Merrick here...

...with a look at a project that can only be described as "extremely theorhetical".

It's called ALIENS: WAR GAMES. It's being developed by Bluefields Creative. There has (apparently) already been some interest in this from a network, but the project hasn't made it all the way to Fox just yet. Talkbackers' reactions to this proposal probably won't make or break a deal, but the project could well be helped or hurt by the nature of our response. With that in mind...

The notion here is to generate a series of short episodes, in the vein of Cartoon Network's CLONE WARS a few years back. Personally, I thought the CLONE WARS installments were vastly more interesting dynamically and narratively than the STAR WARS prequel movies. Similarly, an ALIENS project along such lines might well be preferable to...say...AVP 2. But, maybe that's just me.

Here are a few images - they are not final character designs.

Bluefields has an animated clip from this proposal on-line HERE - click the "Animated Boards" option to launch the footage.

A bit more detail:

Newbie is a rookie Colonial Marine in a future where the Alien threat is widespread and feared by all. Marine training now involves HOT "Bug Hunt" scenarios - HOT meaning this is not a simulation. Rookies are dropped into a semi-controlled environment with live ammunition and REAL aliens (though tethered with remote stun collars). Each episode of the animated series would start with a mini-episode of Newbie and his training exercises, which get more elaborate each week. The animated piece at bluefieldscreative.com represents the first training exercise, pitting Newbie, with very limited ammo, in the middle of an abandoned terraforming station that is home to one single alien. A very dangerous game of one-on-one hide-and-seek.

Of course, by the end of the first season, Newbie will be integrated into the main storyline and seeing his first taste of real action in the war against the bugs, but these mini-episodes will serve as a fun pre-credits adventure prologue to each episode.

So ,there you have it...some of it, at least. I certainly think the format could work (a Colonial Marines-based micro-series), but I'd need to see how this team handles action before passing final judgment on this particular pitch.

What do you folks think?

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