"The Alien would have been spawned from a Predator, so it would have had the characteristics of both the Predator and the Alien," says Centropolis Films producer Dean Devlin of a proposed Aliens vs. Predator film devised by Universal Soldier director Roland Emmerich. "In fact, we were calling it a PrAlien. We thought it could have been very interesting having these two warriors, a human and a Predator, who are always battling each other, but who are then forced to work together to fight a great enemy."

Emmerich had been approached by Twentieth-Century Fox to develop the popular Dark Horse Comics title Aliens Vs. Predator as a film, but the studio has since decided to retreat from making that creature feature, despite the fact that Aliens Vs. Predator remains one of Dark Horse's most successful titles, having sold over 400,000 copies of its first issue.

"We had some very good ideas," says Devlin. " I Think Roland could have done something good with it, if he'd been given the chance. At first you might giggle, because it's kind of a Godzilla Vs. King Kong, but if it's done correctly, with the right tone, it could make a terrific film,"

On idea that definitely didn't make a terrific film was the movie that did make it to the screen in 1992, Alien 3. And while there are few certainties in life, beyond death and taxes, you can be sure that if James Cameron had directed Alien 3, it would have been a very different film from the somber, fatalistic Masterpiece Theatre version David Fincher made two years ago.

Gale Anne Hurd, who produced Aliens, comments, "Jim and I, in our minds, always had a n idea where Alien 3 should go, so it was impossible to look at it completely objectively," she says. "I thought David Fincher proved he was an excellent filmmaker, but I thought it was depressing, and I never saw the Alien series as pessimistic. It was dark, but charged with adrenaline.:

So if Cameron had taken the reins of the third Aliens film, what would it have been about? Hurd suggests; "In the director's cut of Aliens, Ripley wakes up on the station and Cater tells her, 'you've been gone for 60 years.' She realizes that her daughter is dead and then meets Newt, who becomes her surrogate daughter. The idea of examining the life of someone who has been through that and who discovers that everyone she once knew is d now very old, that was something Jim and I really wanted to explore in a horror setting, with Ripley and Newt."

The failure of Alien 3 to engage American movie audiences is not lost on Joss Whedon, who has been hired to write Alien IV for the studio, which is looking to re-energize the foundering film franchise. "Alien 3 made a lot of money overseas, but I think even the Fox executives felt something was missing. " suggests Whedon. "I've found the studio is mostly interested in Aliens because of its action adventure elements. The first film was really a straight horror film, which is not quite as exciting to the studio."

Whedon, whose credits include serving as story editor of Roseanne and scripter of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. ("I'm waiting for the day when Buffy isn't the film I'm remembered for," he laughs) sounds like an unlikely choice for continuing one of Fox's most profitable franchises.

The screenwriter indicates that the oft-cited storyline in which the Aliens make it to earth is not a likely scenario for the next film. "First of all, it would require an enormous budget and gigantic scope," he says. "I don't know if the studio is ready to make that commitment yet. We may end up doing it, but we are approaching the idea cautiously. Everyone thinks it would be a great idea, but what exactly about heir coming to Earth would you want to see? Nobody, including myself, can answer that. We know Earth won't be anything like it is today, so it's not like you'd be afraid Aliens are under your bed."

Certainly the most bizarre rumour is that Sigourney Weaver has been approached to reprise her role as Ripley in the new film, despite the fact that she died in the last film. "That has come up." Admits Whedon. " All they said to me was 'Ripley may come back.' The idea of doing an Alien movie without the anchor makes them a little nervous. I would be interested in bringing Ripley back, just to see how I could do it. There has also been talk of bringing an older Newt back instead of Ripley. Their arcs are different. With Newt you have a blank page, but, with Ripley, that page has been written on so many times that you really have to find something new to say."

However, the biggest challenge for Whedon and the Fox marketing machine may be to get moviegoers back into the theatres, after not only killing Ripley, but almost killing the franchise as well, in Alien 3.

Says Whedon, "If Alien 3 had been as great as the first two, I wouldn't go near this film. I would be too frightened. I knew what I wanted from a third Alien film and it wasn't a bunch of bald guys running around and getting eaten. What I liked was that I saw something new, but it was really just a bitter, bleak movie. It's like the sequel to Planet of the Apes, in which they nuked the Earth. I didn't feel like Alien 3 was a step Forward. I wanted to see something that I hadn't seen before, and a smaller, less ferocious alien was not what I had in mind."

Whedon also rejects calls to resurrect the aborted Alien vs. Predator concept. "Some of us felt that might have sullied the Alien films," he says. "It becomes like the Destroy All Monsters or Freddy Vs Jason. I think it would have been a mistake."

And what does Gale Anne Hurd think about yet another Alien film coming to a theatre near you sometime in the next two years? "When a concept works," she says, "why not explore it and give another filmmaker an opportunity, like Ridley, Jim and David had?"