Alien Resurrection is a 1997 American science fiction horror film[4] directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Joss Whedon, and starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder.

Sigourney Weaver was not interested in this setting, but has remained open to reprising her role as Ellen Ripley on the condition that she likes the story.

Whedon composed a thirty-page treatment surrounding this idea before being informed that the studio, though impressed with his script, now intended to base the story on a clone of Ripley, whom they saw as the anchor of the series.

The idea of cloning was suggested by producers David Giler and Walter Hill, who opposed the production of Alien Resurrection, as they thought it would ruin the franchise.

Boyle and his producer met with effects supervisors to discuss the film, but he was not interested in pursuing the project and went on to make A Life Less Ordinary instead.

[13] Jeunet hired French special effects supervisor Pitof and cinematographer Darius Khondji, both of whom he had worked with on The City of Lost Children.

Jeunet had difficulty securing studio space, as the filming of Hollywood blockbusters such as Titanic, Starship Troopers, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park were taking place at the same time.

[12] The underwater scene was the first to be shot, and for its filming Stage 16 at Fox Studios was reconstructed into a 36-by-45-meter tank, 4.5 meters deep, containing 548,000 gallons of water.

An additional two and a half weeks of training took place at the studio with stunt coordinator Ernie Orsatti and underwater cinematographer Peter Romano.

[21] At that time, Frizzell was a newcomer in film composing history, having previously worked on Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and Dante's Peak.

[citation needed] In 2003, Jeunet included an alternate version of the film on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set with different opening and closing scenes, which were originally cut due to budget restrictions.

[27] Alien Resurrection opened in France on November 12, 1997 on 507 screens and had over 1 million admissions for the week with a gross of $6,754,530, finishing at the top of the French box office.

[32] In the UK, Alien Resurrection beat out The Full Monty to reach the number one spot, collecting $4.4 million during its opening weekend.

[33] It surpassed Bram Stoker's Dracula for having the highest opening weekend for an 18 certificate film, a record held until the release of American Beauty in 2000.

The website's critical consensus reads, "While Sigourney Weaver's feral performance as a resurrected Ripley restores some fun to the Alien franchise, the acid blood running through this fourth entry's veins corrodes whatever emotional investment audiences had left.

[37] Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gave the film "B+" and stated "By rocketing ahead 200 years from the previous film and jiggering the story cleverly [...] to create a Ripley reconstructed through a mix of human and alien DNA, Alien Resurrection power-kicks the whole definition of the Horrifying Other into a fresh, deep, exhilaratingly thoughtful, millennium-sensitive direction".

[38] Radio Times's Alan Jones described the film as "tense, mordantly funny, very graphic, and bloody", and praised Weaver in a four out of five stars review.

Parks said "The film is a marvel, a well-photographed feast of visual imagery",[40] while Richard Schickel of Time wrote that it was "Less frightening, but as much fun as ever".

[41] The Washington Post contributor Desson Thomson felt it "satisfactorily recycles the great surprises that made the first movie so powerful.

[42] Andrew Johnston commented in Time Out New York that "If Ripley, Call, and the pirates had been developed further, the film might have been as involving as James Cameron's Aliens, the gold-standard of the series.

The film's Techno-Gothic look is gorgeously immersive, however, and Jeunet turns in a number of original (and grotesque) effects sequences that are worth the price of admission".

[45] TV Guide magazine's Maitland McDonagh wrote in her mixed review: "The plot is more of the same old running and screaming, but Weaver is worth the price of admission all by herself, which is just as well in light of the less-than-fleshed-out characters by whom she's surrounded.

[47] Jeffery Overstreet of Looking closer rated the film "C+" and commented "What began as the most menacing movie monster of all has evolved into a whining oaf that looks like it's been dipped in a vat of Cream of Wheat".

[48] Janet Maslin from The New York Times reported "The filmmaker's ghoulishly fecund imagination makes this tale ... so murky that even the screen's toughest woman-warrior remains largely stuck in the mud.

[failed verification][50] Screenwriter Joss Whedon was unhappy with the final product, remarking that it closely followed his script but was poorly executed.

[20] Joss Whedon had written an Earth-set script for Alien 5, but Sigourney Weaver was not interested in this setting and sought to return the story to the planetoid from the first film.

Before he saw the film, Cameron had stated that it would "kill the validity of the franchise", and that "it was Frankenstein Meets Werewolf"—like "Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other".

[61] At the 2014 Hero Complex Film Festival, Sigourney Weaver hinted that she would be interested in returning to the role of Ripley, saying: "Had we done a fifth one, I don't doubt that her humanity would have prevailed.

"[63] In 2017, 20th Century Fox was rumored to be reassessing the state of the franchise after the lukewarm reception to Covenant, although they have not released an official statement to that effect.

[64] At the 2019 CinemaCon, following The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it was officially confirmed that future Alien films were currently in development.