Monster of the Day #3183

Updated on March 16, 2021 By Ken Begg 26 Comments

So…Disney now owns the Alien franchise (and Predator) because they bought Fox. And apparently they’ve now declared that Alien will be there next “mega-franchise.” This is mostly to pump Disney + I guess, so mostly TV shows? Anyway, for Pete’s sake, make something new. Except they can’t. Of course their record with pre-existing properties isn’t great either. They’ve basically massively devalued Star Wars, the MCU is heading steadily down that path, and Disney + itself recently attacked the Muppets of yore for “negative stereotyping.” Boy oh boy, Disney sure knows how to speak to and service the fans. Anyway, I’m sure this will suck. And if it doesn’t, they’ll just mess it up further down the line.

Also, isn’t wanting everything to be a “mega-franchise” part of the problem?

Pin It



Related Posts

  • Beckoning Chasm

    They don’t know how to make anything new. All they know is how to ruin everything old.

    The Alien series is a lot like the Terminator series–the same story, over and over, with ever diminishing returns.

  • Gamera977

    Yeap, I think Walt is spinning in his grave fast enough now that someone ought to hook a up a dynamo. There’s easily enough power to run Disney World off him.

    Hollywood at this point is a zombie, shambling around, dead and it just doesn’t know it yet. It’s not just Disney, CBS has three Trek shows out now: ‘Discovery’, ‘Picard’, and ‘Lower Decks’ and keeps harping on three more shows: ‘Prodigy’, the Section 37 series, and the Pike series. I mean for crying out loud back at the peak of Trek market saturation in the ’90s there were three series on the air at the same time and now CBS is aiming for six!?!

    I’ve gotten to enjoy the weird off-the-wall stuff all the more recently. ‘Pacific Rim’, ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ and I recently picked up the Blu-Ray of ‘The Fifth Element’. And TV shows like ‘Babylon 5’, ‘Farscape’, and now ‘Space 1999’. All may have some issues but hell just not being Trek, Star Wars, or Doctor Who, or some other worn-out mega-franchise is a big point in their favor.

  • Kirk

    Oh boy, I bet we get another Joss Whedon crapfest.

  • If they’re going to redo stuff, why not try some older stuff that could use a re-working? For example, “The Brain from Planet Arous”. Touch on the question of whether it’s worth “surrendering” to the alien for a few years (remember, the “Brain” wants to get the heck off the planet as soon as possible so it can get revenge on those who exiled it here) in exchange for decades of technological development…. Emphasize the comedic parts, as the Brain has to deal with 7 billion people in ~200 governments. Absolute Control doesn’t just mean having engineers build your spaceship; it also means making sure there’s enough pens at the DMV in Minot ND….

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Worse–it’ll be Alex Kurtzman.

  • Rock Baker

    I bemoan the lack of originality in pictures as much as the next guy, but I find myself wondering how much of the problem is a lack of effort in producing original material and how much is the lack of visibility afforded to original products. I have a franchise which I’m trying to keep original so it stands apart from the rest of the offerings in my field, but I think visibility has more to do with it than anything else. I’m creating it, so it’s out there, but if it isn’t seen by enough people to notice that it’s not the same old song and dance, does it effectively exist at all?

    Not quite the topic at hand, but is the problem that Disney and the others are so retarded on creative ideas, or is the problem that theirs are the only ideas the widest audiences see?

  • Ken_Begg

    Most obvious movie to give a Stargate-style TV expansion? Final Countdown. Change the ending of the movie (which was pointedly not an ending). The ship shoots down all the Japanese planes and saves Pearl Harbor. Then you deal with the massive technological, and more importantly, social changes–such as black crewmembers and officers–and the effects these would have on America and the world at large. Now there’s an IP you could really do something with, and it would still be new.

  • Jamie B.

    It will be a PG-13, more interested in checking off all the social justice boxes, movie.

  • bgbear_rnh

    Yaphet Kotto RIP, interesting timing for MOD.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes.

  • Ken_Begg

    I actually hear it (well, some of it maybe, since it will be a ‘mega-franchise’) will be R rated. We’ll see. I think the rest of your prediction is pretty safe, though.

  • Gamera977

    Dang! Guess I should pull out ‘Alien’ or ‘Live and Let Die’ and watch it in his memory…

  • Ken_Begg

    Also a good opportunity to catch up on the fantastic police TV series Homicide.

  • bgbear_rnh

    Another guy that seemed to be around your whole life. Earliest I recall was seeing “5 Card Stud’ with Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin. He was in a lot of 60s TV as well.

    Goodby Mr. Big.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Isn’t Whedon in big trouble right now, though? I’m not sure of the details, since I refuse to obsess over celebrities the way certain people I know IRL do. His career may be on the skids.

  • Eric Hinkle

    The rate things are going, how long before Disney gets control of the ‘Hellraiser’ franchise?

  • Rodford Smith

    I would love to see a sequel to _Forbidden Planet_. “Sequel?! The planet blew up!” Did it? An irreversible self-destruct switch in a lab where children ran around? _How_ wise were the Krell?

    Look at the scene where Morbius confronts the ID monster. It never touches him. He collapses from the strain of driving if off. Realizing Altaira won’t leave if she thinks he’s alive, he fakes dying _and the Captain goes along with it!_ After the ship leaves Morbius uses the Great Machine to simulate the planet exploding, then hides it.

    Fifty years later a routine survey ship discovers that the planet is back. They spot the house, land and explore. The only occupant is Arielle, a female replacement for Robby. Who tells them Morbius died several years ago. The sun setting, they head back to their ship.

    Not noticing the footprints forming in the sand behind them…

  • Ken_Begg

    You’d love to see a *good* sequel to Forbidden Planet. Such a thing would be possible, but more likely it would be a bit of a debacle.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Talking sequels, apparently Robert Rodriguez was picked to helm a sequel/remake to Creature from the Black Lagoon.

  • Skidding, crashing through the railings, heading burning over a cliff. Whedon just had nearly an entire television cast come out to bad mouth him. And not the Doll House cast, but the Buffy one. Not a good sign.

  • They do keep trying with the Gill Man. As the ideas regarding GM haven’t been the best, I’ve been more than happy to see him resting peaceful at the bottom of the lagoon.

  • Gamera977

    I don’t want to see any remake/sequel either. Though if it’s going to be done you could do a lot worse than Rodriguez. I mean a LOT worse. He seems to have at least some measure of respect for source material and tried to do adaptations to make them work better as movies rather than just to leave his mark on the material.

  • Rodford Smith

    *Sigh* Yeah…

  • Eric Hinkle

    Yikes. I always thought he was so big on being a ‘male feminist’ too.

  • The louder they proclaim, the less likely they are.

  • Eric Hinkle

    That reminds me of something I heard a great many years ago from my parents: “The more someone boasts of their virtue, the less of it they have.”