Hey folks, Harry here... Recently over at CHUD.com Dan Whitehead has traveled to Prague to do a series of set reports on ALIEN VS PREDATOR (1, 2, 3.) In that 3rd link, Dan interviews Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff about the work they've done in making and operating the Alien and Predator suits. When asked about their "updates" to the characters, they discuss making them more streamlined and/or powerful. Well, below we have a report that goes into that a bit...
Harry,
A good friend of mine is on set in Prague working on AVP.
Here's what he had to say when I talked to him the other day...
There are MAJOR problems with the creatures. The Predator suits are so big and so heavy, that the actors cannot perform in them, and are getting tired out very quickly. They were made so incredibly huge and muscular, that there's literally 4, and in some places, 5 inches of foam rubber on the costumes, and that's before all the armor goes on it. Apparently, Amalgamated Dynamics (the company who made the creatures for the film) wanted to approach making the suits differently than what had been done previously at Stan Winston's. All of the armor was made separately, and is added on once the actor is in the already incredibly bulky, ridiculous looking suit.
He also said the all the creature stuff in general looks really crappy and thrown together, the Aliens are all painted silver, and even though most of the actors playing Predators are like 7 feet tall, they all look like giant m idgets because they are so bulky and they can barely walk, let alone fight and jump around like Predators. Rumor has that Paul Anderson is seriously considering replacing a lot of what was built with CGI. From what he told me, everyone on the set stands around saying how great everything looks while they're in front of the director and the producers, then they cringe at how terrible it all really looks when they walk away.
I'm not getting my hopes up for this at all, looks like its going to be a
real train wreck. Has this director ever made a good movie?
Ouch -- As much as I hate Paul W.S. Anderson's movies, I have to admit the guy certainly can talk a good game. That interview with him by Dan at CHUD... well, the man's talking HELL IN THE PACIFIC and does a great analyzing of why ALIEN, ALIENS and PREDATOR work so damn well and why the rest didn't. But even if the monkey can see, can he do? Ultimately that's the question I have. I'll never forget how wonderful his pre-film interviews were on SOLDIER and EVENT HORIZON - and I absolutely hated those movies... and at least with SOLDIER he started with a GREAT SCRIPT and LEAD ACTOR... We'll see.
Chief Chirpa
