 <unk> emerged a film treatment called The Message . The original script had more of a police procedural approach , with the alien being created by a " bathtub <unk> " who had just had his project <unk> by the government , and a biologist who had worked on the project getting along with a police officer to search for the creature . Eventually Feldman came to believe this concept had some credibility issues , and instead changed the protagonists to a government team . After coining the name " Sil , " Feldman initially thought of forming an acronym , but in the end chose only the three @-@ letter name after learning about the codons of the genetic code , which can be represented in groups of three letters . Sil would originally emerge from a DNA sequence manipulating human DNA , and constantly <unk> as she used the human junk DNA to access " all the defenses of the entire animal kingdom that [ humans ] evolved through – including ones that had never developed , plus ones [ Earth 's scientists ] don 't know about that have become extinct . " Among the research Feldman did for the script included going to sessions of UCLA 's Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life ( <unk> ) , talking to <unk> scientists , and visiting the <unk> Institute for Biological Studies to talk with researchers working on the Human <unk> Project . The Message was offered to several studios , but was passed up . 
