Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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different directions. The world I wanted the film to take place in was being chiselled
away. They wanted more of a penal colony in space, I wanted more of the monastic
colony in space”. 849 In a later interview, however, Ward points out that there was a
great deal riding on the sequel financially, and the studio wanted to “play it safe”. 850
Despite Ward’s assertion to Stan Jones that he does not see this film as his work, he was
given sole story credit and some of his ideas were in fact, realised. In an article for the
Listener, Ward is quoted as saying: “The film as it finished has all the same story points
that I’d put into it – the alien inside Sigourney [Weaver] for example – but they didn’t
solve the suspense. It was less imaginative, and just wasn’t the film I wanted to
make”. 851 Although some of the “surface ideas and images” such as the death of Ripley
at the end, and a haircutting scene, were retained in the film, the central idea of an
intense, medieval-style religious community was not. Ward “wanted the community of
monks to feel as real as possible, along the lines of dissident religious communities who
have been forced by their beliefs to separate themselves from those around them”. 852
Some elements of this did, however, survive in the film. The prisoners on the planet
have apparently experienced some kind of religious conversion of a fundamentalist,
apocalyptic nature, although this does not prevent the almost palpable sexual tension
(and the threat of sexual violence from the convicted rapists amongst the prisoners),
when they see a woman for the first time in years. Allusions to religion also appear in
the soundtrack, especially at the beginning of the film, in a musical score that is
reminiscent of plainsong (at the time enjoying popularity in the music industry and
within New Age culture). Vestiges of Ward’s visual concepts for the film, which he
described in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner as “Bosch in Space”, inform the look
of the film, but Ward feels that neither the “governing intelligence behind them” nor
“the plastic qualities of the images” really come through strongly. 853 In the end, he felt
the suggested changes to his story destroyed the concept he had been working on and
left during pre-production of the film. Later, however, as he wryly comments: “My
849
Braunias, "Tunnel Visions," 29.
850
Interview with Vincent Ward, Alien 3 Special Edition DVD, Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment, 2004.
851
Braunias, "Tunnel Visions," 29.
852
Ward, e-mail to Stan Jones, 27 May 2002.
853
Ward, e-mail to Stan Jones, 27 May 2002. Ward notes that it is possible to see some of the Bosch
images in a recent BBC documentary on the Alien series.