Alien: Resurrection director Jean-Pierre Jeunet looks back on the making of the wild sequel – Exclusive!

Alien and Aliens are two of the most highly respected and beloved sci-fi horror films ever made… and all of the films that have followed have either been divisive in one way or another, or just flat-out poorly received. One of the least popular entries in the franchise is the 1997 installment Alien: Resurrection (watch it HERE), which put some fans off with its wild and weird tone and its crazy ideas. Decades down the line, Alien: Resurrection director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is currently doing the press rounds to promote a theatrical re-release of his very popular 2001 romantic comedy Amélie, and JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols took the opportunity to ask him about the making of his Alien sequel. Here’s how it went:

Tyler Nichols: I’m also a big horror fan, so I have to ask you about your work on Alien: Resurrection. Because I still think of the underwater sequence whenever I get into any water. So what was it like to take on such a massive science fiction world?

Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Ah, it was… at the very beginning, I thought they will fire me after two weeks because I didn’t speak English at that time. You know, I had a translator all the time. They gave me the freedom, believe me or not, I think today it couldn’t be possible. But at this time they gave me almost total freedom. Of course it wasn’t easy because on set it was all every day: ‘It’s too expensive. You have to cut. You have to go faster!’ You know, it’s kind of a bizarre, weird role. At the end, I was very happy and I made an arty movie. I read that a lot of American people hate my face because they [say it’s too] European, you know, too much humor and I’m pretty happy about that. But thank you. They let me make a personal movie. Matthew Kassovitz, the actor of Amélie (and Alien: Resurrection), he told me when he saw Alien. He told me, ‘This is a Jean Pierre Jeunet movie but with aliens inside.’ But 20th Century Fox were very courageous to give the freedom to a beginner–almost a beginner director without speaking English.

It’s good to know Jeunet has a positive outlook on the whole thing, because I have always enjoyed Alien: Resurrection‘s blend of sci-fi horror elements with a crazy, comic book adventure tone.

Scripted by Joss Whedon, the film has the following synopsis: The saga continues 200 years after Ripley sacrificed herself for the sake of humanity. Her erstwhile employers long gone, this time it is the military that resurrects the one-woman killing machine through genetic cloning to extract the alien from within her… but during the process, her DNA is fused with the Queen. Then the aliens escape. Now Ripley must decide where her allegiance lies.

Sigourney Weaver reprises the role of Ripley and is joined in the cast by Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott, Kim Flowers, Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, and Leland Orser.

What do you think of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection? Let us know by leaving a comment below.