danny Glover went into the Predator spaceship the interior design style of it was rather specific. Frank Lloyd Wrightís designs visibly influenced it, and Lloyd Wright was influenced by Aztec culture. He took a lot of his designs from the Aztec civilization ad kind of tweaked them. When I saw the interior of the Predator spaceship, and it had this kind of Aztec feel to it, it really started me thinking about the idea that the Predatorís did not take their design ideas from the Aztecs, it must have been the other way around. It made me think that the Predators must have been visiting the earth not just for 100ís of years, but for probably 1,000ís or 10,000ís of years. They had in someway influenced earth culture. Thatís kind of the important story strand in our movie. FEARSmag: Youíve directed movies like ìMortal Kombat,î ìResident Evil,î and now AVP, which are projects with a lot of background material to them. Then there are ìEvent Horizonî and ìSoldier,î where you have virgin territory for you to shape as a filmmaker. As a director, and an artist, is there an advantage to one type of film over another? Paul W.S. Anderson: It really depends. Creatively you have to consider a lot more things if you are following in the footsteps of an existing piece of material, being it a comic book, video game, or a series of movies. But I think that the times that Iíve done that its always been that I have such a passion for the subject matter that itís worth giving up a small amount of creative freedom to work in that existing world, whether it be the world of ìResident Evilî or the world of Aliens and Predators. For example, in AVP youíre not just free to change the design of the Alien, nor would I want to. I think that where the Alien franchise has attempted to do that the movies have been less successful. I was not a big fan of the kind of change of the look of the Alien in ìAlien3,î for example, or the way the alien look in ìAlien: Resurrection.î Creatively, we went back to the original Giger design of the Alien, which is kind of like the classic form from Ridley Scottís movie. So we didnít get to play with the look of the Alien, and I donít think that is a bad thing. FEARSmag: When you look at the universe of the Alien and the Predators, they both have their own unique styles. Were there any particular challenges in trying to blend the two? Did the setup and setting of the story you were trying to tell make it any easier? Paul W.S. Anderson: It was difficult to try and blend the two. They are slightly different kinds of movies. I think that one of the things that made it easy was the fact that this is also based upon a comic book series. ìAlien vs. Predatorî the comic book provided a template for the tone and the feel of the movie. Thatís why the movie does lean quite heavily upon the original ìalien vs. Predatorî comic book that was published about 12 to 13 years ago.  FEARSmag: I know that there were several key people attached to the project at one time or another. However, from the background pieces the studio released itís obvious youíve brought several unique concepts to plot to reshape it and make it your own, such as bringing in Lance Henriksen. Paul W.S. Anderson: Lance was key to me. I wrote the role for him. There is the whole mythology of the Bishop android that exists in the Alien films. I wanted so type of casting continuity with the Alien franchise and because our movie is set present day, and those movies are set several 100 years into the future, the only way we could have done that was by using Ian Holm or Lance. Iím such a big fan of Lanceís performance in ìAliensî and it was a real treat to work with him. So we modeled the ìreal lifeî Bishop, which the android is modeled upon, on Lanceís performance from ìAliens.î The theory is, Charles Bishop Weyland, Lanceís character, owns the Weyland Corporation, which has made all of its money basically through high technology, and especially robotics. Charles Bishop Weyland is like the father of modern robotics. In 150 to 200 years time, when they make the Bishop android they make it with the face of the creator. But more then that, they give it some of his behavioral traits of the man it was based upon. That meant that Lance could repeat some of his ticks and nuances from ìAliensî in our movie. That was a lot of fun to watch FEARSmag: In having someone like that one set it must help create an anchor for then other actors. Once Lance was signed to the project did it change the mood of the production? Paul W.S. Anderson: He was definitely the kind of farther on set, to all of us. He was the gatekeeper to the Alien mythology in many ways. The movie was made by a lot of people who are huge Alien fans, and it was always a big treat to work with him. He was a great presence on set, and when he complimented you on things you could help but think, ìWow, thatís great!î He came up to me one time, we were working with the Alien Queen, and he said, ìYou know I really think your Queen is better then Jimís Queen.î I thought, ìExcellent!î Just talking about the Alien Queen, we went back and actually built the Alien Queen that Cameron had originally designed. His original sketches for the Alien Queen were different from the one they ultimately built for ìAliens.î He had to compromise his design slightly because he had to put 2 puppeteers inside the full-size Alien Queen. He had to bulk her out a lot more to accommodate space for the puppeteers. Because we had slightly more sophisticated technology we could actually return to the sleeker more insectoid design that he wanted for the Alien Queen to start with. That was actually a big thrill to put up on screen what Cameron had originally designed. FEARSmag: Speaking of the technology, it appears that once the film was green lighted it got rolling and complete rather quickly. Do you feel that is due to the advances in the technology, and are there any particular new specific advances that have made your job any easier? Paul W.S. Anderson: One of the things that assisted us is my insistence to returning to the classic designs to a lot of the creatures. I wanted to go back to Ridley Scottís Giger look for the Alien. I want to stick with a classic look for the Predator. I think if we had wanted to redesign the Alien and redesigned Predator, create something like the ìnewbornî that appeared in ìAlien: Resurrection,î there may have been a much longer lead-time on the film. Because we were going from original classic designs, and then working with a lot of the people who manufactured those original classic designs, that certainly did help us speed up the process a little. We work with Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis of ADI. Tom has been the guy in the Alien suit for the past three movies. They built the aliens and had built an Alien Queen, so for them it was just a matter of looking through the old blueprints. What changed was that there was a lot more technology available. Cameronís full size Alien Queen was entirely puppeteered. Some times the movements quite compromised because at the time there was no such thing as wire or rod removal. You had to hide the, and in hiding them you limited the movement the Queen could have. Now all of that is possible so we have a wider range of movement from the Queen.  FEARSmag: So it sounds like most of the computer-generated images are being used in terms of cleanup and enhancement of the physical effects. Paul W.S. Anderson: That was our intention when we started out. We wanted to limit the C.G. as much as possible. I work with John Bruno, who is my visual effects supervisor and he worked with Cameron on a lot of movies, like ìThe Abyss,î ìTrue Lies,î and ìTitanic.î Bruno he just hates visual effects. Itís quite amazing because he is this amazing visual effects supervisor yet he doesnít like them. When I ever try to bring up something and ask him if we can do it as a visual effects heís quick to see f there isnít some way we can to it practical, build it and shoot it. He always wants to try and do things for real. I think thatís good, and thatís one of the reasons why the visual effects in the films heís worked on look so good. On ìTrue Liesî they were trying to figure out to get the jets to fly on the top of those buildings and ultimately it was Johnís idea to take a real jet to the top of the building and hang it off a crane. Thatís why the effects in those movies are so good because they are really there. In our movie whenever we could have a guy in an Alien suite, or a real Alien Queen there, and then fix it with about 20% to 25 % c.g. touch up, thatís what we would do. We would only go the c.g. route once we exhausted the physical route first. FEARSmag: I know that in addition to working on AVP your production company is producing ìResident Evil 2,î which you turned over to Alexander Witt to direct. How much time have you had to over see that film and what audiences might be in store from that sequel? Paul W.S. Anderson: Iím really please with ìResident Evil: Apocalypse.î Itís an extremely strong sequel. I think it elevates the franchise because itís not an attempt to make the same movie again. We were very influenced by the Alien franchise in that the strength in ìAlienî and ìaliensî is that Cameron didnít try to make the same movie that Ridley Scott had made. He made more of an action movie, there was more comedy in it, and I we saw that as an approach we should take with ìResident Evil: Apocalypse.î It has a border canvass, where as before the first ìResident Evilî movie was all set in a claustrophobic environment in the one underground laboratory, now we have a whole abandoned city to play with. There are helicopters and larger action scenes, and instead of 100ís of zombies there are 1000ís of zombies. Instead of one Licker there are lots of them. We really tried to up the stakes with this one. Itís been a huge amount of work working on both movies. Fortunately, ìResident Evil 2î had stopped shooting by the time AVP started, and comes out slightly later as well. Itís not like the too movies have been running completely parallel. FEARSmag: With these two films under your belt, and hopefully a bit of a rest, where do you go from here? If ìResident Evil 2î is successful, will there be another sequel with your production company, who you possibly direct it, or are there some other things youíre looking at?  Paul W.S. Anderson: Iím not really looking at anything at the moment other than, hopefully, the inside of my eyelids for a long time. Itís been a really journey these past two years to write both movies and get them into production. Iím proud and pleased with both movies. So, yes, a rest is in order. Although having said that, I obviously wonít be taking a rest! Weíre producing a movie for a Canadian director, who I really like, called John Fawcett, who directed ìGinger Snaps.î Itís a psychological thriller called ìThe Dark,î and it will wrap shortly. It stars Sean Bean and Maria Bello. Itís a smaller scale movie then AVP or ìResident Evil: Apocalypse,î but it is potentially a very terrifying film. So weíll be putting some effort into that. Then there is another movie that Iím excited about, that weíre producing, which is for Vincenzo Natali, who directed ìCubeî and ìCypher,î and that is called ìNecropolis.î Again, itís on a slightly smaller scale than AVP or RE2. FEARSmag: It sounds to me that regardless of the project, or producing, writing, or directing, Paul Anderson is in there, fully involved, and up to his in filmmaking. Paul W.S. Anderson: I think when you are producing other peopleís movies you donít have to get quite so covered in slime and gore! (Laughs) With AVP it was definitely a year of being up to your neck in latex and slime. Itís fun to be clean for a while. FEARSmag: As a fan, what to you hope the fans come away with as they leaving the theater for AVP? Paul W.S. Anderson: I think the thing that you definitely want to see is some insane action. When these creatures go head-to-head you want to see some action that just blows you away. Iím really pleased with some of the fight scenes weíve got on film, especially the first time an Alien and Predator goes head-to-head. It took us a month and a half to shoot it. It just rocks. Thatís the thing that hopefully people will come away with. I hope theyíll say that the movie ìkicked ass.î What we tried to was to manufacture a rollercoaster movie, which I think is quite an overused term. People too often say things like, ìThe movie was complete action, from start to finish, it was a complete rollercoaster.î I think roller coasters, in reality; the first half of the ride is all anticipation. Youíre going up the hill before you go over the top. Thatís the kind of movie we tried to make. I wanted it to kind of reflect the way I felt when I came out of Cameronís movie, ìAliens.î At the end of it I felt like Cameron had beaten me over the head with a baseball bat. That was the movie we wanted to try and make. There is this anticipation, but when the action kicks off it doesnít let go and is relentless. There is a lot of Alien blood and Predator spread across the screen! LINK THIS ARTICLE             |
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