ALIEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY COMIC BOOK

Did you know that the scripts green lighted to begin movie production are often very different from the stories presented in the final film? For example, the Star Wars originally pitched to 20th Century Fox was much different than what appeared on the big screen. Whether changes in scripts are for better or naught wouldn't it be interesting to see the original vision for sci-fi classics like Star Wars and Alien?

Thanks to comic books being able to provide immersive storytelling experiences with significantly lower production costs than movies it is possible to share these stories with science fiction fans. I was geeked when Dark Horse Comics releases an eight issue mini-series that portrayed the first draft of Star Wars showing how George Lucas originally imagined a galaxy far, far away. It was fun to see what might have been in THE STAR WARS: BASED UPON GEORGE LUCAS' ORIGINAL ROUGHT DRAFT SCREEN PLAY and also made me very glad that lots of changes were made along the way making the movie so many of us love.

Now Dark Horse has done it again! They've taken the first draft screenplay of 1979's ALIEN and are sharing how that original story would have played out on the movie screen with a new comic book mini-series. The first issue of ALIEN: THE ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY hit store shelves at comic book shops this week. I had to pick this up!

This Dark Horse Comics mini-series is an adaption of Dan O'Bannon's original 1976 screenplay, originally titled STAR BEAST, that 20th Century Fox was on the fence about producing until the success of Star Wars. STAR BEAST was eventually released as ALIEN in 1979 which itself evolved into becoming a 6-film (8 if you count the two Alien vs Predator movies) motion picture franchise. An alien bursting through someone's chest is now engrained in pop culture having both horrified and delighted several generations of movie watchers.

If you are a fan of ALIEN, this will be a very interesting read comparing the differences between STAR BEAST and the final cut of the film. The visuals and the design of the space ships and the Alien in this comic book are based upon the descriptions by Dan O'Bannon in his screenplay which was written before the artistic involvement of H.R. Giger, Moebius and Ron Cobb became involved with the production of ALIEN. So as you flip through the pages of the comics keep an eye of for differences in the imagery as well as the story from the movie.

If you are fan of ALIEN or just enjoy science fiction in general, this is a must add to your pull list at your favorite comic book store. I wrapped up my week by chilling out reading the first issue of this comic book mini-series on the back patio after a long week. It made me feel like a kid again flipping through these pages. Escapism is such a great way to relieve stress!

When it comes to ALIEN, find out how it originally all began by reading this Dark Horse Comics adaption of the original screenplay. I very much enjoyed reading it and will be picking up the rest of the issues as they come out. Then I'm going to watch ALIEN and read all these comic books again to see what other details I might have missed from my not having seen the movie in awhile. And for my movie aficionado friends out there the series is promoted as part of "20TH CENTURY FOX UNCOVERED" which may mean this treatment for more movies may be on the way!