Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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As Jonathan Rayner points out, the script has many of the hallmarks of Ward’s work -
“the characteristic elements of religious allusion, individual sacrifice, subjective but
incomplete perception and the parabolic significance of personal dilemmas”. 845 In
terms of its visual concept, the story has a number of similarities to The Navigator, in
particular the references to medieval painters such as Hieronymus Bosch. In Alien 3
however, Ward seems to have returned to his initial interest in telling the story from the
point-of-view of the female protagonist, this time a relatively young woman who is
bearing a “child”. The story had some resonances with Rosemary’s Baby (Roman
Polanski, 1968) and The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976), earlier science-fiction/horror
films which were both extremely successful at the box office, and it was possibly this
connection that the studio saw as having commercial potential.
At first there was a very enthusiastic response to Ward’s ideas, and a considerable sum
was spent on constructing sets at the Pinewood Studios in London, but as the film got
closer to production, “the producers became nervous about anything with an even
faintly religious content. They would feel more secure if it was firstly a group of miners
or prisoners, and secondly that it should be on a planet”. 846 Hollywood has gone
through cycles when religion was seen as a potential selling point (as it is today, in the
wake of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ, 2004), but in the early 1990s it was
subject matter that induced nervousness. Part of producer Walter Hill’s objection to the
story was also, according to Nowra, that although Signourney Weaver would be coming
in contact with the inhabitants of the space ship, the story would have no sexual tension
because they would be Jesuits – not only all males, but priests, and Hill felt that it was
necessary for the film to have some sort of sexual tension. 847 The struggle with
producers, investors and other stake-holders was not congenial to Ward who found
himself (according to Steve Braunias) becoming “a bit player in the Hollywood process
of politics, committee meetings and eyes on the next Alien sequel”. 848 Ward sums up
the problem as the studio’s unwillingness to seriously commit itself to his vision, but he
is diplomatic about the dispute with the production company, and in particular with
Walter Hill. He describes the rift somewhat euphemistically, as due to “creative
differences over the story” and explains that: “Essentially, we started to head off in
845 Rayner, "Paradise and Pandemonium," 48.
846 Ward, e-mail to Stan Jones, 27 May 2002.
847 Lynette Read, interview with Louis Nowra, 29 February 2000.
848 Steve Braunias, "Tunnel Visions," Listener 10 April 1993: 29.