Michael Fassbender talks Alien: Covenant in a new interview with the Inquirer. He’s currently in Sydney filming Sir Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant but that isn’t stopping Michael Fassbender from getting in on the fun with the X-Men: Apocalypse press rounds! Talking to the Inquirer about his work on X-Men, he also talks a little about Alien: Covenant.
“There are going to be great sets and aliens coming out of people,” Michael promised about Ridley’s “Covenant,” the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that started with “Prometheus.”
“It’s amazing to watch Ridley work. I try to soak up as much knowledge as I can from him, because having worked on this kind of films a few times and having seen how many moving parts there are, how many people work on the set and how many departments need attention and the language, he’s an absolute master.”
Michael Fassbender talks Alien: Covenant – “It’s a fantastic mixture of high-end technology and primitive elements. The way that I can explain it is the same way that Ridley did ‘Blade Runner.”
While Fassbender doesn’t dish any specific details about the upcoming film, he does talk a little about the sets on Alien: Covenant, insinuating that the film wont look as pristine as Prometheus did:
“The sets are fantastic. Again, the most impressive sets I’ve seen since ‘Prometheus,’ which was the original setting. It’s a fantastic mixture of high-end technology and primitive elements. The way that I can explain it is the same way that Ridley did ‘Blade Runner.’
“You have this futuristic world where people are eating noodles, because that seems to be the cheaper food and something that will fill you up. But it’s also something that harks back to the past. The weaving of those two things—past and future—together makes for an interesting world that we can aspire to, but also recognize something in it.”
Considering that a frequent complaint about Prometheus is how the technology in the prequel looks more advanced than anything we eventually see in the main Alien series, I’m sure this news will be most welcome to a lot of fans.
You can check out the whole interview over at Inquirer where he also talks about X-Men and Assassain’s Creed. Thanks to Stolen for the news.
"Fassbender is in Sydney, where he's filming Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, the sci-fi sequel to Prometheus. He's a big wrap for Scott's huge physical sets, which he describes as mixing cutting-edge NASA-like technology with "an old-school element where things look battered, like the original Star Wars..."
I love the sound of that. No more state-of-the-art research ship like the Prometheus but the look of something that was once state of the art but has been given some use and abuse. I'm sure that will make a lot of fans happy.
He also spoke a teeny bit about David: "And he loves playing the creepy AI synthetic, David. "He is creepy," he grins, like that's a good thing. "And he's back in a whole new way..."
He also mentions that Ridley Scott hadn't been able to decide between filming in Australia or Canada but Fassbender had insisted on Australia. I'll post up some pictures in a second.
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I thought it was absolutely terrifying. I think there's more to it than just the medium though - there's the presentation which stretches across medium. The visuals, the music, the use of audio. It all worked together to create an immense atmosphere. I really don't think Isolations success is based just on being a game - it helped, definitely, but I don't think that precludes it not being able to be scary again on screen.
This 'In the vents" made me think of the way the scares in alien and aliens were very much about the use of the sets in the story. In Alien, you're constantly on edge, because you don't know what it looks like, or where it is, and the Alien has tricks up its sleeve.
In Aliens the same goes. First you're in this Hive and the audience is on edge thinking what's this place...? Then they cant use their weapons, the whole colony is cocooned there, then they come out of the walls, then they are trying to escape. It keeps throwing new information at you in an unnerving way AND making use of the space/sets. Then AND MOST IMPORTANTLY when they hold up in the Med labs/compound, the audience is told: We are sealing these access tunnels, then we are using sentry guns and etc... You are always aware, in the audience, of the surroundings and what steps are being taken, and wondering where they will come from etc.
The motion-trackers help too.
Even the part in the med lab where the facehuggers attack. Its a great use of the set. They can't break the glass, BUrke shuts off the monitors, the gun is outside on the table - its such a great detail because it's not just missing, its right there to be seen - they set off the sprinklers... All about the set.
Overall, the use of the space is important. You need great set-pieces. Think about the first time you heard Ripley say "That can't be that's inside the room!" - All of that works because of the information we are given about the compound. In Alien 3 and A:R there is no real use of space. The only part that worked in that scene was the underwater scene because the set and events combined to surprise us. Especially when the exit was covered in that secreted resin. A nice set-piece. In Alien 3 the only decent set-piece was the Bait and chase at the end.
The problem with A3 and AR is the set pieces weren't so great. Prometheus had a few, but they seemed disconnected from each other.
I agree with the unknown, but an Alien in a vent is scary.
It's in the dark, you can't see it, but you know it's there, and it's coming straight for you.
(By the way, going back to that 'space pirates'/'rathtar' scene from THE FORCE AWAKENS - I dislike it too in it's full existing form, but since I'm re-editing the movie for myself, I quite like the scene now in a far shortened, edited version - the corridor sets certainly wouldn't look out of place in an 'ALIEN' movie I thought)
True.
While Alien: Isolation was incredibly tense, I'm not sure I'd call it scary. You knew what was hunting you, you knew what it looked like and you knew what got it's attention. Real fear is best generated by the unknown and what your imagination does with it.
Alien: Isolation proved it could be scary again. One of the things that led to my fascination with the series was just how much Aliens affected me. I had horrible nightmares for 5 years. Alien: Isolation was a return to that kind of terror. The physical reactions I had playing that game - I was on literal adrenaline comedowns after playing it. It was one of the best Alien experiences I had ever had.
It certainly proved Ridley wrong when he said the Alien couldn't be scary again. It made Blomkamp sit up and take notice too. I certainly hope Ridley took notice.
Is it? I thought it was scary as hell in Alien: Isolation.
Aside from that it doesn't have to try to be outright scary, just give it some thick dreadful atmosphere. Prometheus was more adventurous and even wonderous in tone for much of its runtime, unlike the trailers which were scarier than the film itself.
Really hope this one is different in that regard.
That was literally all.
Spoiler
The X-Men star currently calls the harbour city home as he's filming Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant at Fox Studios.
"I am practically Australian at this point," Fassbender told Confidential on the red carpet at George Street's Event Cinema complex for the Australian premiere of his new film X-Men: Apocalypse.
"I am annoying people on the waves, I'm trying to learn. It is such a beautiful city because you've got such clean beaches very accessible to the city. It is actually really wonderful to see and the education around the beach and the water when you see the Nippers, I love that. It is a fantastic culture."
Director Bryan Singer (centre) on set of film X-Men: Apocalypse with James McAvoy (left, as Charles Xavier) and Michael Fassbender.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the latest in a string of films in the marvel franchise that sees stars including Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy return to the big screen.
"He is a pretty layered character," he explained. "It is a pretty sophisticated world even though it is a fantasy world, the X Men and the whole concepts that they are dealing with. That is really what drew me to it in the first place with First Class, there's such a depth in his history to draw from that you are never left with a two dimensional character as such."
Of Magneto's story this film, he continued: "When you first meet him he is sort of living a very simple and honest life, he has fallen in love and started a family and left his mutant ways behind and working in a steel factory of sorts which we thought was pretty interesting because he's not using his powers and doing manual labour as his penance.
"Things get a little skew whiff and he loses his family and he is recruited then by Apocalypse to help destroy the world."
Fassbender, 39, recently shot The Light Between Oceans in New Zealand and when production finished flew to Australia for a break.
"I stayed here for a while," he said. "I found a place in Byron for a month, it's a beautiful place to be. I really love it here."
He's only just started shooting Aliens so will be based in Sydney for some time to come.
Fassbender wouldn't though divulge too much about the plot of the much anticipated film.
"I'm really excited about this one I have to say," he said. "There's a lot going on, I think it is going to be super scary."
Can't access the article. Could you post the whole thing?
And that's really great to hear. I hadn't really considered returning to the horror genre but if Ridders is going back down that road and makes it work on the big screen like it worked in Isolation and the original Alien, I'm all for it!
Way too early ......
Take my money now!!!
Even today with all the fancy CGI and other modern wonders available to filmmakers, it's still the benchmark for film production design. Nothing has surpassed it yet.
Don't get me wrong, I did buy into their explanations but it still doesn't gel quite as well. I will be very very happy to see that used and abused aesthetic return to the screen. It's one of many things that helps make Alien.
But thats my personal opinion.
Im hoping and still waiting for that undefineable stuff like the cargo hold of the Derelict, the jockey look (not the baldies)
the green crystal room, the room with the urns.
'Blade Runner' did have some remarkable production design, that's for sure. Revisiting that philosophy in an 'ALIEN' movie would be fantastic!
-Windebieste.
It's true that Prometheus does feel very disconnected from Alien because of its looks.
it's very lovecraftian, squid-monsters trying to devour everything. I agree it didn't fit star wars.
i would love to see nothing of that at all.
The question is, what kind of enemy they could have? Another different species? Or just a different clan of them.
I think that your theory is really close to the actual story. Xenomorphs could act like a weapon of massive destruction in the planetary scale, so again it is probably close to the truth.
You aslo write that perhaps David should call for some sort of help or something like that, so the Ship "Covenant" cold be just another expedition that responds on David message.
Another possibility is, that "Covenant" ship is on the way to the engineer planet, because they capture the signal that dr. Shaw leave before she flew away (Prometheus ending).
My first idea was, that I imagine a dr. Shaw helping David put his head back on the body. But since source is saying that dr, Shaw will no longer be in this movie, I don't know what to think?
She died on the way to the planet? I don't think so, it seems that Engineer Spaceship could fly in the speed of light, we see that in the end of Prometheus, this ship uses some sort of "Jump" technology for flight.
I mean, that should give us a reason to think that dr. Shaw could reach engineer planet in relatively short period of time.
Can David kill her? Maybe after she helping him with his head? Or can perhaps she normally died, because she don't have any food or resources?
Covenant ship as a human ship could perhaps fly slower then the engineer ship, that means dr. Shaw can just die by the time before Covenant ship arrives.
Only David as an android can live for a long time. I'm really surprise what they say us about dr. Shaw.
But I have a strong feeling that she is already dead.
Ridley Scott already said, that we will se all the Xenomorphs forms, that we already know.
The egg, facehugger, chestburster and big boy. So I imagine that if there would be the eggs, there should be even the mother, the Queen itself. Source even say, that there is some sort of small squid like monsters, similar to one that we see at the scene from Prometheus, where the engineer is impregnated.
I'm so happy about this movie, I feel that this is gonna be unique, and I almost can't believe that there will be another opportunity to see a classic Aliens, and even more.
Last question I have is, the picture that you use on your comment, is that from you? Did you draw it? because I draw by myself, so tell me please. And again, please excuse me English, I'm from Europe.
The most horrible things in the universe: Vogons and their poetry.
If Ridley does revisit the earlier concept of the Aliens being artificial weapons of war, I really do hope somewhere along the line we might get some indication of who they were weapons against. Just hope it isn't something as mundane as being intended for use against mankind. I'd like a return to the more eldritch and Lovecraftian feel from Alien.
I doubt that the xenomorphs or black goo is native or even created at planet-Paradise, to me the Engineers are like Prometheus, they stole fire from the gods, from some other world.
The fact that there will be xenomorphs on the planet-Paradise instead far off like on LV223 so not to risk their home world, means they would only have transported black goo to planet Paradise out of great need, like a war.
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It's my thought that the Engineers were in an inter-stellar war and were loosing it and as last resort used the black goo but destroyed themselves in the process. Since they say that in the next movie David will be alone on the planet, meaning all engineers have gone extinct? Maybe the one on LV-223 was the very last one of his species, unless some took refuge on some other star system...
I'm guessing David finds some kind of military industrial installation and starts to fix his own broken body and after that starts experimentering, well once the Covenant ship arrives at least, he must have sent some communications all the way from planet-Paradise to Earth.
The mention of noodles really reminds me of the Nostromo and its space truckers.
Next summer can't come fast enough!!!
I can't let say that
In a sense, this is the mirror movie of Blade Runner. Except it does not happen in the future. Fassbender's character also reminds me Deckard in Blade Runner.
Otherwise Fassbender seems to appreciate filming with Scott (especially in the best sets of industry). Obviously quite exciting.
This is music to my ears Corporal.
It's also a good way of future proofing your film. Blade Runner is set in the 1940's as much as it is set in 2019. And after 35 years the film hasn't really dated because it takes place in a unique, almost fantastical world.
"So, um, Ridley, what exactly is my character doing again?"
*massive puffs of cigar smoke* "Well, I can't tell from this mess of a script either, but I think it has something to do with greed."
"Um, okay."
Thing I want to say is, that I really don't understand from where this so called Xenomorphs come from? I mean, that Engineer planet has a nature, lakes and stuff like that. I really don't expect that this Aliens should just walk on the grass somewhere on that planet, it's a strange idea.
It's more like you imagine some sort of dinosaurs somewhere on the jungle, instead of actual Xenomorphs. You know what I mean? Yea, for sure, if he talks bout that sets, he basically mean indoor locations, similar to Prometheus. But, then again, I ask myself if all these Xenomorphs are somewhere hidden, perhaps imprisoned. Then where they are? And if they escape in some moment from any of that mentioned engineer structures, what they do?
I'm really surprised how Ridley solve this imagination, becauce that planet (basically New Zeland atmosphere) has a beautiful nature, It seems that our Xenomorphs not entirely fit in this atmosphere, so my question is, if we see them only inside some structures, or even outside on the daylingt, because that idea is really strange, don't you think?
And in other words, I don't think that Aliens need a roof over their heads, so why keep them only inside, they want to go where they want to.
The problem itself is, that we never see an Alien somewhere on the nature, on te jungle or anywhere where it looks nice and natural. It's gonna be a really, really interesting.
His David is very sinister and mysterious character. Certanly one of the best in whole
Alien/Blade Runner universe. I cant wait to see what he ll do in Covenant.
Hmmm. Interesting.