Lord Of The Rings Director Peter Jackson Refused To Take Over A Beloved Sci-Fi Franchise

One of the cool things about the "Alien" movies, at least before Ridley Scott returned to make the (underrated!) "Prometheus" in 2012, is that the franchise has served as a sandbox for all sorts of directors to play around in. After Scott gave us a horror classic with 1979's "Alien," James Cameron swooped in to make an action thriller with 1986's "Aliens." After that, David Fincher stopped by in 1992 to make a very bleak prison drama with "Alien 3," only for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet to turn around and put his own spin on the property with 1997's "Alien: Resurrection."

Did this approach always work? Not really, but it did give the "Alien" franchise a fun, experimental feel. So many sequels have been criticized for basically being a redo of the first movie, but outside of "Alien: Romulus" you could never accuse the "Alien" property of having this problem. That's why it's not too big a surprise to learn that the directing gig for "Alien: Resurrection" was once offered to Peter Jackson, who had yet to become a household name at the time.

Jackson wasn't interested, however. "I was asked to direct 'Alien: Resurrection' but I passed," he wrote on his old website's FAQ page, adding, "I just can't get excited about doing an 'Alien' film." Although we can't blame him for passing on a franchise he had no interest in doing, it is a shame, as there's enough in his filmography to indicate he'd probably be good at the job.

There are plenty of creepy moments throughout Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, like when Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm, who himself starred in the original "Alien") snaps over the One Ring or the whole sequence in Shelob's lair, but I'd argue that it's with "King Kong" that Jackson really proved he could handle an "Alien" film. Not only does the movie center on Kong, a deadly creature who greedy humans falsely think they can contain and control for profit, but it also includes the infamous bug pit scene.

This particular sequence, which goes on for an agonizingly long time in the middle of "King Kong," features a group of survivors being picked off one by one by a repulsive group of giant insects, spiders, and hungry worms. (Seven-year-old me was not having a good time watching this scene in a theater, I can tell you that much.) The whole thing reminds me of the sequence in "Aliens" where Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Newt (Carrie Henn) wake up to the find themselves trapped in a room with two face-huggers. The "King Kong" bug pit sequence is far more over-the-top of course, but they both leave you holding your breath until rescue finally arrives at the very last minute.

For that matter, the entire first two-thirds of "King Kong" play out like one long, messy jungle-themed version of the original "Alien," with a crew of people entering a largely-unknown environment and quickly realizing they're in way over their heads. Although Naomi Watts' Anne is not quite the fearless final girl that Ripley turned out to be, she still plays a similar role as a woman uniquely suited to survive this terrifying situation. "King Kong" is no "Alien," sure, but they're not exactly polar opposites either.

Has the window for a Jackson-directed "Alien" movie closed by now? Probably. But if he ever did decide to dip his toes in the "Alien" waters, I think it'd turn out better than most people would expect.