What a wonderful chat Michael Biehn and James Cameron shared on the former’s podcast. You can really feel the camaraderie between the two, who collaborated on three films together (“The Terminator,” “Aliens,” and “The Abyss”). The full video is below this article.
Biehn famously replaced a fired James Remar as Corporal Hicks in “Aliens,” and years later, 20th Century Fox’s controversial decision to kill off Hicks and Carrie Henn’s Newt in David Fincher’s “Alien 3” is still a subject of debate.
During the podcast interview, Biehn brings up “Alien 3” with Cameron, who does not hold back and launches into a lengthy tangent addressing not just David Fincher’s third entry, but the subsequent films in the franchise.
I thought that was the stupidest f*cking thing, so you build a lot of goodwill So, you build a lot of goodwill around the characters of you know, Hicks, Newt and Bishop, and then the first thing they do in the in the next film is kill them all off, right? Really smart guys, you know, and replace them with a bunch of f**king convicts that you hate. And want to see die. Really clever. Now, I’m a big fan of Fincher and his work and all that. And that was his first feature film, and he was getting vectored around by a lot of other voices and all that. So, I give him a free pass on that one.
On that point, Biehn agreed, saying David Fincher was “handed a bowl of shit. Cameron agreed, making it clear there’s no lingering animosity toward Fincher, saying, “he’s my kind of ornery.”
Cameron also weighed in on where the Alien franchise stands now. He spoke highly of “Alien: Earth,” but struck a more reserved tone when discussing “Alien: Romulus,” saying he only connected with certain elements of it, noting that he liked “parts of it.”
More notably, Cameron made it clear he has no interest in coming back to the series, suggesting that the franchise has shifted too far into “fan-driven” territory rather than creative risk.
Then again, the most risk-taking entry in recent years, Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” earned Cameron’s praise for its visuals, though he ultimately concluded that “it didn’t add up logically.” More recently, he’s said that “Alien: Covenant” is “not a film I would have made.” In other words, pleasing Cameron when it comes to this franchise has never been easy.
If you've read this column for a while, you know the drill: I spitball Cannes every month from now until April, updating the latest intel and trying to figure out what will be in competition, vying for the Palme d'Or.