Most myths are based somewhat, but almost all of them have been embellished, exaggerated, and evolved over time to be more than the original story. It is refreshing to hear that the long-standing rumor of how young up-and-coming director James Cameron managed to land the sequel to the Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror movie hit isn't a rumor at all.
The story goes like this: a man walks into a room filled with studio executives. He writes the word "Alien" on the whiteboard and waits. Then he adds an s to it. He added two vertical lines to the "s" and turned it into "Alien$." CinemaBlend confirmed the story, although he did clarify that his presentation was more involved than just drawing on a whiteboard.
I was in the office of the head of 20th Century Fox with three producers. I said that I had an idea for the title. It goes like this. In large block letters, I wrote 'Alien'. I put an S on the end. I showed them it. I want to call it Aliens because we are not dealing with one. The big distinction is that we are dealing with an army. It is very simple and graphic. I said, "Here's what it's going to translate to." I drew the lines through it to make a dollar sign. My pitch was that. Apparently it worked. They went with the title. They never questioned it.
Sometimes simple approaches work best, and it certainly did here. It's an incredible accomplishment that he was chosen to direct the sequel to a movie that made over 80 million dollars. Or should I say something like, "accompli$hment"?
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