Ridley Scott has been talking a little more about his upcoming Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, at a press conference in Sydney and whilst some of the details are something he’s said before there’s actually quite a lot of new interesting information in this report from The Hollywood Reporter including confirmation of a new trilogy of films starting with Alien: Covenant:
“Its a very complex story. Its an evolution of what I first did with Prometheus 1,” he said of the new film, which tells the story of the crew of the colony ship Covenant, who discover what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world, whose sole inhabitant is the synthetic David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
“Prometheus 1 was borne out of my frustration that on Alien 1 in 1979 – I only did one as I don’t normally do sequels. I was amazed that in the 3 that followed that no-one asked the question “why the Alien, who made it and why?” Very basic questions. So I came up with the notion of Prometheus 1, which starts to indicate who might have made it and where it came from.
So I’m now going to the next one, which is the next evolution directly connected with the first one, which was this Shaw, when he replaced Michael Fassbender in two pieces and we’ll kind of pick it up there and it will evolve. When that’s finished there’ll be another one and then another one which will gradually drive into the back entrance of the film in 1979.”
Ridley Scott on the set of Prometheus. Alien: Covenant will explore more about the Engineers: “So in other words, why was this space jockey there and why did he have an Alien inside him? And those questions will be answered.”
At the press conference Ridley Scott also confirmed that shooting of Alien: Covenant would commence in March 2016 with Michael Fassbender arriving in Sydney in mid-March for a 16 week shoot. Scott also confirms that Noomi Rapace’s Shaw will be in Alien: Covenant, albeit briefly: “Other casting hasn’t been confirmed, although Scott did say that Prometheus 1 star Noomi Rapace will only appear briefly in Covenant.”
He also talked a little about shooting the film in both studio shoots and on location: “Shooting will be a mix of location and studio shoots with location requiting “monumental forest and monumental rock and the rest will be in the studio with fairly formidable CGI. The Martian was made for the most part 94 pecent in a Budapest studio. With green screen I now can’t tell what was studio and what was shot in Wadi Rum.”
Scott also spoke about the notion of filming the other Prometheus sequels in Australia as well, moving away from England and Pinewood Studios where he shot the original Alien and Prometheus. Thanks to Willie Goldman for the news.
Straczynski is a fan of Lovecraft and the B5 elder races all owe at least something to Lovecraft. The Shadows do this most blatantly, I think. And they had creepy biotech and servitor races like the Drakh.
We don't know enough about the Engineers' mindset or motivations to say what makes sense to them. Someone around here mentioned the idea of a war between the Engineers and Predators. That could be an interesting thing, and the possibility is supported (albeit indirectly) in the canon of the films. Both the Engineers and the Predators have a valid claim on the development of humanity. Predator 2 pointed out that the preds have been visiting earth for a long time, and AVP goes even further. Allowing events of AVP into the Alien canon is contentious, but I'd say, you can't really deny it. I think it makes sense to accept that they all share one big, not-so-happy universe.
As far as making humans to be food/incubators for xenos, that seems unlikely. What we're given in Prometheus indicates the engineers - At least some of the Engineers, wanted humanity to develop and thrive. There is no reason to make humans as incubators because xeno eggs or the ampules could be seeded on any world or installation where the engineers wished to eradicate or modify a particular lifeform.
As for what humanity was supposed to become or what the black goo was actually supposed to do, the dog-men are one possibility.
I'm tempted to agree, but I instead hope that after Star Wars, she'll get into some more down-to-earth dramatic roles. She has a lot of promise, and I'd hate to see her typecast as a 'space hero' when her career is really just beginning.
That's basically what the Engineers had been doing for millennia in the Spaiths script via the black goo.
Ha, maybe the thing that killed them was a robot and not an experiment that went wrong; the alien experiment was supposed to stop the machines when it decided that it liked people more. Alright now I'm just being silly.
Sometimes to create, one first has to destroy... would be all turned upside down like that shit Obi-Wan pulled on Luke with his "point of view" speech.
I wasn't being too serious with the B5 Shadow War reference, but the Shadows were pretty creepy when it came to their biotechnology.
I still can't get my head around any circumstance where the Xeno was created to kill humans. The only scenario that would remotely seem feasible would be if the Xeno's were created to take out a particular faction of Engineers, and they want to use humans as a test bed to see how effective they would be.
Personally, I think there are two possibilities why they created humans.
1) use as incubators and food for the Xenos.
2) The back goo was meant to weaponized us to possibly fight the Xeno's. Our final form was meant to be.
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I believe from the extras, interviews etc. from Prometheus that he wanted to scare us and also mix up ancient astronauts ... but like a confused 1st year university student's essay he wants to say so much but talks gibberish as he's only got 1500 words to say it in. So I put my case forward that I hope he comes out and says "I want to scare the life out of you." Well, okay Sir Ridley don't get off the pot ... Lay this fact down and get on with it, it's going to be an 18 period ... and stop confusing us as to what you're going to do to us when you get us sat down infront of Covenant for a couple of hours just scare us.
Just reading through the other comments, yeah Clive Barker wouldn't mess about if he said and just quoting Sir Ridley again "I want to scare the life out of you" or whatever he actually said about fear ... Alien was like Hellraiser for so long for me, it scared me, like really scared me, but the image of the beast has been used in marketing so much it's removed all fear from it. Pinhead is similar to this over marketed and not scary anymore but the box ... and what happens if you play with it, very very scary and always will be and if you you're going to reboot hellraiser you're not going to be fielding questions even right up to its realise about its certificate. Its going to be 18 and scary and if not it's going to be a watered down chimera of what hellraiser meant. But the thing is for me, okay reboot Alien but what did Alien mean. I mean like Hellraiser, take away pin head and the cenobites which were so so scary before over marketed, what do you have, someone messing with their soul, playing a game and suddenly in hell and never able to escape, or whatnot, for me a scary experience to live through via the skills of the actors brought in to turn the story into life. So there is life in hellraiser even after the suits market the characters in products ... but what is the abstract fear in Alien ... well they nailed it with in space no one can hear you scream. So forget trying to do anything else other than scare us with this mantra. It worked poetically in Alien.
Horror in a sci-fi setting is hard to do, in my opinion, and the only film that genuinely still scares me, and I wish that they hadn't overly marketed the beast as then Alien would still do it, is event horizon. I'm in my 40's and can honestly say I can't watch that movie as it gives me nightmares, pretty much like hellraiser 1 and 2. Sam Neill is simply terrifying in it, and what he suggests at the end like you never really left when you think you are safely back at earth is scary for even a cynical 40 something. I honestly can't watch that movie, even though I bought the dvd, so it did its job it scared me and the dvd sits in my collection menacingly.
So what my stream of consciousness is trying to say is I hope so much that Covenant and the trilogy is a horror in a sci-fi setting, and Ridley delivers what he wanted to do with Prometheus, to scare us which he was a complete master of in Alien. just keep repeating in space no one can hear you scream as it is so poetic perfectly mixing horror in a sci fi setting in 8 words, even hemmingway would have been impressed with this line so run with it please Ridley.
Just wanted to say I agree too with Alien 3 comments, the quality of acting really made that movie for me, it was westend theatre quality acting and the lighting and music were really on point, the big issue for me is the alien went small, fast, cat like, not the alien in the spirit of alien, the giant slowly moving snarling alien showered in water that kills parker. Alien alien nailed all the horror creature basics, it was text book and really strange too, it even moved slowly as its so horrific and scarey it doesnt need to move quickly as its going to get you even if it moves in slow motion! If it had been this alien alien then Alien 3 would have been for me a great film not just a good film. And just thinking about this maybe Barker paid homeage to this in a way and tipped his hat to Sir Ridley with his snarling cenobite ...
This was my take on things. If the Engineers existed millions of years ago, when life first began on Earth, whose to say they haven't been around millions more, or even billions? If they created life on Earth, whose to say they haven't created life period, including themselves? This doesn't nerf the creature in any way, in my opinion. What if they were some form of interdimensional superconsciousness that the Engineers wrote into the framework of spacetime itself. They trivially travel between star systems and galaxy, and whose to say they haven't created entire planets, or galaxies, as well? I could keep going.
I like this, a lot. Just keep in mind the 'bug' thing can be "Lovecraftianed" just like any other sci-fi thing can be made utterly terrifying. If you've seen "Empire of the Ants", you'll understand how dark it can be. Imagine a concept of a terrifying interdimensional "psychic" parasite that was written into physical form via a hyperpowerful hyper-advanced technological empire of beings that create life trivially, and one of the first forms of life ever to become into existence, and designed to be an "ultimate" bio-weapon with a trans-dimensional and metaphysical power source. All of this with that exact kind of atmosphere you described. A being that is seemingly unstoppable slowly killing these poor individuals one by one, and are seemingly powerless to stop it. And most of all, make it strange. Make it so weird and out of normality that it is something that seems as though it shouldn't exist, but could. Make it look as though it were smiling, with massive teeth and hands, really light upon the sheer length of its fingers and limbs, only showing the hands and limbs (including tail) for most of the movie. Have it move erratically, or glide upon its tail as it seemingly 'hovers' toward the victim. Make it sadistic and terrifying. Like Clive Barker/Wes Craven/H.P. Lovecraft mixed.
The space jockey Visited that planet...Was infected with the ALIEN...and when trying leaving, he crashed on LV 426 when the ALIEN bursted out of his chest...
But sadly enough this idea was completely killed, by prometheus... suddenly its al human..LMAO...
Nah, needs more Cowbell
Needz moar beehive smoke.
WHAT YOU SAY HERE ABOUT ATMOSPHERE!!!!
This is so on point. IN FACT - I would argue that it is precisely what they have almost never gotten right since ALIEN 3. And say whatever you want about ALIEN 3 but DAVID FINCHER is an absolute MASTER of ATMOSPHERE and that movie is no exception.
This is my biggest gripe with PROMETHEUS. At some points it does a fine job of creating atmosphere... But then it almost seems to shit on the atmosphere Ridley created in ALIEN. And that is the biggest shame of them all.
The fact that it does capture it sometimes is almost worse than it not capturing that atmosphere at all.
The scene where they find the giant head is a fine example of this. The image of that was stunning and eerie, but in execution, within the film, the camera never lingers on the grandeur of those sets for long enough to do what was done in the derelict with atmosphere in ALIEN. And the reason for that is sometime very easy to pin-point.
TIME.
To create the right atmosphere for ALIEN, you have to let things take time and lots of it. Its a slow build.
I actually disagree about ALIENS not creating atmosphere. Its not as abundant or thick and dense as the atmosphere in Alien and Alien 3 but, Aliens takes its time to build its world.
Much is said about all the action in Aliens but, truthfully that film has been on for almost an hour with almost no action yet... The opening with the Narcissus and her dreams, and the exploration of the Hive and the abandoned colony... All atmosphere building.... And this is what they need to accomplish again.
Take time. Build atmosphere. f**k run time. Give RS 2.5 hours FOX. Find a really great composer. I was listening to a WARP guy today called Oneohpoint Trix Never, that guys stuff was awesome.... I dunno. I wasnt happy with the PRometheus music.
Couldn't agree with this last post more.
I've listened to Alien lots of times without actually watching it and it's like a symphony. If I could walk about of the IMAX thinking this about Covenant then Sir Ridley is back. Finally, make it horror please like Alien, but how to? I would say the only horror left is sharing a good actor's horrific experience of slowly changing into an alien or something, no sure how but horror not action. There's no horror left in the beast, no fear from being stalked by it or it jumping out house-of-horrors style like Alien, so how about fear you can relate to like a horrible forced change into a nightmare creature. I remember reading a leaked false plot here on something like that before Prometheus dropped. Acting out knowing that you will become "the alien" and the horror of being powerless to stop it could be one way to bring the trilogy back to the majesty of Alien. Multiple Davids, could be good if acted as well as Prometheus but plays more into the hand of Blade Runner sci-fi and thinking about AI then horror for me.
Like seriously too. That one mural had a xeno holding an open egg. It was like, here's our gift to you, engineer looks in and that dude is f**ked as is everyone else in the facility.
The basic synopsis is that at a time in the past, the "first ones" decided to leave the known galaxy behind. The first ones were a group of ancient species that were first to developed sentience in the galaxy. When the first ones departed, they left two caretakers behind to watch over the younger developing species. They were the Vorlons, and the Shadows.
At some point the Vorlons and shadows stopped agreeing on how to foster the younger races.
Vorlons - preferred order and obedience. They appeared to the younger races as angelic creatures, and tinkered genetically which created telephaths.
Shadows - preferred chaos. Wars allowed the strong to survive and the weak to be destroyed. Mother is the necessity of invention.
Eventually the know galaxy became a proxy war for the two different viewpoints. The Vorlons and Shadows would not attack each other outright, but allowed the younger races to fight terrible wars on their behalf.
Where am I going with this?
Makes me wonder if this could be where we are headed in the ALIEN universe.
Xeno - represents chaos, physical power, instinctual.
Humans - Weak, but technologically advanced,
The survivor inherits the universe.
Maybe Aliens/Deacons/whatever else the Engineers created could be derived from a heretofore unknown species; one more terrifying and dangerous than the creations. Maybe the black goo could be its could be fluid from its body.
I think that the fact that he has a saga and franchise in mind is a positive sign, in that it shows more focus.
'ALIEN: Covenant' could go either way.
Right now; and at this point in time, I say "Flip a coin. Hope for the best."
-Windebieste.
Don't be so hard on this Cold Light... If you think about it, this weaponizing of the Deacon, is kind of like the way humans have manufactured Dog breeds. I believe that's the way Ridley means to have the xeno 'manufactured' anyway... Like they took an already dangerous species and amplified or accelerated all the aspects that made it dangerous...
Maybe this Covenant is some sort of agreement made between the warring gods... Like we were made to be hosts for these monsters, and then some of the gods loved us (as in Paradise Lost) but some of the gods could care less about us and wanted us to be used as the hosts. And what we saw in Prometheus was the ones that hated us, determined to destroy us and use us for research.
Maybe a covenant was made between the gods, where they agreed that the bad Engineers,... they could use some of us as hosts to do research and develop this monsters with, provided they left the rest of us alone, on earth... But then things got violent between them because the Engineers were jealous of Gods love for us (Paradise Lost) and they destroyed themselves.
So what we saw in Prometheus was some of the last survivors trying to destroy us or evolve us,...
I dunno, something like that...
True. I love how they created something so compelling that it makes us keep trying to solve this mystery in our heads even though it is completely a work of fiction and they seem to be making it up as they go along...
Who's to say they didn't start out as a construct before taking on a life of their own? The Alien we see now may not be what was originally created.
I'm kind of ok, sort of, with the idea that it is a manufactured weapon. However I would prefer it be a naturally occurring spices that was merely corrupted by the engineers. Perhaps, since there is religious connotations in the premise, the Alien is the engineers attempt to resurrect god.
A covenant implies an agreement or commitment, but I rarely hear the term outside of religious discussions. Then again, I'm agnostic so I really don't get involved in too many religious conversations if I can at all help it.
Lots of options for a covenant.
1) Between Engineers and David
2) Between Engineers and humanity
3) Between Engineers and Xenomorps
4) Between Engineers and their creators
5) Between David and Shaw
6) Between David and the creators of the Engineers
and on and on...
Then you have repercussions to breaking a covenant which sounds much more ominous than breaking an agreement.
It's like Burke saying Amanda Ripley McLaren was dead. That whole idea could change with one keystroke.
Or Shaw...... Which has been a theory since before Prometheus was released.
The problem there is the timeline. There isn't much time between Prometheus and Alien for David to get to paradise let events to play out.
1) turn the crew of the Covenant into eggs
2) fly back to lv426, and get infected
3) become fossilized
Maybe it's Shaw. After all, Scott has confirmed Rapace will reprise her role as a "minor part" in 'ALIEN: Covenant'.
A role long enough, maybe, for her to get face hugged and then strap herself down in the Jockey's chair. Now that would be a real treat, huh. lol.
-Windebieste.
We know that the black goo has transformative properties. Maybe the goo was originally intended to be delivered and change humanity in a more positive way. Maybe we were to become like the Engineers themselves. But the black goo was a bad batch. Maybe the stuff has just 'gone off' during the Centuries it's been lying in neat little stacks inside the Juggernaut. Maybe it's gone stale. It's been 'left out of the refrigerator for too long' and it's former positive properties have altered and become come something less desirable. lol. Like yogurt that's been sitting on the kitchen bench for a week... Eating it is not going to do the good things it was originally intended for. At this point, we just don't know.
Maybe the Prometheus crew stumbled on the Galactic equivalent of the fully stocked Cosmic Ice Cream Truck that's been locked inside its depot for 20 years.
There's just so many details we have no idea about at this stage. There's a large chasm between 'Prometheus' and 'ALIEN' that might need a very carefully crafted trilogy to bridge properly. Where's my popcorn?
-Windebieste.
The Engineers clearly meant to deliver a mass quantity of goo to the earth 2000 years ago. The reaction of the final Engineer is also telling. He appears to have a WTF are they doing here reaction after being woke up, and not a "Welcome children, this black goo is your birthright and will solve all your problems. Take it home with you"
Technically they did, and according to him, it's an artificially engineered species. At least one of the various Alien documentaries quotes him as saying that.
Ironic also that there have been several scripts that intended to introduce that idea as fact into the series, but in each case it's never quite made it to the screen.
I like the idea of these places we explore on these moons, essentially being like mouse traps or in the case of Prometheus, roach bait. We bring it back to the nest and infect everyone else with it.
I also like this idea of question if the Alien evolved or was made. I suppose, and I don't think Ive ever discussed this before, but in my mind, while watching Alien, I was thinking, here we are encountering a creature who's defenses have evolved to survive and/or destroy all the conventions of space travel. That's what I was thinking, anyway. IE; that the creature has been surviving off of other species it encounters via space vehicles of some sort. I suppose the idea that someone made it for that reason, also works, if not even better. Like, maybe some Alien species don't want other alien species to know about them, so they manufactured this pest for them to discover and find, and then be killed by before any civilization can venture further outward into space and interfere with their own cultural advancement.
In this regard, I sometimes think 'Prometheus' resembles what 'ALIEN' could have been had such elements been included.
I think this statement is the key to everything this series represents. My own pet theory is that the Derelict didn't crash on Acheron. It was deliberately placed there. As a bait in the form of a warning, set to trap Humans once we became a space faring species. The derelict may turn out to be the Galaxy's great mouse trap, set to eradicate out of control vermin. Namely, Us.
Kind of like the inverse of the monolith found on the Moon during the events depicted in '2001 - A Space Odyssey'. Except the purpose of the derelict is much more malign and it was intended to keep us away from that particular region of space - or suffer the consequences for ignoring the 'warning' message.
I really like what Scott is doing here. I found 'Prometheus' to be a very uneven movie, but it laid the foundation for an extremely intriguing premise that I am happy to watch unfold during the next few years. I suspect this is going to be a very exciting time to be an 'ALIEN' fan.
-Windebieste.
Initially the ALIEN was meant to be an creature indigenous to LV446. That concept was tossed out when the pyramid idea was thrown away due to cost considerations. I think it's safe to say that the Xeno origin story has been fluid for decades, and probably hasn't nailed down until recently. Hell, I'm not even sure Ridley had any idea about the Xeno origin when he did Prometheus.
Keeping Prometheus in mind, I don't think the Xeno was made to destroy humans. I'm coming at it from another direction. I think they were created from humans which would explain their biological morphology.
What do we know.
1) Engineers created life on earth, and humans are a direct biological offspring.
Perhaps the real target of the Xeno is a group of Engineers.
2) Engineers visited earth over the millennia in order to give humans biological as well as technological upgrades. WHY?
My theory here is that they wanted humans to achieve a specific level of development and a large enough population density. The equivalent of waiting for the fruit to grow and ripen before harvest.
3) What was the purpose of the black goo?
Humans were always scheduled for a dose of black goo at a specific point of development. We were never meant to be left to our own devices and develop space travel.
No one ever asked Scott about it, I guess. After all, this thing was his in the first place and it does not look natural:
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That thing looks manufactured rather than the result of a natural process to me.
I'm happy to see Scott address how the Creature was 'made'. I'm hoping he doesn't mess things up. Fingers crossed and anxiously awaiting more information about these movies.
I'm happy to see the origin of the Alien explained if Scott is the one to do it. I'd hate to entrust this difficult task to anyone else. There's a whole series of missing links that he could explore that would dovetail into what he intends to do with these movies. Why does its larval stage fit neatly upon a Human face with its long appendages wrapped around its victim's head? Why is the embryo so compatible with a human host? Why is the adult bipedal and possesses the basic morphology of a human being..? From what we have seen in 'Prometheus' - and what Scott has hinted at - it certainly does look like the Alien was a manufactured bio-weapon purposefully constructed to eradicate Humans. BUT WHY?
There are more important questions that Scott is posing to us. Why would someone make it such a personal affront to Humanity? Was it really the Engineers who made this thing to exterminate us ... and why Us? Why make it so personal? What have we done to deserve this thing cast upon us? WHY..
This is the intriguing path I am hoping that Scott hopes to take us down if this is his intention to explain the Alien's purpose and its relationship to us. I'm thinking this is something Scott has spent quite some time thinking about and hopefully he will deliver answers that don't end in a massive face palm.
-Windebieste.
It's actually been labelled the 2nd part of prequel trilogy in the official synopsis from the studio. Scott is just talking his usual nonsense.
Im taking all that with a grain of salt. To me, this is Fox saying, ALIEN needs to be in the title so fans know what this is and there is less confusion, and there needs to be a xeno. This all goes back to the press releases for Prometheus and how it was a prequel and then wasnt etc etc... What Scott is saying now, Im thinking is prolly just doing what the studio wants and this is still very much a Prometheus sequel.