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Sci-Fi Movies

Ridley Scott Abandons Alien Prequel 170

An anonymous reader writes "With Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox announcing that the much-vaunted 3D Alien prequel has now mutated into an original SF film project called Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace, the author of this article recalls his 2007 interview with the late Dan O'Bannon, who presumably is happy about the news, wherever he is. Asked what he'd like to see happen to the xenomorph franchise, the Alien co-creator said: 'I'd like to see it stop. A horror movie's a fragile thing, and once you've gotten past the original, it isn't scary anymore. So you do a bunch of sequels to a horror movie, all they do is drain any remaining impact out of the original...it's not as effective as it would have been if you had just left it alone.'"
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Ridley Scott Abandons Alien Prequel

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  • by Troll-Under-D'Bridge ( 1782952 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @09:21AM (#34889018) Journal

    So you do a bunch of sequels to a horror movie, all they do is drain any remaining impact out of the original

    I'm sure this applies to any hit movie. I mean, the first time they made Scary Movie, it was a guilty pleasure. Now it's, well, just dull. There are few exceptions. Empire Strikes Back thematically seems better than Star Wars. The revelation of the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader was good enough to be parodied by Toy Story (was it 2 or 3?). But the Star Wars prequels? Maybe the producers should take a hint.

    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday January 15, 2011 @09:28AM (#34889072) Homepage Journal

      I don't think that I really agree. Nobody is forcing you to watch the sequels or prequels. I still haven't seen Alien 3, even though I've liked all the other ones. I just treat them as different movies rather than different parts of the same movie and I win.

      • by F34nor ( 321515 )

        Basically none of the other movies are horror movies so he's not wrong.

      • Arthur C. Clarke's introductions to the 2001 and (IIRC) Rama sequels state explicitly that they're separate works, covering similar themes with similar characters, but that they do not follow directly from their predecessors, and that he always favoured the story over consistency wherever the two were in conflict. I always thought that was a better way of working, albeit the kind of thing that drives people desperate to turn fiction into circumscribed, consistent "universes" completely nuts.

    • I think that Aliens was a far better movie than Alien. That said, I also wouldn't class it as a horror movie, more of a really intense action movie. But good sequels are few and far between - it's been said many times here, a good movie is not about the special effects, it's the story that matters.

      • by Dogtanian ( 588974 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:19AM (#34889714) Homepage

        I think that Aliens was a far better movie than Alien.

        I agree- or rather, I'd say that personally I much preferred Aliens to Alien. I initially put that down to having seen Aliens first (possibly spoiling some of the surprise and effect of the original), but when I later heard Alien described as a "horror movie in space", I realised that that was also the reason. Horror movies just don't work for me, however much I'd like them to.

        That said, I also wouldn't class it as a horror movie

        Which is probably why I enjoyed it better though...

        more of a really intense action movie.

        ...I'm not really that much into action movies either, but I still enjoyed it! Anyway, Aliens probably worked and felt fresh because they *weren't* trying to copy the original or out-do it, but managed to keep its spirit while doing something different.

        Alien 3 was dull though, and while Alien Resurrection was somewhat more enjoyable, its French "comic book" feel clashed with the more realistic style of the original films, mitigated only slightly by the time that was meant to have passed between them.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I think that Aliens was a far better movie than Alien.

          I agree- or rather, I'd say that personally I much preferred Aliens to Alien.

          This. If you're going to have an objective view on the merits of something, personal opinion shouldn't enter into it. Aliens is the more entertaining film, watching the original remains an extremely unpleasant experience. The chest-burst scene is one of those rare defining moments in cinematic history, the entire film a nightmarish artistic triumph. Aliens is just a dumb pop

        • by julesh ( 229690 )

          Alien 3 was dull though

          I think the problem with Alien3 was that its director decided he wanted to try to recapture the feel of the original movie, rather than build on what made Aliens great. I wonder whether you've seen this? [awesomefilm.com] It's the first draft of the script for Alien3, and was totally different. The feel was much more like Aliens (especially as vg xrcg obgu Uvpxf naq Arjg nyvir engure guna xvyyvat gurz bss va gur gvzr tnc orgjrra gur svyzf [spoiler for the actual Alien3 film]). Some people reckon it

        • by js3 ( 319268 )

          I liked both of them and treat them as separate movies. why does one have to be better than the other, they were both really good. And to comment on the topic, the reason is faulty, I think it's just Ridley's copout instead of saying he's just tired of the franchise.

      • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:36AM (#34889854) Journal

        I don't think it's better. Alien still is an incredibly effective horror film, a sort of space-based locked room mystery. Aliens was more of a military SF-style movie, so in a way they are considerably different films. I enjoy them both, but they are almost in two different genres.

    • by TheLink ( 130905 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:06AM (#34889238) Journal
      The first movie might have been a horror movie, but I'd classify the other ones as "action thrillers". In my opinion future movies could still succeed as action thrillers even though it'll be hard to do a new horror movie based on aliens (since a part of horror is in the unknown, and the aliens and their limits are now mostly known).
      • by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @03:59PM (#34891834)

        In my opinion future movies could still succeed as action thrillers

        I have to agree. What the Alien franchise really needs is a badass superhero type with witty one liners and a catchphrase, maybe "yipee ka yay" or something, and an emo teenage sidekick who can complain throughout the movie but saves the day when the Alien queen is about to bite off the hero's head. And a chihuahua alien hybrid who can do funny tricks (for the xmas merchandising).

    • And remember how good the Matrix seemed when we first saw it, and then how bad it seems in retrospect after seeing the rest of the Wachowski brother's "vision"? That's a movie whose impact was actually lessened by the sequels - it was better when we filled in the blanks with our imagination than when we saw what passed for the "answers" presented in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (the truly horrid mess of the series).

      The original Star Wars movies are, thankfully, separated enough in time and form f

      • by GrumblyStuff ( 870046 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:10AM (#34889646)

        That dull drivel has some entertainment value though not at all due to the efforts of Lucas and Co. Might I direct your attention to reviews (with a meta-story among these and other reviews) of The Phantom Menace [redlettermedia.com], The Attack of the Clones [redlettermedia.com], and The Revenge of the Sith [redlettermedia.com]? These are video reviews and very much NSFW (but still very analytical and all the movies are thoughtfully picked apart). They are also rather long, each over an hour.

      • And remember how good the Matrix seemed when we first saw it, and then how bad it seems in retrospect after seeing the rest of the Wachowski brother's "vision"? That's a movie whose impact was actually lessened by the sequels - it was better when we filled in the blanks with our imagination than when we saw what passed for the "answers" presented in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (the truly horrid mess of the series).

        The original Star Wars movies are, thankfully, separated enough in time and form from the later prequels that many of us can still view them as they were originally (well, assuming you can find a copy of them without George Lucas' idiotic revisions) and simply pretend that the dull drivel made years later doesn't exist.

        Does anyone know if the original trilogy (un-edited) has been remastered?

        If so, under what format and where did you find it?

    • by Sulphur ( 1548251 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:39AM (#34889410)

      So you do a bunch of sequels to a horror movie, all they do is drain any remaining impact out of the original

      I'm sure this applies to any hit movie. I mean, the first time they made Scary Movie, it was a guilty pleasure. Now it's, well, just dull. There are few exceptions. Empire Strikes Back thematically seems better than Star Wars. The revelation of the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader was good enough to be parodied by Toy Story (was it 2 or 3?). But the Star Wars prequels? Maybe the producers should take a hint.

      How about a cowboy version : Use the Horse Luke.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by S.O.B. ( 136083 )

        How about a cowboy version : Use the Horse Luke.

        How about a computer version - Use the Source Luke.
        Or a Scandinavian version - Use the Norse Luke.

    • I don't think it applies to other genres as much as it applies to horror movies, though. A lot of what makes a movie scary is mystery and uncertainty. A monster is never as scary as when you don't see it, don't know what it is, and you have no idea how to protect yourself. By the time you hit a sequel, it's all old hat. You know what the monster is, you've gotten a good look at it, and you've seen someone stop it. It may be interesting or fun, but it will never give you the same sene of dread.
      • Indeed. It's one of the reasons the later Jaws movies never really worked. The first Jaws movie uses a similar approach to that of Alien, to slowly over the length of the whole film reveal the monster, and in fact spending most of the film keeping the bomb under the table (an allusion to Hitchcock's bomb theory of suspense). In fact, I'd say these movies owe an incredible amount to Hitchcock's methodology. Look at a movie like Psycho or Vertigo, and I think you see the playbook that good horror/suspense

        • Well yeah, I think a large part of the reason that Aliens still worked pretty well is that it sort of reintroduced mystery by changing the nature of the monster. Instead of having another lone alien creeping in the darkness, you have an overwhelming army of aliens backed by an alien queen. At the beginning of the movie, you're back to being uncertain of the nature of the danger you're facing.

          You can't just do that ad infinitum for several sequels, though. Adding more aliens doesn't do much, since you'v

    • This is why I never watched the two Matrix sequels, and I never will.

      • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

        They were actually fine. It is a messianic tale and follows that to the end. If you can't see that all messianic tales ripoff the ones before it then you really need to educate yourself a little. The current favorite one about that Jesus fellow is a total ripoff of much older stories.

        • No, they weren't, the second two were crap.

          I think the allegations that the first movie's script was stolen are probably true, because something seems to be missing between the first movie and the sequels, and the theory that the Wachowski Brothers stole the first script from a better writer, but then had to write their own scripts for the sequels, would explain that.

          It's just like George Lucas movies. George did a great job with visuals and the like, but he can't write dialog or a script for shit. So Emp

    • by cybrpnk2 ( 579066 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:09AM (#34889638) Homepage
      It certainly applied to how the Borg were handled in the star Trek franchise.
    • It all depends on how it's handled. Horror movies are especially vulnerable, though, because part of the horror is in your lack of knowledge about the monster. Since you already know some of what's going on the second time around, it's not as scary.

      Of course, in the right hands sequels can be made very well. Look at Toy Story for one example of a movie that never planned to have sequels, but the sequels were as well done as the original.
    • But the Star Wars prequels? Maybe the producers should take a hint.

      The role of a producer is to invest money in a movie in order to get a profitable return on his investment.
      The only hint a producer can take from the star wars prequels is: MONEY!!! Prequels mean money! Do them! Do them a lot!

  • Okay, I admit, I loved Avatar in 3D, but everything does not need to be in 3D! Not sure I would be into an Alien 3D.

    What? It is going to be Prometheus 3D? Did I just become one of the survivors from Predators or Groundhog Day?

  • Good news (Score:5, Interesting)

    by calzakk ( 1455889 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @09:28AM (#34889066) Journal

    Actually, this is very good news. Alien and Aliens will never be bettered, fact. The rest (including A vs P) either ok or poor. Anything new will be guaranteed disappointment.

    Who actually wanted to know where the xenomorphs came from? Whatever happened to imagination?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Suki I ( 1546431 )

      Actually, this is very good news. Alien and Aliens will never be bettered, fact. The rest (including A vs P) either ok or poor. Anything new will be guaranteed disappointment.

      Who actually wanted to know where the xenomorphs came from? Whatever happened to imagination?

      There might have been a lot of fan interest for that. A friend is writing a prequel to a story I worked on with him due to fan requests. The original is quite popular on the free sites where it is posted now.

      Tying into the original topic here, he has an eBook deal now for an adaptation of the original story for another site that has a somewhat different audience. Could be some of what happened here, the "people who know" saying there is a better market for a new movie rather than continuing the old franc

    • by Ecuador ( 740021 )

      Actually, this is very good news.

      It's great news. And perhaps he will have some more time to concentrate on how to bring one of the best sci-fi novels (Forever War) to the big screen.

      • And perhaps he will have some more time to concentrate on how to bring one of the best sci-fi novels (Forever War) to the big screen.

        Speaking of disappointing sequels... :-)

    • I thought the workprint version of Alien 3 was much better... it was much more of a "complete" movie than the theatrical release. However, I did not like much of anything from Alien 4, except maybe Ron Perlman (who's in everything these days..)

      My friends and I spent hours discussing the possibilities for the origins of the creatures... It was good geek sci-fi fun. If they put out an origin story, it'll just ruin all that speculative stuff that has given the Alien franchise legs in spite of its age...
    • Whatever happened to imagination?

      I think he was killed in the 3rd movie.

  • by TreeInMyCube ( 1789238 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @09:34AM (#34889094)
    Larry Niven wrote a series of novels with consistent backstory, physics, and an evolution over time -- the Known Space series. J. K. Rowling knew there would be 7 Harry Potter books, and J. Michael Straczyinski (sp) planned Bablyon 5 to have a story arc over 5 seasons. Asimov intended the Foundation Trilogy as a cohesive whole; I think that his later additions to that universe, including the tie-ins to the "I Robot" universe were motivated more by publishers than by his original vision. Perhaps Dan O'Bannon never wanted to create a universe, or a self-consistent backstory... he just wanted to make a scary movie with a surprising powerful alien. The second movie also worked as a suspense/thriller, even though we knew what the aliens' abilities were.
    • Larry Niven wrote a series of novels with consistent backstory, physics, and an evolution over time -- the Known Space series. J. K. Rowling knew there would be 7 Harry Potter books, and J. Michael Straczyinski (sp) planned Bablyon 5 to have a story arc over 5 seasons. Asimov intended the Foundation Trilogy as a cohesive whole; I think that his later additions to that universe, including the tie-ins to the "I Robot" universe were motivated more by publishers than by his original vision. Perhaps Dan O'Bannon never wanted to create a universe, or a self-consistent backstory... he just wanted to make a scary movie with a surprising powerful alien. The second movie also worked as a suspense/thriller, even though we knew what the aliens' abilities were.

      The real difference is each of those authors were in much more control over the franchise than most movie director/writers/producers are. Authors generally don't have to worry about what a star wants, dealing with ego of a big producer who has his or her own 'vision', etc. They also have the luxury of not having to tell a story in a little over an hour. TV shows may be easier because you can build a story arc - and it has been successful even if individual episodes are weak - such as in the Sopranos and

    • by g4b ( 956118 )

      well, not every author devotes himself to mythical writing, as does not every musician devote himself to metal.

      planned universes have to come from a mind, which thinks about these things. imagination paired with lots of creativity and abstract thinking.

      as dungeon and dragon novels however show us, not every universe created as background story works in actual stories very well, as does not every universe work very well if it is born by a (successful) story for creating additional content.

      tieing together ali

    • Aside from whatever extra cash it may have generated, Niven and Asimov both revisited their flagship works after long layoffs to tie up loose ends in the stories. Easier to do that with a sequel than a prequel. With a prequel all you do is mess with the story that people think they already know and, broadly generalizing, that tends to piss people off (e.g. SW Episodes 1-3 as prequel for Episode 4).

      Pulling my copy of Foundation's Edge off the shelf (old school print, yo!)...and your suspicion about the pub

    • Larry Niven wrote a series of novels with consistent backstory, physics, and an evolution over time -- the Known Space series.

      True, but he also wrote several sequels to Ringworld... Now, personally, I liked The Ringworld Engineers but The Ringworld Throne commits the heinous crime of undermining a crucial element of the plot of Engineers (as well as being a rather dull story in which not very much happens).

      The second movie also worked as a suspense/thriller, even though we knew what the aliens' abilities were.

      Yes - the strength of Aliens was that it took the idea in a completely different direction. The later sequels were more like do-overs of the same idea, although Resurrection did have the added interest of a mismatched crew of sp

    • Alien happened when O'Bannon took a "mysterious alien pyramid" story and a "gremlin attacks WW2 airplane" story, neither of which he could get to work, and combined them. The series didn't have anything resembling "a universe" until Aliens' spin-offs.

  • I'm a huge fan of the Alien franchise. I was very eager to see another alien movie with Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger involved. I didn't actually expect much out of it... But I was eager to see what we'd get.

    But, let's be realistic here... After those first couple of movies, it's really been downhill.

  • From TFA (Score:5, Funny)

    by Suki I ( 1546431 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @09:59AM (#34889198) Homepage Journal

    Prometheus will star Rapace as scientist Elizabeth Shaw (cast by Scott after the director was impressed with her work in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), with Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie mooted as possible co-stars in a script that previous rumours have outlined as featuring a female-manned spaceship crew with a distinctly lesbian atmosphere.

    Now, what was wrong with the old outline?

  • by Jodka ( 520060 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:03AM (#34889228)

    As this graph [datapointed.net] shows, regardless of the genre, sequels are usually worse than the original.

    • Everyone knows most sequels suck.

      But are there any good prequels?

  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • What? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      District 9 had nothing to do with Halo. Peter Jackson was going to do a Halo movie at the time, but it fell through, so he instead created District 9, based on the short film Alive in Joburg [wikipedia.org].
       
      Even if D9 were inspired by Halo, how does that have anything to do with TFA?

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Jackson wasn't going to make either, he was the producer on both projects. Blomkamp was the guy he picked to do the Halo movie, and when that fell through, Jackson gave him a free reign to make any project he wanted. Blomkamp chose to expand his own Alive in Joburg.

  • Phew! (Score:2, Funny)

    by skribe ( 26534 )
    Good thing they stopped at one sequel then: Aliens.
  • by jollyreaper ( 513215 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:58AM (#34889550)

    There's no compelling story to tell.

    We can't use Lord of the Rings as an example because it' really one big film in three parts. But we can use Empire as an example. The first film told a proper story and Empire continued it. It was good drama. Same goes for Terminator 2. There was room in the universe to tell another story. But after two time travel stories, the only possible room left in that universe was to tell the story of the future war. No time travel. Just Judgement Day, John Connor putting his military together, the fight against the machines. Some people might say this is essentially a prequel since these events were already established as having happened beforehand but I think there's still room to tell an interesting story. There was certainly no need for another fucking time travel story like T3. T4 was almost the story they should have told but executed in the most ham-fisted, talentless fashion imaginable.

    The Matrix, on the other hand, was a movie where a sequel was completely impossible. Neo had already won. The war was over but for the fussy details. There is simply no possible way that anyone could do a sequel of any good with that movie. You have one movie, it told the whole story. There's no room for any sort of sequel, period.

    Something like Pirates, that could do with sequels. The original movie shouldn't have been any good in the first place, being based on an amusement park ride and a completely transparent excuse to make money. But it happened to be light, enjoyable fun, really fun. Kudos for them. So then they went at the sequels with a vengeance and hate-fucked every last bit of fun out of the whole thing. You could have had three nice, all ages adventure movies like Indiana Jones. Instead it was just limp, lifeless shit.

    Could someone tell another good story within the aliens universe? Of course they can. The question is will they? Not likely. Every movie is put out there to make money but there's a difference between something greenlit in the hopes of making some money versus something that's now seen as a cash cow and, more importantly, something that is now a formula. They'll let you play around with first movies but once they think you have lightning in a bottle, they won't let you change a thing. Mass produce it and see if we can suck all the milk out of this teat. There will never be another good aliens movie or another good predator movie because the suits will never release enough control for it to be any good.

    • by itsdapead ( 734413 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @12:27PM (#34890166)

      The Matrix, on the other hand, was a movie where a sequel was completely impossible. Neo had already won. The war was over but for the fussy details.

      I don't think that's the problem. The problem was that a major factor in The Matrix's success was the look and atmosphere of the film. There hadn't been anything like it at all in mainstream western cinema - but by the time the sequels hit the streets, "bullet time" and extreme martial arts had become cliches.

      Its the same reason that there should never be a sequel to Blade Runner - the plot of which was nothing to write home about, but it completely re-defined the look of on-screen SF. (I'd pay to see a "straight" re-make of the novel, but I doubt it would be commercially viable).

      • by Boronx ( 228853 )

        Rewatch it. It's still pretty awesome watching Neo progress to Supersayan, and the sequels still suck.

    • by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @04:11PM (#34891894) Homepage Journal

      The Matrix, on the other hand, was a movie where a sequel was completely impossible. Neo had already won. The war was over but for the fussy details. There is simply no possible way that anyone could do a sequel of any good with that movie.

      Look, we're all annoyed that they never made any sequels to the Matrix, but I could tell you tons of good stories to follow up on the adventures of Neo vs the Machines.

      Neo can hack their world, but they have the hardware and the source code, they can split the matrix into separate cells so his influence is limited, he'd have to log in to each network one after the other and they would each have a different universe in them, with a modified code he'd have to re-hack each time. Then there's the fight in meatspace, that could be interesting, with Neo hacking Squids so their eyes turn blue and the serve humans. The people in the Matrices wouldn't all want to be liberated, they'd be more willing to make a deal with the Agents for steak, they could know that the devil named Neo was coming to rip them from their world to force them to be his servants in a cold gray world where they would never see the sun... etc.

      But maybe you're right, maybe if they made a sequel it would suck, and they would end up just being a stupid shoot 'em up with transparent pandering to the religious crowd.

    • by Pecisk ( 688001 )

      The Matrix, on the other hand, was a movie where a sequel was completely impossible. Neo had already won. The war was over but for the fussy details. There is simply no possible way that anyone could do a sequel of any good with that movie. You have one movie, it told the whole story. There's no room for any sort of sequel, period.

      But who said that Neo already won war? He won *one* fight with agents. I think monologue of Neo at the end of the Matrix was clear indication that this is not the end. It was quite clear that war wasn't over.

      My problem with geeks who hate Matrix (not just dislike, which is fine, art is subjective), is that it ruined story of ever mighty Neo for them - and they don't want to admit it. In second and third one, suddenly Neo is just a puzzle of bigger enigma. Suddenly he is just a element of the system. Which

  • Ridley Scott has never been one to go the route of Lucas and Spielberg who constantly rape franchises for the easy trip to the bank. You've got to hand it to the guy for wanting to make films and not cash vehicles. I'm looking forward to this, especially if Noomi Rapace is involved. Check her out in the movies based on the Millenium series.

  • The problem with the Aliens franchise is the bad writing. Sequels are usually nothing more than a greed producer's attempt to cash on the last film's rep. If the writers don't have any more to say (and usually this would be determined by the original books/screenplay), then it's almost a sure bet the sequels will suck. All the Aliens sequels besides #2 did nothing more than copy the preceding visual elements. It's just not scary to see the same drooling lunge out of the shadows after 6 movies worth. I

    • The problem with the Aliens franchise is the bad writing.

      No, the problem is that it is a franchise: a business method.

      The bad writing is a consequence of the franchising process.

    • Actually, it was worse than that. With the first movie, there was only one alien, a big one (or at least it grew big during the movie), hiding in the ship and eating people. In the end, you see the whole alien as it gets blown out into space.

      In the second movie, you start thinking there's one alien lurking that the Space Marines have to kill. But then you find out there's dozens of aliens scurrying around, and in the end you find out that the original alien is now bigger than ever, and has creating a hiv

  • DIE Prequel DIE!

    STAB!
    Slash!
    Burn!

  • Xenomorph was just about to get laid, and "Aaaaaaa..." *Cut*

    The whole xenomorph porn angle is left untouched.

  • Or does it people itself with a culture that wallows in it?

    People talk about books vs. movies. I thought some of the AvP books were great action adventure and I had several minutes of a script in my mind that would have been kick-ass. I had such high hopes, and we received such a total piece of crap. Really? Couldn't they have slipped the book publisher and author a few bucks to use that universe? Apparently not, and apparently they had their own vision, and that was probably the problem. Less competen

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