The Making of Alien 3

The Making of Alien3
Cast & Crew
Directed by	Paul Bernard
Produced by	Tom Grane Tom Andrews Geoff Ammer (executive)
Written by	Patricia Sullivan
Starring	Percy Rodrigues Sigourney Weaver Charles S. Dutton Lance Henriksen Richard Edlund
Music	Jonathan Elias Jerry Goldsmith James Horner
Editing	Tim Taylor
Release Information
Release date(s)	1992
Production companies	Extended Wings
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Running time	25 minutes
Chronology
Preceded by	Giger's Alien
Followed by	HBO First Look: Alien Resurrection - Behind the Scenes

The Making of Alien³ is a 1992 promotional making-of documentary directed by Paul Bernard and narrated by Percy Rodrigues that details the production of the 1992 film Alien³. Created for the Alien Triple Pack VHS box set sold in the United States, it uses interviews with the film's cast and crew, as well as behind the scenes clips, to detail the development, filming and release of the movie. Despite its title, the documentary also features the cast and crew of both Alien and Aliens discussing their own respective entries in the Alien franchise.

Overview

The documentary begins with the cast and crew of Alien and Aliens briefly reflecting on the production and reception of their respective films, after which the feature moves on to the making of Alien³. Interview clips with the principle cast members and a new interview with Ridley Scott are interspersed with clips from the film and behind the scenes footage of the production. The cast chiefly discuss the general plot of the movie and shed some light on the role each of their characters plays in it, while members of the effects crew detail some of the filming techniques used to realise the film. Throughout, further interview clips with the cast and crew of the first two movies also feature. The documentary concludes with the trailer for Alien³.

The documentary includes interviews with cast and crew from each of the first three films in the Alien franchise, including director Ridley Scott, producer Gale Anne Hurd, actors Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown and Danny Webb, Alien designer H. R. Giger, Alien effects creator Stan Winston, production designer Norman Reynolds, visual effects producer Richard Edlund, effects artists Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Jr. and George Gibbs, editor Terry Rawlings, and storyboard artist Bill Stallion, as well as an archive interview with James Cameron.

As is typical of such short promotional pieces, the documentary offers little serious insight into the production of the movie and serves more as an advertisement for the film, despite its impressive list of interview subjects. Perhaps most glaringly, it makes absolutely no mention of the extensive problems that plagued the film's shoot.

Availability

The Making of Alien³ was originally packaged exclusively as part of the Alien Triple Pack VHS box set sold in the United States. In the United Kingdom, it was initially only available as a strictly limited edition bonus given away for free with rental copies of the third film, although it was later given a wider UK release as part of the Alien Trilogy VHS set.

Since its VHS releases, the documentary has been released on both standard- and hi-definition digital formats — on DVD, it was included in the Alien Legacy box set, while it was subsequently included on the Anthology Archives bonus disc of the Alien Anthology and Prometheus to Alien: The Evolution Blu-ray sets.

Trivia

• Although the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set also includes a documentary entitled The Making of Alien³, this is in fact an entirely different piece — it is actually an edited version of Wreckage and Rage: Making Alien³ with an altered title, as a result of censorship demands made by 20th Century Fox.
• Many of the new interviews filmed for the documentary were shot on the sets of the third movie; for instance, upon careful inspection, it is possible to see that Ridley Scott is actually sat in Superintendent Andrews' office.
• The interviews conducted for the documentary were quite extensive and much of the footage filmed was not ultimately used in The Making of Alien³. However, a large amount of the additional material has been included in subsequent documentaries, including The Alien Saga, The Beast Within: Making Alien, Superior Firepower: Making Aliens and Wreckage and Rage: Making Alien³.
• The documentary includes prominent usage of the track "Bishop's Countdown" from the soundtrack to Aliens, composed by James Horner. The same piece was also used in Alien³'s trailer, as seen at the end of the documentary.