We look back at David Fincher’s Alien 3! WTF Happened to This Horror Movie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

While Ridley Scott's ALIEN and James Cameron's ALIENS are considered to be two of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, ALIEN 3 (watch it HERE) continues to divide audiences to this day, 28 years after it was first released. There are fans who hate it, there are fans who love it, and the film's director doesn't even like to talk about it. In the latest episode of our WTF HAPPENED TO THIS HORROR MOVIE video series, we take a look back at the development and making of the film to find out how the follow-up to a pair of classics turned out to be so controversial. 

The producers certainly didn't take an easy path to get to the ALIEN 3 that reached the big screen in 1992; there were a whole lot of scripts and ideas discarded along the way, and in the video embedded above we dig into all of them.

Directed by David Fincher (making his feature debut) from a scipt credited to Walter Hill, David Giler, and Larry Ferguson – with Vincent Ward earning a story credit – ALIEN 3 has the following synopsis: 

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor when she crash lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Once again, Ripley must face skepticism and the alien as it hunts down the prisoners and guards. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind, Ripley leads the men into battle against the terrifying creature.

This is what the WTF HAPPENED TO THIS HORROR MOVIE series is all about: 

Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Horror Movie?

Some previous episodes of the series can be seen below, and more can be found on our JoBlo Horror Videos channel!