^ ... joking, no?

I'm not joking. "AVP: Survival of the Fittest aka AVP2" is what was listed as the working title of this film on the casting call sent out on Thursday morning. It begins filming in the final week of September in Vancouver.

The film has now been bumped to December 21st, 2007 release date.

I think I will wait until this is on HBO before I watch it.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=16826

Trio Joins Alien vs. Predator Sequel
Source: The Hollywood Reporter October 5, 2006

Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson), John Ortiz (Miami Vice) and Johnny Lewis ("The O.C.") have been cast in 20th Century Fox's Alien vs. Predator: Survival of the Fittest.

Epps will play Kendra, a young girl who must protect her little brother. Ortiz will play a recently elected sheriff. Lewis plays Ricky, a troubled kid. They join a cast that includes Reiko Aylesworth and Steven Pasquale.

Written by Shane Salerno (Armageddon) and directed by Colin Strause and Greg Strause, the movie is scheduled for a December 21, 2007 release.

Well the first Predator was pretty much an ensemble film (yes, despite the fact that it was an Arnie movie it was still very much an ensemble film) that had a monster movie twist 20 minutes in. The characters were quite likeable so when the Predator showed up it was a heck of a lot of fun to see them make their stand. If they can somehow manage that for this sequel, it might be good. But I see trouble with this "young girl who must protect her little brother" angle. Why do I get the feeling the little brother will be incredibly obnoxious, get everyone into trouble but the filmmakers will still expect us to give a crap if he survives or not?

I was excited when the Brothers Strause came on board as directors (their music videos are pretty sweet) but every other single aspect of the film from the writer to the cast to the setting of the film has me expecting the worst.

Alien vs. Predator 2 Behind-the-Scenes
Source: ReelzChannel January 5, 2007

The ReelzChannel has aired a new behind-the-scenes look at 20th Century Fox's Alien vs. Predator 2, in theaters on December 21. The show "Dailies" talked to directors Greg and Colin Strause about the action-adventure which they say will be rated R, compared to the first installment which carried the PG-13 rating.

You can watch the clip here:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=18267

Why oh why can't they do A L I E N 5? Get Ridley to do the dramatic/tension related scenes, and Cameron to do the action scenes? Oh ya, I forgot, this isn't a perfect world.

It's only matters that the male predator can tell the difference.

Yeah, right.

Have they told Fox about their intentions?

The first one also claimed to be Rated R while it was filming, from what I remember.

Nah, they were always very evasive about it, which sent up red flags and when people started to press them on it they wouldn't do anything to calm everyone down and kill their fears and sure enough, it came out and it was PG-13.

The worst thing about it is that nobody had the foresight to shoot alternate R-rated/Unrated footage for the DVD. A year later, the "unrated" cut comes out on DVD and what does it feature?

Boring footage clearly (and wisely) cut out of the film for non-ratings purposes and, get this, piss-poor CGI blood literally drawn onto the existing PG-13 shots.

I'm sure Fox made the decision, actually. It's no secret that "AvP' didn't exactly set the box office ablaze. Fox undoubtedly made a bundle on merchandising and home video sales but "AvP" was a record-breaking disappointment theatrically: it has the distinction of having the highest-grossing opening weekend of any movie to ever ultimately fail to gross $100 million dollars, which obviously translates to "lots of people see it based on the concept alone on opening weekend, terrible word of mouth kills subsequent box office performance".

The point is, making an "AvP" film as pretty much a commercial for "AvP" merchandise works. I personally loathed the previous film yet still bought the action figures because they're Aliens and Predators and stuff like awful acting, writing and directing don't really apply to stuff like that. Fox will make money on "AvP2" whether it's any good or not but they're also smart enough to realize that they'll make MORE money if people are actually satisfied by the movie and see it multiple times and tell their friends to see it.

Studios like Fox obviously do market research and that includes reading internet posts and you can find ANY "AvP" discussion and you're gonna see two things that people pretty much unanimously bitch about: director Paul WS Anderson and the PG-13 rating.

Fox has already ditched Anderson in favor of two guys with a special effects/advertising background similar to Ridley Scott and James Cameron (and David Fincher too, for what it's worth) and they've already (weakly) demonstrated their "day late and a dollar short" attempt at rectifying the PG-13 fiasco on the first film with their "Unrated" DVD so there's absolutely every reason to believe that the Brothers Strause are being legit when they promise an R rating.

Worst case scenario: we get a PG-13 theatrical release with an R-rated/Unrated DVD release that was actually intended rather than sloppily put together after the fact.

AVP made $38 million+ opening weekend and $80 million + total. not sure what info you were going by.

I obviously fudged the statistic.

I don't have the numbers in front of me (and I'm too lazy to hit up boxofficemojo.com but anyone feel free to) but I think I remember the proper statistic.

It wasn't the $100 mil opening weekend I rattled off (which actually does seem very off the mark when you think about it) the real "claim to fame" is that "AvP" had the highest opening weekend of any movie that failed to gross $100 million overall.

I remembered it had something to do with "$100 million" but I goofed.

In any case, I'll edit my post but it's still an interesting indicator of the reality of the film's "success".

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=20013

http://www.designstudiopress.com/new...book_avp2.html

Design Studio Press has posted new photos from Alien vs. Predator 2, opening Dec. 25, featured in an upcoming book by ADI on the creature effects. Coming out in December, the book features 128 pages with over 300 illustrations plus a DVD. Here's how the book is described:

Alien vs. Predator: Survival of the Fittest is the upcoming sequel to 2004's Alien vs. Predator film. In this follow-up to the worldwide hit Alien vs. Predator, the iconic monsters from two of the scariest film franchises ever, wage war in an American Midwestern town — with the residents caught in the middle.

Filming began in September 2006 in Vancouver. Tom Woodruff, Jr. and Alec Gillis from Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI), veterans of the first AVP and all the previous ALIEN sequels, will be handling the creature FX for the encore film as they did for the previous installments.

ADI opens its doors to unveil the secrets of the creature design process behind two of the most frightening characters ever! From conception to fabrication and finishing, follow their talented crew in-studio and on location through this captivating book and accompanying creature FX DVD.

I'm a sucker for anything A or P, so I'll be there opening weekend (matinee).

And since I missed this thread until now, just wanted to say that while I loved Aliens and have it in my top 25 or so movies, Alien is top ten. Much creepier, and more realistic than the sequel.

The minute I read it was directed by two guys that directed a Nickelback video I stopped.

BTW, it took two guys to direct a Nickelback video??!!

I guess they all can't be Spike Jonezes or Anthony Mandlers.

They're a directing team. I don't think it was the strain of a Nickelback video that made them team up. They just like working that way.

On the other hand, if I was signed to direct a Nickelback video, I guess I'd want someone else there so people could spread the blame around a little.

Im sure someone had to helm while the other left to puke for a bit.

I love Predator and cant wait for this movie. Plus as a huge Rescue Me fan, itll be great to see Garrity in a movie.

I think it's laughably premature to compare Mandler to Jonze but if you go to the Strause Bros. website and watch their videos you'll see more innovative and stylish direction than Paul WS Anderson's entire filmography.

I still worry that the script will be a monumental disappointment (Shane Salerno is the antichrist of screenwriters) but I personally feel that the choice of director(s) is much stronger this time around.

What you're trying to say is that half of the film's domestic gross came from the film's first three days in business.

The film did just alright in it's theatrical release. It did $80 million domestically on a production budget of $60 million. Granted, half of that gross came from it's opening weekend before word-of-mouth completely killed it, but it's not the first or last time that has happened with this specific franchise, and probably won't be the last. Then again, the DVDs made a fucking killing which greenlit this second go-around.

I'll be the first one to bet $20 that this sequel will suck no matter what as Fox has royally fucked-up both the Alien and Predator franchises up since the early 90s and there's been pretty much no going back since then.

Maybe it's just me, but I've never really considered the Predator films to be scary.

You didn't find the voodoo in Predator 2 to be totally creepy?

The first film was one of the greatest disappointments on the 2000's.

It almost makes this film feel useless. Which isn't fair, because I haven't seen it yet. Maybe I'll be surprised.

Oh c'mon... after Pred 2, Alien 3 and 4 you were expecting greatness? The setting for this one does suck ass, I don't see how it can be any better than the first AVP (which was an OK monster romp I thought). Hopefully some good alien action and gore... a shame that's all we have to anticipate.