Alien: Covenant footage and trailer screened at 20th Century Fox 2017 Showcase Preview! 20th Century Fox are currently hosting a number of journalists at a special showcase event in New York. Fox have been showing off films from their 2017 release schedule including War of Planet of the Apes and Wolverine. Of interest to us, however, is what they’ve shown of Alien: Covenant.
As the showcase is literally happening right now, all we have are the tweets from the various journalists in attendance but more detailed reports will follow from their respective outlets shortly.
To introduce the Alien: Covenant footage, a video of Ridley Scott was screened for the journalists followed by 15 minutes of footage from the film including scenes of Danny McBride, Katherine Waterston, Amy Seimetz, Michael Fassbender and Jussie Smollett.
The specific story details weren’t provided but Jordan Hoffman mentioned that the Covenant ship itself was shown and he described it as “giant & flat” and that McBride’s character wore a “funny hat.”
The general conscious was that the Alien: Covenant footage was “terrifying, gore, tense and thrilling.” The Playlist described the footage as “terrifying. Throwback to Alien 1 & 2. Looks like full blown horror.” The Playlist provided further clarification about the Aliens connection, saying that the footage contained “lots of nods to James Cameron’s “Aliens.” Katherine Waterston says there are parallels to Ripley.”
Alien: Covenant Footage and Trailer Screened at 20th Century Fox 2017 Showcase Preview! Photo via Antonio Martín.
Many of the journalists made a point of how gory and intense the film was, something that was reiterated when Katherine Waterston took to the stage to talk about the film. She went on to talk about the “ultra gory clips.”
To wrap up the event, the impending trailer was screened for the assembled journalists and it sounds a lot like the recently “leaked” description of the trailer with Kellvin Chavez mentioning that “the shower scene was killer!” Paul Shirley of JoBlo tweeted the following the description: “I think you guys will be happy. I’ll just say this: face hugger. old-school xenomorph.” The Playlist also called it “horrifying.”
You can join in with other community members keeping track of the Twitter reactions on the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy forum!
With the trailer likely to be attached to Assassin’s Creed and an online release sure to happen not long before, keep tuned to Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien: Covenant! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien fans on our forums!
Yup. Looks like it's happening in Germany right now? Only a couple of tweets out there so far but same ol same ol. lol
I was thinking, after seeing how close the release for AC is to ROGUE ONE (which I just saw and liked a lot) that FOX would try and trail AC just as extra incentive to get people in the theatre for AC.
We must be on the same wavelength. I think it would be foolish not to put it with AC. I feel that we may be getting it sooner rather than later.
There really is no mystery to this and I'm amused to see so many people doubting that Covenant could cost $200 million. Logan is Fox's big tent-pole movie for next summer, and Prometheus outgrossed X-Men: First Class. This could literally be the studio's biggest release of the year, and it's actually a safe bet, economically. Since Fox lost Star Wars to Disney and Fantastic Four is an aborted franchise, they just have Avatar, X-Men/Wolverine, and Alien, now. Avatar has been postponed many times, and they are ending the Wolverine franchise, and they had mixed success starting a new X-men series with Apocalypse, so I can easily imagine them betting the farm on Ridley Scott's next Alien film.
Is this an indication it may not be with Assassins Creed then? Because should the trailer debut with that, that's the 21st, and you'd think it's guaranteed to leak online? So I woulda thought Fox's strategy would be to put it online to avoid a nasty bootleg version. What do you think?
Where are we getting the info that says the CGI was used on the creatures? Maybe to enhance them, but we know there is practical and puppet work. My guess is this "Liberal CGI" is more likely in reference to realizing PARADISE. Based on the leaked photos alone, they are probably creating the equivalent of a Prehistoric Forest and enhancing the natural landscapes to appear more fantastic. To truly make PARADISE as fantastic as they can, I wouldn't sweat this... Probably adds to the world-building. Also we know there is this scene of these Engineers or people, in the throws of mutation, being petrified. Maybe we will get to see that somehow? There are some things which it just doesnt make sense to do practically.
Production Cost for Horror is in new territory right now. Its hard to estimate what's worth what in a market like this. A case could be made that the studios are more and more desperate for something reliable with an R-Rating. Very true that 200m seems high, and maybe unlikely, but this film is a full restoration of the ALIEN franchise, its Scott right after THE MARTIAN, coming off the success of PROMETHEUS (are we really still arguing over whether that film was a success?), and it may not have oscar-winners, but Fassbender is a major headliner and he is reprising a critically acclaimed role. The Horror thing is tough. On the one hand, yes horror and R-rated films have IN THE PAST meant diminishing returns, after a certain budgetary threshold, but it is with restraint that I would add, from a Producer's standpoint, that a horror franchise with built in desire for future cross platform material, and fan base - Something like THE WALKING DEAD, for instance, which is a runaway success, are in short supply and also very popular. Especially previously established properties; the likes of which, studios would love to establish or RE-ESTABLISH, at a time like this, when the audience for, popularity of, and acceptance of dark gory-horror is at an all time high. So I'm just saying we are really in new territory for the horror genre. Traditionally R-RATED original material isn't guaranteed to make $ but an R-rated established fan-favorite, like ALIEN, is kinda in a new place right now, due to the popularity of things like THE WALKING DEAD and etc. For sure ALIEN has always been a sort of anomaly for R-RATED material, historically. There really aren't many opportunities for the studios to bank on this type of thing, and they may have decided this is as good as any chance to do so. These new reports of the "most violent ALIEN film" not-with-standing. Still 200m seems high. There are also plans to make more of these films, so investing when the iron is hot is also a consideration. ::Shrugs::
We'll start getting articles with more specifics after Christmas.
I can not! I want spoil. I suffer in agony.
It's weird that no one has yet made a description of what they saw.
It's be interesting to see real numbers. The Australia part is a good point. This could easily do exactly what you are say, looking absolutely huge on a 130m budget just from some locations and reducing actor paychecks.
Maybe this should be split into a separate thread?
Sorry to the mods for going way off topic.
Production budget could be the same as Prometheus and the film could still be "bigger" in scope. Remember they are saving on super-star salaries plus the big boon of filming in Australia as I mentioned above.
But lets not get into Hollywood "accounting", we're derailing this thread.
This movie will make big bucks because of the Alien name. Ridley Scott's name. The fact that it's good. $600mm despite its gory and bleak nature.
This movie is gonna be way over $200m as soon as advertising begins to kick in. Even Prometheus was close to or over $200m when you factor promotion and advertising into it.. How much over is a good question. Anywhere from half to about equal to the budget seems to be average.
We also need to consider that it is a little cheaper making a film in Australia than the UK. They essentially got more bang for their buck thanks to the exchange rate as well as all the government grants and tax rebates.
I can't honestly tell if it has more or less star power than Prometheus. I have no idea what actors are popular (because actors aren't priority in why I watch something beyond B-movie greats). Like I know Fassbender will make a decent chunk of change but I have no idea about what the pay scale of any of the others would be, so they might in my mind be saving money there (I assume Theron was fairly expensive).
I think 120-130m is a comfortable budget point for an Alien related Hard R horror movie. It's a proven number. Maybe the Alien name attached will bring in more people, maybe it will hurt it (as AVP:R is maybe the worst film ever made).
I want it to do well, and a not astronomical budget will only help with that.
We also know Odd Studio in Sydney did a lot of practical creature work.
Yes, once you go past the $150 million mark on an R-Rated film you start getting diminishing returns the higher you go. The only way that $200 million figure could work is if it includes marketing/advertising costs.
Production cost wise, $150 sounds reasonable, albeit still very high for a film such as this.
According to this is (projected) 150: http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Alien:_Covenant. I'm sure it's gonna be more than Prometheus.
The 200 million quote is the only think that makes me pessimistic. That makes Covenant the most expensive R rated movie of all time, and if you add in advertising and all that, you have to figure around a 400 million break even point. That's a huge uphill battle for this film.
I still think the 200 million is gonna come out as bullshit since Prometheus didn't even make that before Home video release. It came close, but still, yeah, didn't quite make it. That is a huge budget for a niche horror movie to recover, and it certainly won't have Deadpool crossover potential. I am hopeful it makes that money back, but I think i would be even more hopeful if it has a Prometheus budget attached to it.
You're killing me!!
Another French journalist -
https://twitter.com/juljouanneau/status/809410068936589312
Sorry
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I'm not worried about quality of gore.
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I'm hoping he taps into his inner David Cronenberg:
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Not really but hey i'm not complaining, I can dig a good body horror flick.