Sigourney Weaver Pushes for a Director's Cut of One of Her Most Iconic Films
Sigourney Weaver has one movie she wants recut and back on the big screen, urging a director’s cut of a career-defining favorite she still can’t let go of.
Sigourney Weaver wants to crack open the airlock on one of her all-timers and let the original version breathe. And honestly, the reasoning behind it is a very studio-era story: a great comedy trimmed to chase a family audience and a holiday rival.
She wants the Galaxy Quest we didn’t get
On Vanity Fair, the Alien and Ghostbusters alum said she wishes there was a director’s cut of 1999’s Galaxy Quest out in the world — ideally back in theaters. According to Weaver, DreamWorks trimmed some of the weirder, more adult-leaning bits at the last second to position the movie as kid-friendly competition for Stuart Little. The way she tells it, Tim Allen had 'very strange and wonderful' material that got sanded down on the way to release.
"I wish they’d put out a director’s cut of the movie. At the last minute, DreamWorks decided to release the movie with some of the more sophisticated scenes that [Tim] Allen was in. Because it needed a kids' movie to go up against Stuart Little. Why they don’t put out the movie again with [Allen] very, very strange and wonderful scenes?"
The sequel that almost happened
Weaver says co-writer Robert Gordon did, in fact, write a sequel script. But he refused to hand it to DreamWorks — he felt the studio had missed the opportunity the first time around. The cast always meant to circle back for another one, but after Alan Rickman passed away, the momentum faded and the plan basically died with him.
Why Gwen DeMarco still matters to her
Weaver calls Galaxy Quest a 'love letter to actors' and says she felt privileged to make it. She also surprised me a bit by saying Gwen DeMarco is closer to her than Ellen Ripley ever was. Her read: Gwen is a young woman desperate to be a star who isn’t taken seriously because she’s beautiful, bosomy, and blonde — not even by the show’s commander. Weaver says she felt real compassion and sisterhood with Gwen’s situation.
Quick refresher: what Galaxy Quest is
Galaxy Quest is a 1999 sci-fi comedy riffing on Star Trek. It follows the washed-up cast of a canceled TV show who get abducted by aliens that think the series was a nonfiction transmission. The aliens need heroes. The actors need jobs. Chaos (and surprisingly heartfelt stuff) ensues.
- Cast: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and more
Between the studio calculus and the lost sequel, there’s a whole alternate version of Galaxy Quest sitting just out of reach. If a cut with those stranger Tim Allen scenes exists — or could be restored — put me down for opening night.