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Alien III  By  cover art

Alien III

By: William Gibson
Narrated by: Tom Alexander, Barbara Barnes, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Lorelei King, Laurel Lefkow, Keith Wickham
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Publisher's summary

Audible is bringing William Gibson’s uncovered Alien III script to life in audio for the first time, to mark the 40th Anniversary of the birth of the Alien franchise.

Alongside a full cast, Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprise their iconic roles as Corporal Hicks and Bishop from the 1986 film Aliens.

Father of cyberpunk William Gibson’s original script for Alien III, written in 1987 as a sequel to Aliens, never made it to our screens, although it went on to achieve cult status among fans as the third instalment that might have been after being leaked online.

This terrifying, cinematic multicast dramatisation - directed by the multi-award-winning Dirk Maggs - is the chance to experience William Gibson’s untold story and its terrifying, claustrophobic and dark encounters between humans and aliens, as a completely immersive audio experience.

The story begins with the Sulaco on its return journey from LV-426. On board the military ship are the cryogenically frozen skeleton crew of that film’s survivors: Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop.

We travel aboard and hear an alarm blare. Our heroes are no longer alone....

Starring: Tom Alexander, Barbara Barnes, Michael Biehn, Cliff Chapman, Samantha Coughlan, Ben Cura, Dar Dash, Harry Ditson, Mairead Doherty, Lance Henriksen, Graham Hoadly, Lorelei King, Laurel Lefkow, Martin McDougall, Sarah Pitard, Michael Roberts, David Seddon, Andrew James Spooner, Siri Steinmo, Dai Tabuchi, Keith Wickham, Rebecca Yeo.

©2019 20th Century Fox (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Our favorite moments from Alien III

Ripley meets Corporal Hicks.
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"Any sign of life in there?"
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"He must alert high command!"
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  • Alien III
  • Ripley meets Corporal Hicks.
  • Alien III
  • "Any sign of life in there?"
  • Alien III
  • "He must alert high command!"
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About the Director

Dirk Maggs is an innovator in the world of radio and audio production. A prolific writer and director, he is known for his cinematic approach to audio, utilizing scripts and fine-tuned sound effects layered with music to create a near visual effect. Maggs has previously worked on BBC Radio adaptations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. He also excels at adapting graphic novels for radio. His award-winning credits include Judge Dredd, Superman Lives, and Batman: Knightfall. At Audible, Maggs has proven to be a breakout star, directing the groundbreaking original Alien series and adapting The X-Files: Stolen Lives.

About the Performer

Michael Connell Biehn was born on July 31, 1956 in Anniston, Alabama, to Marcia (Connell) and Don Biehn, a lawyer. He grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and at age 14 moved with his family to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where he won a drama scholarship to the University of Arizona. He left prematurely two years later to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. His first big role was as a psychotic fan stalking Lauren Bacall in The Fan (1981), and later appeared in The Lords of Discipline (1983). He hit the big time when he was cast as Kyle Reese, the man sent back through time to stop Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984). This established a good working relationship with Cameron, a relationship that should have catapulted Biehn to international stardom. He starred in Cameron’s subsequent films, Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989), the latter a standout performance as unstable Navy SEAL officer Lt. Hiram Coffey. In the 90s, he starred in films like Navy Seals (1990), K2 (1991), and was particularly memorable as Johnny Ringo in Tombstone (1993). Biehn is married to Jennifer Blanc Biehn and the father of five sons. He made his directorial debut with The Victim starring himself and Jennifer. They started their company Blanc Biehn productions once The Victim was released by Starz/ Anchor Bay. They continue to make movies and give lots of new talent a creative say in filmmaking.

About the Performer

Iconic actor Lance Henriksen has starred in a multitude of films and television projects exemplifying the diversity of his talent. He’s worked with some of the most prominent directors in the motion picture industry, including Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, alongside Richard Dreyfuss and Francois Truffaut), James Cameron (Piranha II: The Spawning, The Terminator, and Aliens), Sidney Lumet, Jim Jarmusch (The Dead Man), Kathryn Bigelow, John Woo, Paul W. S. Anderson, and Sam Raimi. Born in New York, Henriksen studied at the Actors Studio and began his career Off Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's Three Plays of the Sea. One of his first film appearances was for director Sidney Lumet in Dog Day Afternoon, followed by Lumet's Network and Prince of the City. Henriksen's performance as Frank Black in Fox TV's critically acclaimed series, Millennium, created by Chris Carter (The X-Files), garnered three consecutive Golden Globe nominations. He was also nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the TNT original film The Day Lincoln Was Shot. In addition to his abilities as an actor, Henriksen is an accomplished painter and potter. His talent as a ceramist has enabled him to create some of the most unusual ceramic artwork available on the art market today. Henriksen resides in Southern California.

What listeners say about Alien III

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Audio Dramatization of the Movie that never was

The original Alien III screenplay (1987) by cyberpunk author William Gibson never reached production. Early director Renny Harlin had rejected it and by the time the final Alien³ (1992) reached production with director David Fincher, the 1987 script (with its Soviet-Union-inspired United Progressive Peoples component of characters) was out-dated. David Fincher had his own ideas on top of an interim Vincent Ward screenplay. The final product ended up being a mixed bag with the studio taking the production away from Fincher to the point that he has disavowed it along with the later re-edits that were made.

For the 40th Anniversary of the original Alien (1979) movie, Audible Studios commissioned an audio dramatization of the Gibson screenplay. Dramatist and director Dirk Maggs has made a fantastic audio enactment of the screenplay and has enhanced it considerably with added scenes and characters. Producing a screenplay without the visuals requires an increased amount of narration and description that was not present on the page*. The main addition is a full 12-minutes of introductory backstory that basically recreates the entire conclusion of the Aliens (1986) film. That may sound unnecessary, until you find out [mild spoiler] that fan favourite Ripley spends most of the Alien III screenplay in a non-speaking comatose state. So that action set-piece was the only way to give Ripley a stronger cameo. Actress Laura Lefkow does a spot-on impersonation of Sigourney Weaver in this role.

No spoilers about the rest of the plot. I will say however, especially in this age of disrespecting fan favourite characters (e.g. Disney Star Wars, Season 8 Game of Thrones etc.), that the Aliens characters get a proper continuing story here (although the reduced Ripley role was surprising, did Gibson think Sigourney Weaver wasn't returning?). Original Aliens actors Michael Biehn and Lance Henrickson return as Hicks and Bishop, with the child character Newt voiced by Mairead Doherty. I did find the increased cast (22/23 voice parts) a bit hard to follow, so I ended up assembling the following Cast of Characters (in order of appearance as best as I could work out) Listing:

Returning Characters from Aliens
Bishop, an android, survivor from LV-426 (Lance Henriksen)
Ripley, 3rd Officer & survivor of Nostromo & survivor of LV-426 (Laurel Lefkow)
Carter Burke, a Weyland-Yutani executive (in brief flashback scene) (Tom Alexander)
Corporal Dwayne Hicks, a Colonial Marine, survivor from LV-426 (Michael Biehn)
Newt (nickname of Rebecca Jordan), child survivor from LV-426 (Mairead Doherty)
Mother, voice of Computer (Lorelei King)

United Progressive Peoples (UPP) Commandos who board Sulaco when it drifts into the UPP Sector
Kurtz, UPP Commando Captain (David Seddon)
Desolas, UPP Commando (called Juanito by the Captain) (Cliff Chapman)
Chang, UPP Commando (Rebecca Yeo)

Crew at Anchorpoint Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility
Jackson, Operations Chief at Anchorpoint (Siri Steinmo)
Tully, Charles A., biolab tech, a crew member on Anchorpoint (Dar Dash)
Spence, crew member on Anchorpoint (Samantha Coughlan)
Rosetti, senior scientist, crew member on Anchorpoint (Martin McDougall)

Weyland-Yutani Weapons Division visitors to Anchorpoint Station from Gateway Station
Kevin Fox, a Weyland-Yutani Corp Weapons Division officer (Keith Wickham)
Susan Wells, a Weyland-Yutani Corp Weapons Division officer (Barbara Barnes)

Further Crew at Anchorpoint Station
Walker, Chief Mechanic, crew member on Anchorpoint (Harry Ditson)
Sterling, biolab team, crew member on Anchorpoint (Andrew James Spooner)
Tatsumi, biolab team, crew member on Anchorpoint (Dai Tabuchi)

UPP Crew at a Cybernetics Laboratory in Rodina Station, a UPP facility
Colonel Doctor Suslov, principal science officer at Rodina Station (Michael Roberts)

Voice Communication from Gateway
Stoddard (voiced by ?)

Further UPP Crew at Rodina Station
Jorje Rivera, Diplomatic Officer at Rodina Station (Ben Cura)
Nevsky, a Science Officer at Rodina Station (Graham Hoadly)

Further Crew at Anchorpoint Station
Halliday, ecotech at the ecomodule in Anchorpoint (Sarah Pitard)

The audio production, foley effects, ambiance and soundtrack music for this was excellent. It would certainly rate a [5] along with the cast performances. I would just bump it down a notch for not providing a cast of characters.

Alien III was available as a free Audible Original for members as of May 30, 2019. It is expected to be one of the free Audible Originals for members in June 2019 (available June 6, 2019) after which it revert to a standard price.

Trivia and Links
*The original William Gibson screenplay is available online at http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/Alien3.txt.
You can read the rather long production story of Alien III (1987) to Alien3 (1992) on Wikipedia here href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3#1987–1989"

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Stays Frosty

For two hours, this is awesome entertainment. The opening ten minutes, in which Bishop recounts the ending to Aliens, complete with sound effects, sets the best possible tone. I was in my car, heading to work and hit play. After a few minutes, I hear the blaring klaxons of LV-426 and a female voice announcing "You now have two minutes to reach minimum safe distance." I can't lie. I felt a jolt of pure, almost boyish exuberance.

There are some downsides. The actual story is lacking in terms of scope and plot. Ripley is sleeping through the whole story and Newt, although definitely present, is shipped back to earth. Those are the biggest character arc problems I had with this version. Also, Alien III runs with the plot premises that made Alien Covenant so bad. Namely, airborne alien DNA can just recreate the Alien species. I think the queen-egg-chest gestation is still the most horrific biological construct ever, and I don't know why this franchise insists on moving away from it.

The upsides are here too. The new characters are actually pretty good, in my opinion, and the sound effects & production work excel. But there are two things that make this worth the purchase in full. One, Michael Beihn. Every time I heard the real Hicks giving a command, I smiled. It's Hicks, man! We never saw him again after Aliens, so it was instant pleasure to have him alive and well on this audiobook. Two, the book/script is rich with Alien-Aliens lore. The writer understands the Aliens universe and keeps that universe fresh in the settings and dialogue. Alien III "feels" like a true follow up to Aliens. I'll add that while Lance Henriksen doesn't blow me away, he's still an awesome compliment to the story in his reprisal of Bishop.

If you're like me...someone who is still waiting and chasing the thrill of 1986 Aliens...buy the audiobook. It has a little bit of that magic we've all been looking for and haven't found in a long time.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I can't believe I'm going to say "disappointing."

I may be the most devoted Alien fan in the Midwest. When the movie novelizations came out, I snatched them up and devoured them. When Amazon released the dramatizations... they rocked my world. I would be hard put to choose a favorite, but it would definitely be between the first two dramas (Out of the Shadows and River of Pain), followed by the third. I was so excited to see that this new Alien III dramatization was coming out that I pre-ordered it and L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y counted the hours.

This dramatization fell lightyears short of the first three productions. This was shorter, and it seemed to spend half the production recapping the Aliens movie. Then, it was off to the predictable races... again. Alien stows away, Alien gets loose, Alien infects the crew, Alien annihilates everyone except the chosen three or four, Alien dies and we all look forward to the next infestation on another world, ship, etc. Unfortunately, the story never settles on anything that would make this production its own - the hybrid twist, the Alien v. Hybrid battle, Bishop, more science, anything. I enjoyed the spin on the hybrid Alien, and honestly, I wish the entire drama would have been focused more on them and less on past history. What's more, I was geared up for a huge Alien vs. Hybrid battle only for it to last about two sentences. That was seriously disappointing.

It is hard to admit that this was a true disappointment. Especially since I had wanted it to be so great. It just never seemed to take hold of any one angle, instead, glanced off possible AMAZING plots like a pinball machine - pinging here, there and then down the hole.

I suppose that is my overall review. Perhaps the production wasn't so much "lacking" as it simply never focused, and that made it feel wasted.

Honestly, if I could return this one, I would. While I have listened to the other three dramas at least 50 times each, I won't be listening to this one again.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Nearly impossible to follow.. so bummed..

Michael Biehn & Lance Henrikson deserve better. They do their best to carry you through. In fact If Henrikson continued with the narration present in the beginning, the story mightve had a chance to flow better but only up to a point.

I realised a little over an hour in, that things werent sounding good.. it fell apart from there on to the point where as much as i wanted to care, i couldnt.. Ive listened to dozens of audiobooks. None were as hard to follow as this one... again, so bummed.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

This should have been the movie that got made.

The voice acting is fantastic! Great sound effects and score. I would have loved to see this as Alien 3. Hopefully Audible will complete the planned two sequels for this with the original actors and current voice actors.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

We waited for this....

The story was horrid, with poor detailing. What did the hybrid even look like, pervious books did amazing jobs at detailing the environment and setting the mood. I enjoyed the voice acting but the dialogue was very B horror filmish. I’ve listen to every Aliens audio book, seen the movies numerous of times and read the comics, but this was def. on the poor end of the story telling ladder . At least it was free....but I would have been more than willing to pay for quality.

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    1 out of 5 stars

Two Words: "Cocooned Lemurs"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is about the most original thing in this turd. Thank god this thing didn't get produced, the special effects person would have stormed off the set after being tasked with making "cocooned lemurs" anything but laughable. This makes the Alien III film that was produced look like a classic. I would have loved to see Sigourney Weaver's face after she read this script: "Am I to understand you want me to reprise my role as one of the most iconic female film heroes of all time in a film where I am unconscious 90% of the time and then shot out to safety behind Newt?" (who gets to go to Oregon!) Rehashes the first two in spectacularly unoriginal fashion, except, I guess, that this time the Xenomorphs can just infect you and have you turn into one of them. Oh, and the new bad guys are the Russians and the Chinese. It is, however, nice to hear Michael Biehn and Lance Hendrickson again, and thing is immaculately produced. But on the whole it's basically a terrible bore, not even worth the price of free. As I have learned over the years, just because it has William Gibson's name on it does not make it good. And Audible, stop littering your bestseller lists with these "originals", it makes it tough to weed through and find the good stuff.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Way better plot than the movie we got.

This was closer to the Aliens plot than the crappy movie we got. Very enjoyable mini show on it's own.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Good production, weak source material

So, yeah. The story is all over the place and very inncoherent. The choises Gibson did with the xenomorphs are... odd. The motivation of the main (human) villain is nonexistant. Overall - I'm glad they didn't shoot this as a movie. say what you will about the current Alien 3 - it is way better than this mess (I am actually a huge fan of it).

All said: really glad Audible did this dramatization, it's a cool idea and us Alien-fans are greatful for having a version of a could-have-been script, nevermind the quality of the story.

Acting is top notch, glad they got two of the original actors to reprise their roles. Good production, good (albeit somewhat overly fastpaced) direction.

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    5 out of 5 stars

outstanding! wish there be of a follow-up to this

outstanding amazing this goes right next to aliens out of the shadows and alien Sea of Sorrow

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