leading from
AVP: Borrowed from the Alien saga
a) Charles "Bishop" Weyland the billionaire
Paul Anderson had the idea of playing a character named Charles "Bishop" Weyland, who like Bill Gates is a billionaire, and is the founder of Weyland Industries that somewhere in the years ahead would become part of Weyland-Yutani, the conglomerate featured in the Alien series that owns the Nostromo and the terraforming station on LV 426.
Anderson thought about how surprising it would be if you met this man and he was not a twisted megalomaniac, but indeed was quite a sad character.
He's a decent man whose empire mutates into something that it is in the Alien films.
His death will be marked only by a fall in share prices, the corporation has a life beyond him, it's an entity unto itself.
So rather than leave a pile of money behind, Weyland wants to do something memorable and so he finds the best people he can and takes an expedition to a location in the Antarctic.
He wants to achieve immortality by leaving his mark in some way before he dies.
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Charles "Bishop" Weyland the founder of Weyland Industries |
b) Similarities between an android and someone who is dying
He is played by the actor Lance Henriksen who played the android Bishop in Aliens and so this role forced him to try to imagine what it would be like to be a billionaire and he found a similarity between the two.
The Charles Weyland character is a man who is decent and wants to do good, but he is dying and Lance found that there was something similar between an android and someone who is dying.
The idea being that if you are dying, you see life with a blinding light and you are saying goodbye to it.
If you are playing an android, one of the elements that is poignant to Lance was that anything alive is of great beauty and interest and so he saw that as the core of it.
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Bishop the android |
c) We can build Weyland
Charles Weyland is the father of modern robotics and so somewhere in the centuries ahead, the android named Bishop would be made featuring his image as a tribute to Charles Weyland , so in effect he would live forever.
Some might suddenly want to think back to Philip K Dick's 1972 novel "We can build you" which features an android built in the image of the late Abraham Lincoln.
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Paul Anderson fans the flames of confusion surrounding the identity of Bishop 2 from Alien 3 |
d) Change the old future to fit the new past
Paul Anderson needed to have an actor from the Alien films for continuity with the world of that saga, decided that Bishop 2 also played by Lance Henriksen in Alien 3 was an android rather than a human because the character appears in the film credits as Bishop II and so there's clearly going to be a Bishop III, Bishop IV, Bishop V and so on, although that was not really what the idea of calling Lance character at the end of Alien 3 was about.
He was telling the interviewers that this meant he was a mark 2 Bishop android and he decided that the android Bishop was built with the face of the original founder of Weyland Industries.
What he was also telling us is that Ripley didn't know what the founder of Weyland Industries looked.
The Total Film reporter noted that when Paul talked about this he was growling his words, " shooting a flare so fierce " that " it would drop and Alien Queen on the spot " so it may well have been a fact that he knew about the confusion it was causing.
e) Would have settled for Ian Holm
Anderson stated would have settled for Ian Holm who played Ash in Alien, but Henriksen was the one who was available.
The confusion about who or what Bishop 2 was left some feeling even more lost than ever.
However, Lance claims to not have a final word about who or what Bishop 2 or, as far as he was concerned when he worked on Alien, 3 it was up in the air whether he was an android or a human and people who went to see this film were arguing over this after having it.
f) Henriksen's disatisfaction with the Bishop 2 role
Henriksen wasn't so happy about his Bishop 2 role from Alien 3 and stated that he intended not to be used for product recognition again, which seemed to be the only reason he was being asked to come in to Alien vs Predator but this was a leading character through the whole of the film so for an actor it was worth while, even if Lance's appearance here did confuse the masses.
see also: Haven't a clue about Bishop 2
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Bishop doing the knife trick |
g)"Bishop's knife trick"
Lance decided that if they were going to use Charles Weyland's face for the android, they would also use some of his mannerisms.
Lance was doing some of the ticks and mannerisms of the Bishop from Aliens and Paul Anderson understanding the term "retrofitting" probably because of its popularity as a term associated with the design work of Blade Runner, decided that it was "a kind of retrofitting to Weyland".
This allowed for another connecting scene in the film, between the two characters,Charles Bishop Weyland and Bishop the android which is the scene where Charles Weyland plays with a pen sticking it at points between his spread out fingers in the way that the android Bishop is seen to do it in the movie Aliens.
Paul Anderson thought that the fans would be going into a frenzy of excitement about it.
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Charles Weyland imitating the knife trick |
- Lance Henriksen: It was Paul's idea for me to play a billionaire who made money in robotics,and that Weyland would make Bishop as a tribute to himself. (Starburst, #314, 41)
- Lance Henriksen: This character is dying, and there's something similar between an android and someone who is dying. Rather than leave a pile of money behind Weyland wants to do something memorable and he finds the best people he can and takes an expedition. (Starburst, Issue 314, p41)
- Lance Henriksen: If you are dying you see life with a blinding light, you are saying goodbye to it. If you are playing an android, one of the elements that is poignant to me is that anything alive is of great beauty and interest. I see that as the core of it. (Starburst, Issue 314, p41)
- Lance Henriksen: Charles Bishop Weyland is a decent man who wants to do good, and he's terminally ill and he wants to leave his mark upon the world. He's a billionaire like Bill Gates and he's the father of modern robotics, which explains why the Bishop robot in Aliens would be built in his image. He wants to achieve immortality before he died. (Dreamwatch, issue 122, p36)
- Lance Henriksen: He's a billionaire - like Bill Gates in the film - but he's dying and he wants to leave a mark on the world. This Bishop is the father of modern robotics, which means that the Bishop we saw in Aliens - over a 100 years in the future - was built in Weyland's image. In the film, Weyland's dying, and, facing the end, he wants to leave some kind of legacy behind, like most billionaires. He's a good guy in the film, and the role forced me to try and imagine what it's like to be a billionaire. Weyland wants immortality, which explains why a robot - centuries from now - would feature his image and would be named Bishop. He lives forever. (Sci Fi, August 2004, p27)
- Paul Anderson: "As the Alien films take place more than 200 years in the future, the only person I could cast would be an android, so it had to be either Lance Henriksen or Ian Holm. And I was a huge fan of Lance's so that it was a big thrill to persuade him to be in the movie"(Starburst, Issue 316. p25)
- David Hughes:"Nevertheless, Henriksen feels that the only reason he was asked to do the picture was for product recognition - the studio knew that his name would attract the many fans of his character from ALIENS to the second sequel - and he is determined that he "wont be used that way again."(Aliens (comicbook), Vol 2, Number 22, 1994, "Regarding Henriks" by David Hughes, p46)
- Total Film: Ofcourse Henriksen's bug eyed presence in Alien Vs Predator is no coincidence. Anderson had always wanted some kind of casting link between his entry to the franchise and the previous Alien films and Henriksen's participation is the result. His character, Weyland is the Bill Gates of robotics, and is meant to be the physical template for Bishop, the android he played in Aliens.
"That was one of the only ways we could do it "he(Paul Anderson)growls, shooting out a flare so fierce it would drop an Alien Queen on the spot."In the far future he's an android - just look at the credits of Alien 3 where he's credited as Bishop II. So there's clearly gonna be a Bishop III, Bishop IV, Bishop V...."(Total Film, November 2004, p102) - SFX: One of the film's more interesting twists is in the presentation of billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland , founder of the organisation that overshadows the Alien franchise, the Company. With Lance Henriksen playing the role, reinforcing the idea that Weyland was the model for the Bishop androids he played in Aliens and Alien 3, he is not an evil capitalist but a kindly entrepreneur. He does not lead the motley group of engineers, scientists, and others on his expedition with an ulterior motive. (SFX Magazine November 2004, p65)
- Paul Anderson: I thought how surprising it would be if you meet this guy and he's not a twisted megalomaniac. He's quite a sad character. He's desperate to leave something behind more than just billions and billions of dollars. He's a decent man whose empire mutates into something that it is in the Alien films. Like Weyland says, when he dies his death will be marked by a fall in share prices. the corporation has a life beyond him, it's an entity unto itself. (SFX Magazine November 2004, p65)
- Paul Anderson: That was, that was one of my favourite things that we did and when you watch the movie with an audience with like fans...
Lance Henriksen: They'll go "oaah!'
Paul Anderson: ....who know Alien, who know Aliens. They just go crazy over it.
Lanaa: I don't even know the pen thing, what is that?
Paul Anderson: It's, it's a, it's like a visual quote from Aliens where Lance puts his hand over Bill Pax's own hand
Lance Henriksen: On Bill Paxton he uses the knife and did the knife trick.Lanaa: Aah yess yes yes
Lance Henriksen:I just did it right before you come in, I just did it with a pen idly while I was looking at the computer.
Paul Anderson:Because the idea for, for ... storywise, I wanted to get some casting continuity with the Alien movies, and Lance was the perfect because Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3 was an android and I thought if Weyland invented all of this technology and eventually he's the, you knowit's kind of like Microsoft building a, an androidwith the face of Bill Gates in a hundred and fifty years timeuh...uh...but then Lance came up with the idea that if they're going to use his face for the Bishop androidthey were going to use his mannerisms, so he was kind of like doing some of the ticks and the mannerisms of Bishop that's kind of retrofitting to Weyland. (from the commentary of the Alien vs Predator DVD )
