The summary and note for this entry were completed with participation from the AFI Academic Network. Summary and note were written by participant Austin Hodaie, a student at Oregon State University, with Jon Lewis as academic advisor.

According to a 24 Jul 1986 LAT article, the sequel to Alien (1979, see entry) was delayed by a legal dispute between the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Alien producers David Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll, who sued the studio over the distribution of profits made on the 1979 film. In spring 1983, Fox settled the lawsuit by agreeing to put the Alien sequel into development, thereby giving the production team the opportunity to generate more income from the venture, but various Fox producers claimed that the studio was furtively opposed to producing the film for fear it would be too expensive. However, Fox executives denied their reluctance to finance the picture after the successful release of Aliens, which cost nearly $18.5 million before prints and promotion, but generated over $10 million in its opening weekend, alone, according to a 23 Jul 1986 HR article.
       As stated in LAT, writer-director James Cameron was hired to write a treatment for the Alien sequel in the summer of 1983 after a filmmaker at executive producer David Giler’s company, Phoenix Co., read Cameron’s screenplay for The Terminator (1984, see entry). According to an 11 Jul 1986 LAT article, Cameron saw Alien on its opening night at a theater in Orange County, CA, where he worked as a truck driver. Cameron told LAT that he was struck with the audience’s response to the picture and dreamed of being able to evoke such emotion through his own work. Although Cameron was a movie fan, he had never before worked in production, but soon found a job at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures as a special effects technician, and, eventually, an art director, for Battle Beyond the Stars (1980, see entry). While working on the picture, Cameron met producer Gayle Anne Hurd, who was a production executive at New World.
       When Cameron was approached by Fox to write a treatment for an Alien sequel, he was reluctant because he considered the original a “’perfect movie,’” and told the studio that instead of duplicating Alien, he would create a “stylistic hybrid” between Alien and The Terminator. As noted in LAT, The Terminator had not been produced at this time and Fox was hesitant to hire Cameron as a director. He had only recently made his directorial debut with Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), an Italian picture that had a limited release in the United States, and had not yet proved his marketability. Cameron told LAT that directing Piranha II was such an unpleasant experience, it made him physically ill, and as he suffered a 106 degree fever in Rome, he had a dream that inspired The Terminator. After selling The Terminator script to Hurd, the production was put on hold as they waited for actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to complete work on another picture, and, in the interim, Cameron wrote the Aliens treatment while negotiating a “conditional deal” with Fox to direct it.
       According to the 24 Jul 1986 LAT article, Cameron completed a forty-two page treatment in three days, then delivered his vision for the Alien sequel to Fox in the fall of 1983, but the studio did not move forward on the project. Cameron told LAT that a Fox executive complained there was too much “horror” and not enough “character development” in the treatment, and the studio nearly sold the Alien sequel rights to Mario Kassar and Andrew Vanja, producers of the Rambo series.
       Cameron noted in the 11 Jul 1986 LAT article that he was preoccupied with Aliens while working on The Terminator, and stated: “I was thinking of Terminator as a movie no one would see, so I could work on some of the things that I would use on Aliens.” Cameron added that he saw The Terminator as a “good dry run” to get scenes “worked out so I’ll know how to do it.” Much to Cameron’s surprise, The Terminator was a success and his directorial role in Aliens was secured.
       When producer Lawrence Gordon became president of Fox, the project was revived in Jul 1984. Gordon previously worked with Aliens executive producer Walter Hill on 48 Hrs. (1982), which Hill wrote and directed, and, after reading The Terminator script, he followed Hill’s recommendation of hiring Cameron for Aliens. According to LAT, Cameron’s completed script for Aliens was submitted to Fox only hours before a Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike was set to begin, and although it was approved, the film’s budget was disputed by Fox and Hurd. Although Hurd budgeted the picture for $15.5 million, Fox determined her plan would cost $35 million and tried to impose their own $12 million budget. In response, Cameron and Hurd left the project, but Cameron told LAT that Gordon convinced Fox chairman Barry Diller to accept Hurd’s proposal and noted: “Unquestionably, this was Larry’s picture.”
       Despite their victory over the film’s budget, Cameron and Hurd quit the project again in Apr 1985 when Fox refused to publicly announce that actress Sigourney Weaver was the only person under consideration for the role of “Ripley,” which she played in Alien. While Fox feared that Weaver’s salary would be highly inflated if her agent knew she was irreplaceable, Cameron and Hurd maintained that they would not make the film without her. Meanwhile, Cameron and Hurd married and honeymooned in Hawaii, and, when they returned, Weaver was hired at the highest rate of her career, according to LAT, with a salary of $1 million plus a percentage of the film’s grosses.
       As stated in studio production notes from AMPAS library files, production began 30 Sep 1985 at Pinewood Studios in London, UK, and at the Acton Lane Power Station, which was a large, vacated building in West London. A Screen International news item, however, reported that principal photography started on the day of its publication, 5 Oct 1985, and noted that Weaver had completed work on Half Moon Street (1986, see entry) two days prior to starting Aliens. According to production notes, the Acton Lane Power Station was a former coal generator and provided the set for the film’s Atmosphere Processing Station as well as housing the set for the Armored Personnel Carrier. Hurd insisted on keeping the production centralized in London in order to ensure the film would be completed in time for a 1986 release. Although Var stated on 12 Feb 1986 that principal photography was complete, a 26 Mar 1986 Var news item reported that the film was still in production as an explosion on a set at Pinewood injured two special effects technicians.
       A 13 Nov 1985 Var news item announced that James Renmar was set to star in the role of “Corporal Hicks,” but he was later replaced by Michael Biehn, who had played a lead in The Terminator.
       According to the 24 Jul 1986 LAT article, Fox was troubled by the two hour, seventeen minute duration of the finished film because it would reduce the number of possible daily screenings from five to four, significantly cutting into the film’s potential box-office gross. However, Cameron and Hurd refused to edit twelve minutes from the film, the minimum amount of time required to make the picture accessible for an additional daily screening. LAT stipulated that although Fox lost income on the film’s screenings, their acquiescence encouraged Cameron to sign a two picture deal with the studio before Aliens was released. As Cameron was entitled to negotiate a more lucrative contract in the wake of the film’s box-office success, Fox ultimately benefitted financially from allowing Cameron to maintain the disputed twelve minutes of screen time. As reported in HR on 23 Jul 1986, the opening weekend grosses would have been increased by over $4 million if the picture had a shorter running time.
       Shortly before the film’s release, Fox boosted its circulation of 70 mm prints to 151, causing the larger format copies to represent 11% of the 1,400 prints booked at theatres nationwide. As stated in a 14 Jul 1986 HR news item, a Fox executive called the decision “one of the largest commitments ever made by a studio to release in 70 mm format.”
       A 7 Feb 1986 DV news item reported that Fox filed a lawsuit against special effects company L. A. Effects Group, Inc., alleging that the company failed to complete the effects stipulated in their $2 million contract. On 20 Jun 1986, just weeks before the film’s release, HR announced that L. A. Effects Group was suing Fox for $20 million, accusing the studio of copyright infringement of a model they built for the “colony complex.” A 1 Aug 1990 DV news item reported another lawsuit filed against Fox, this time by Weaver, Cameron, Hurd, and the film’s executive producers Hill, Giler and Carroll. The claimants alleged that Fox avoided paying their full compensations by excluding a portion of the film’s revenues in banking statements and by making “improper expense deductions.” Additionally, Fox allegedly provided faulty account information and withheld “improper and/or excess reserves” of the film’s profits. As Weaver, Cameron, Hurd and the executive producers had negotiated a percentage of the film’s total box office gross in their contracts, they claimed that Fox intentionally denied them compensation to which they were entitled.
       Although Cameron told LAT on 24 Jul 1986 that he did not intend to make another film in the Alien series, Fox reportedly started development on a third picture as early as Jul 1986. Director David Fincher’s Alien 3 (see entry) was released in 1992 with Carroll, Giler and Hill producing.
       Aliens was nominated for Academy Awards in the following categories: Actress in a Leading Role, Art Direction, Film Editing, Music (Original Score) and Sound. The film won two Academy Awards: Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects. Weaver was also nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.
       The end credits include the following text: “The Producers gratefully acknowledge the assistance and cooperation of: Seiko, Recaro, Grid Systems Corp., Lasergage, Mel + Philips USFA, ESAB Automation, Wes Containers, Thorn-EMI Electronics, BOC, Omega, Effects Associates, Vickers Medical, Ferranti Defense Systems, Caterpillar, Peter Aston/Model Effects Ltd., E.M.A. Model Supplies, Karamya Components, The Central Electricity Generating Board.”
       When the end credits conclude, the following text appears onscreen: “Made by Twentieth Century Fox Productions Ltd. at Pinewood Studios, London, England, with location sequences filmed at Acton Lane Power Station, London, England.”