Thursday 04 December

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

When worlds collide

Alien and Predator
  • Posted at 3:50pm
  • 18 January 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

If you work in brand marketing, you'd probably call it "cross-promotional synergy". The xenomorph (aka Alien) first met the yautja (aka Predator) in a 1989 comic. This led to a series of titanic clashes played out in a series of computer games and sci-fi novels.

A movie adaptation – AVP: Alien vs Predator – followed in 2004, now joined by a sequel, A V P R – Aliens vs Predator – Requiem (currently in cinemas).

In the interim, comics publisher Dark Horse have pitted Predator against Batman, Aliens against Superman, RoboCop against the Terminator, and, last year, Batman and Superman versus Aliens and Predator – every one a potential movie pitch along the lines of 2003's slasher date-movie Freddy vs Jason (or Elm Street meets Friday 13th).

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, again based on a comic, literary characters such as Allan Quatermain, Dr Jekyll, Tom Sawyer and Captain Nemo joined forces. This degree of cross-pollination hasn't been seen since the 1940s, when Universal discovered that there was life in their horror properties yet and made Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and House of Frankenstein (1944), featuring the Monster, Wolf Man and Dracula. After that, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello met just about every monster on the studio's books, from the Invisible Man to the Mummy.

In 1962, Japanese studio Toho made King Kong vs Godzilla, the blueprint clash of the titans.

A sequel was nixed over problematic rights issues – a clue to the potential minefield of a franchise cocktail. Otherwise, the sky would be the limit and we could enjoy "The Godfather v Scarface", "Jessica Rabbit Meets the 40 Year Old Virgin", or, my own personal fantasy, "Hannibal Lecter v Jar Jar Binks".

So now it's your turn – why not tell us who your fantasy foes would be? Post a comment below.

Link to this post
Post a comment

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Does it ring true for you or have you got different ideas? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement