| rdfs:comment | - For the release of the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set in 2003, directors Ridley Scott (Alien), David Fincher (Alien3) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien Resurrection) were invited to create alternative versions of their films for inclusion in the set; James Cameron had already created an extended Special Edition of his film Aliens in 1992. While Scott and Jeunet agreed, Fincher refused, having effectively disowned Alien3 following its production, which he found to be an incredibly difficult and frustrating experience thanks to extensive studio interference. As a result, an alternate version of the film, dubbed the "Assembly Cut", was pieced together by producer Charles de Lauzirika using Fincher's original production notes from before the movie was extensively recut by the studio during post-prod
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| abstract | - For the release of the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set in 2003, directors Ridley Scott (Alien), David Fincher (Alien3) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien Resurrection) were invited to create alternative versions of their films for inclusion in the set; James Cameron had already created an extended Special Edition of his film Aliens in 1992. While Scott and Jeunet agreed, Fincher refused, having effectively disowned Alien3 following its production, which he found to be an incredibly difficult and frustrating experience thanks to extensive studio interference. As a result, an alternate version of the film, dubbed the "Assembly Cut", was pieced together by producer Charles de Lauzirika using Fincher's original production notes from before the movie was extensively recut by the studio during post-production. To finish the alternate cut, a shot of the infant Dragon running away from the carcass of its host was completed with a CGI version of the creature, as the sequence had originally been dropped from the film before the creature effects were added. Despite this embellishment, the original release of the Assembly Cut suffered from poor audio quality in some of the newly added scenes. This was again a consequence of the footage being cut from the film before it was completed — in this case, the cast had yet to record ADR (dubbing) for the scenes, and as a result much of their dialogue was muffled by noise from on-set steam generators. The new cut is far from a simple extension of the movie, and is by far the most complex of the alternate versions from the series. It significantly alters the film, adding many new scenes while also removing a substantial amount of footage found in the theatrical release. As a result it is incongruous with the theatrical version of the story, and both feature mutually exclusive scenes. Perhaps most notably, the Dragon has a completely different host in the Assembly Cut; Spike the dog, the host in the original theatrical release, is removed from the longer version of the film, and the Alien instead gestates inside Babe, one of several oxen that are used for labor at the prison. Several inmates are also killed under different circumstances in the two cuts — for example, Arthur dies in the quinitricetyline fire in the theatrical version, but in the Assembly Cut he survives this event only to be murdered later by Golic. Overall, the Assembly Cut places much greater focus on the religious beliefs of the inmates at the prison, beliefs that are only briefly touched upon in the theatrical cut. Several of the supporting characters are also fleshed out, particularly Golic, who simply disappears in the theatrical version but becomes a secondary antagonist in the extended cut. Several new scenes are also added involving Aaron, whose decision to attack Michael Bishop at the end of the movie is given additional context.
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