Alien: The Play

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Baulderstone

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North Bergen High School here in New Jersey just put on a school play version of Alien.
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As a bonus all the sets are made from things they found in the trash, which really suits the Alien aesthetic.
 
I would have liked to have seen their version of the chestburster scene :smile:
 
I would have liked to have seen their version of the chestburster scene :smile:
They apparently had a guy under a table with a handpuppet. I would like to see that at well.
 
That looks pretty cool. I agree that is it nice they did something different to get the kids excited.
 
Maybe next year, they could do Aliens or even Alien 3.

But NOT Alien: Resurrection or the AVP films. Those movies sucked.

AVP had good comics and video games, but shitty movies while Alien Resurrection was another example of Joss Whedon being an overrated and untalented hack.

I liked Buffy, but honestly Whedon is a one-hit wonder at best. But I digress.
 
Costumes and props look amazing. Can't imagine my old school putting on a show like that.

That said, isn't the movie Alien rated 18 (or whatever is the US equivalent)? Shouldn't schools try to maintain the pretense, however flimsy and unrealistic as it may be, that kids shouldn't be watching 18 rated movies? :-)
 
Costumes and props look amazing. Can't imagine my old school putting on a show like that.

That said, isn't the movie Alien rated 18 (or whatever is the US equivalent)? Shouldn't schools try to maintain the pretense, however flimsy and unrealistic as it may be, that kids shouldn't be watching 18 rated movies? :-)
In America, it is an R rating, which means no one under 17 will be admitted without an adult guardian. Since its a school play, and parents are obliged to attend, it is a self-solving problem!
 
OK, that is unbelievably awesome
 
That is very cool, the prop / costume designers must be lots of fun at Halloween.


Costumes and props look amazing. Can't imagine my old school putting on a show like that.

That said, isn't the movie Alien rated 18 (or whatever is the US equivalent)? Shouldn't schools try to maintain the pretense, however flimsy and unrealistic as it may be, that kids shouldn't be watching 18 rated movies? :-)

I would assume the play is lacking the blood and gore of the film, along with milder language which would easily knock it down to only PG or at most PG-13.
 
I wonder how they got the rights to do the play?? I know Sigourney Weaver showed up at one of their shows.

The fun police are already on the prowl.

Alien play copyright issues

It bother me that they are not so much concerned about how to encourage schools, students and copyright owners to engage and encourage future productions like this as much as to protect copyrights, like high school plays are reaping millions at the expense of the studios.

I'm rather disappointed by the attitude. I guess looking for silver linings at least even Hollywood seems to understand suing a school is a dick move.

If 20th Century Fox was smart they would be interviewing all involved for possible scholarships, internships and entry level positions.
 
Toadmaster Toadmaster Right, that was all feel good publicity. The kids put a lot of work into it, but they did not cut into the studio's Alien profit margin.
 
The fun police are already on the prowl.

Alien play copyright issues

It bother me that they are not so much concerned about how to encourage schools, students and copyright owners to engage and encourage future productions like this as much as to protect copyrights, like high school plays are reaping millions at the expense of the studios.

I'm rather disappointed by the attitude. I guess looking for silver linings at least even Hollywood seems to understand suing a school is a dick move.

If 20th Century Fox was smart they would be interviewing all involved for possible scholarships, internships and entry level positions.
They'd also be sending out letters to every drama department in every school in the country providing them with an easy application to apply for their new, legal way for non-profit educational programs to request permission to adapt Fox movies to for their own productions. Fox gets the goodwill and free publicity without being found to have let their copyright lapse, and schools have a lot more freedom in what they can put on.

Ideally all major studios follow along.
 
They'd also be sending out letters to every drama department in every school in the country providing them with an easy application to apply for their new, legal way for non-profit educational programs to request permission to adapt Fox movies to for their own productions. Fox gets the goodwill and free publicity without being found to have let their copyright lapse, and schools have a lot more freedom in what they can put on.

Ideally all major studios follow along.


Of course most of the content of Weird Tales is in the public domain... maybe next this high school can do a production of At the Mountains of Madness that the studios seem unable or unwilling to provide us. I bet Chaosium would even throw in a couple copies of CoC as a reference. :hehe:
 
Of course most of the content of Weird Tales is in the public domain... maybe next this high school can do a production of At the Mountains of Madness that the studios seem unable or unwilling to provide us. I bet Chaosium would even throw in a couple copies of CoC as a reference. :hehe:
The studios can't do a decent HPL adaptation full stop. They take fairly short, fairly direct stories and then fiddle with them, removing most of the point of the original story. Only rarely, like the Herbert West: Reanimator films of the 80s, does this work.
 
The studios can't do a decent HPL adaptation full stop. They take fairly short, fairly direct stories and then fiddle with them, removing most of the point of the original story. Only rarely, like the Herbert West: Reanimator films of the 80s, does this work.

I agree but take it a step further, beyond HPL. Movie makers have this terrible need to take a wonderful story and tweak it until it is only half the story it once was.

I just came back from a trip to Denmark / Norway and visited the power plant near Rjukan, Norway that was part of the heavy water production during WW2. As a piece of the German nuclear weapons program there were several efforts during the war to disable / destroy it. The heavy water plant is gone, but the power plant remains as a museum.

Visiting the site inspired us to watch the 1965 Kirk Douglas / Richard Harris film The Heroes of Telemark which allegedly tells the story about the Norwegian resistance's efforts to destroy heavy water production.

Despite the efforts of two great actors the film is a formulaic turd that adds a bunch of nonsense, ignores much of the actual history and fails to capture any of the actual excitement and heroism that exists in the real story.
 
There are plenty of great films that are adaptations of short stories and true stories. As an example, the film Jesus’ Son is a great adaptation of the short stories of Denis Johnson, or more recently the Cohen Brothers adapted a Jack London story brilliantly in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
 
There are plenty of great films that are adaptations of short stories and true stories. As an example, the film Jesus’ Son is a great adaptation of the short stories of Denis Johnson, or more recently the Cohen Brothers adapted a Jack London story brilliantly in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Oh, which section was that? Was it the Tom Waits prospector? That seems like a Jack London story.
 
Fox doesn't seem to have pursued any action at all- the recording of a full performance is still on youtube.

 
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