Some things you may not know about Alien Resurrection, the fourth in the series, showing on AMC Weds at 10:30pm and Thurs at 3:15pm:

• It was written by Joss Whedon, after the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer but before the series (and of course before “Firefly,” “Angel” and Serenity.)

• It is the only American film so far by the French cult director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen), He spoke almost no English and directed with the aid of interpreters. The studio's first choices to direct were David Cronenberg and Danny Boyle (28 Days Later)

• Sigourney Weaver was paid $11 million to come back as Ripley. That was approximately the entire budget for the first Alien in 1979.

• Whedon wrote the parts of Christie and Dr. Wren for, respectively, Chow Yun-Fat and Bill Murray.

• A fan of the first Alien, Winona Ryder agreed to appear before she even read the script, saying that she "didn't care if she died in the first scene."

• One of the aliens is played by David Prior, the great-grandson of silent film stars John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy. Not that they’d recognize him in that rubber suit …

• Cinematographer Darius Khondji used the same techniques he employed in filming Se7en to heighten contrasts and make the dark colors richer.

• The underwater segment was shot on a specially constructed sound stage on the Fox lot, which was converted into a permanent water-tank. It took nearly a week to fill it with water (and milk, which was added to make the water less transparent). The underwater scenes took three weeks to film, during which both Ron Perlman and Winona Ryder nearly drowned.

• Sigourney Weaver really did sink that basketball by herself. She’s damn proud of it, too.