With Alien: Covenant due out any soon, more information from the press rounds is pouring out. Talking to Yahoo Movies, Sir Ridley Scott spoke about the reception to Prometheus and how fan reaction shaped Alien: Covenant.
“Fast-forward to 2017 and the beast is back. The classic xenomorph is front and centre in ‘Alien: Covenant’ (in cinemas Friday) – a direct sequel set 10 years after the events of 2012’s divisive ‘Prometheus’ – so what changed?
“What changed was the reaction to ‘Prometheus’, which was a pretty good ground zero reaction,” the forthright filmmaker responds without hesitation.
“It went straight up there, and we discovered from it that [the fans] were really frustrated. They wanted to see more of the original [monster] and I thought he was definitely cooked, with an orange in his mouth. So I thought: ‘Wow, OK, I’m wrong’.”“The fans, in a funny kind of way – they’re not the final word – but they are the reflection of your doubts about something,” Scott explains, “and then you realise ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I was right’. I think that’s where it comes in. I think you’re not sensible if you don’t actually take [the fans’ reaction] into account.”
Scott has spoken out in the past about not taking note of critical reception of his films but it seems he may be taking note of the fan reaction. Alien vs. Predator Galaxy recently had the opportunity to put some questions across to Sir Ridley Scott (videos will be coming soon!) and we asked about the change from Prometheus to Alien. He also told us that some of change of direction that was due to fan reaction on social media.
Yahoo Movies also asked Scott about the future of the Alien series. He re-affirmed that Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 had ceased movement, shot down hopes of any revitalised interest in a new Alien vs. Predator film and took a couple of more months off his previous 14 months estimate before he starts shooting Alien: Covenant 2 (Alien: Awakening?):
“As for the future of the franchise, Scott thinks there’s a lot left in the tank creatively with screenwriter John Logan (‘Skyfall’, ‘Alien: Covenant’) already delivering a script for a direct sequel that Scott aims to shoot after ‘All The Money In The World’ and ‘The Cartel’.
“I’ll probably be filming it within a year,” Scott says about the follow up to ‘Covenant’. “It’ll be out within a year and nine months. It’s weird when you’re writing, doing, planning, thinking about franchises, it’s amazing how it opens up and starts to evolve.”
On whether that film, rumoured to be called ‘Alien: Awakening’, will complete the prequel series and lead us directly up to the events of the 1979 ‘Alien’, Scott remains coy. “I don’t know. [I’ll make] maybe two more [films], or maybe one more, I don’t know.”
Thanks to the Perfect Organism Podcast for the news! Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien: Covenant and Alien: Covenant 2! 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!
For many years I liked the Alien franchise, but the direction Alien Covenant went was the coup de grace for the franchise, it feels like Ridley has a short time to live and wants to gut the franchise as fast as he can so no one can continue expanding the universe when he is gone. He wants Xenomorphs to be the plane Jane of space horror and with AC he accomplished that. Alone for the space ships and gorefest is a trip to the theaters not worth it.
When the movie was over I could not believe I had seen a movie that bad and I am not taking into consideration the major plot holes. People land on an alien planet and wear no helmets or any kind of protection against infection? Really?!
I could go on here, but I think the movie does not deserve more of my time, yet I felt motivated enough to rant about it.
The only thing I liked was Michael Fassbenders acting.
Ridley will never retire. He'll be making Prometheus 5 even after the giant cockroaches take over the Earth.
Topic: Ridley Scott Admits He Was "Wrong" about Covenant & Talks about Retirement
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Actually I hope this thing is succesful and he takes any critism to make the final prequel film amazing.
It's the original 79' Alien that is a ripoff of Terrore nello Spazio, not really prometheus.
Not really anything but ...
I suspect that came from both him and Scott. And it was likely correct. It's hard to play scenes with giant elephant men and make them viable to a mass audience. That being said, the way the Engineers were used didn't have to be quite so functional - just them running around hitting people.
It was just f**king lazy and Ridley went with it because it was the easy answer.
And now this shit with David is again the lazy easy answer.
Also continuity error. Blood on woman's face. Then next scene no blood on face. Then blood on face again. Still totally forgiven!
Other problem is the conversation at the beginning by Peter Weyland about not believing evolution, by suggesting humans must have had a creator... glaring philosophical hole... who created the tall pale aliens? Evolution perhaps. Peter Weyland would be smart enough to realise the hole in his own logic.
However the rest of it was excellent. Worst part was Walter not realising... almost ruined the film.
I completely agree. There's some definite and obvious fascination with David (and rightfully so, I think). I think that in order for him to play with this more, he had to bow to the Alien inclusion because that seems to be the big thing Fox took away from Prometheus.
I do agree Scott's compulsion to be pacey in the editing hurts both films. And I think a similar compulsion and drive to continue proving out as the unaged master drove him back to the alien. The drive to make David/Fassbender central to the mythos seems very much a personal choice.
While I'd seen Furious Gods a few times and read Spaihts' draft several times, I've only recently read Lindelof's and I have to say, there's stuff in there that is better than the film. Off the top of my head - Milburn isn't a biologist so it's not as stupid with the Hammerpede and that line about everyone wanting their parents dead is along the lines of "doesn't everyone hate their parents?"
Unfortunately, there's been a lot going on so my memory might not be as clear but I remember reading it going "this is much better." I think Scott and Scalia's editing has been more harmful. For Prometheus and Covenant.
I understand that was actually forced down on him. And you can tell, I think.
It's not one or the other. I think you could've had both cosmic exploration with new ideas for the franchise and grueling body horror and scares in the same film. Both Prometheus and this film are two separate and incomplete halves of an excellent new movie thanks to elements within each.
We need to stop putting this on other people. This was Ridley's choice - he made the calculation to go back to the alien and all its appropriate fan service, to re-crown himself the king of sci-fi horror.
It was in fact heavily inspired - at least visually - by Bava's Planet of the Vampires.
I mean that kinda sci-fi does exist, we just had Prometheus.
I don't mind Prometheus in retrospect - it has an Italian B-Movie vibe about it, mirroring the grand pretentions of those films, and the grand disappointments of not fulfilling their promise!
It pisses me off that fans dumped on Lindelof because they were still butt-hurt about how "Lost" ended, which I loved, by the way. It was the "cool thing" to do at the time: instantly hate on anything Lindelof did. Never mind there were several cooks in the kitchen on the new "Star Trek" films; anything fans didn't like, it was Lindelof's fault.
I loved "Prometheus," so I'm not hating on the film. But I am happy that, after all these years, Scott can finally admit that HE was at fault for the film's shortcomings, not Lindelof. I respect Scott more now than I ever have.
It wouldn't have been God-tier. That kinda sci-fi doesn't exist in 2017 with a budget of 100m+ if it exist at all in film forum. We're well beyond the days where a studio would have the balls to release something like 2001 without adding a sub-plot to appeal to people who absolutely need human melodrama to make their films enjoyable (Interstellar I am looking at you). As much as I love the idea of Shaw and David exploring an Alien race we do not understand I've always known that wouldn't full happen because most people would be bored by that film.
I was just hoping for something more than a typical horror movie. I know people didn't like the Star Trek aspect of Prometheus but that is what kept me interested in the movie and keeps me kinda championing it even though it is not a good movie. I thought second time around maybe they would get it right.
Yeah, it seems there was a bit too much going on, too fast towards the end.
I was referring to people who think Prometheus II would have been god-tier and Alien: Covenant is for the peasants.
The problem isn't the Xenomorph, the problem is the ALIEN is gone. The mystery, the wonder and cosmic horror has been reduced to a slasher villain in space, with stories resulting in nothing more than people bumping into the Xenomorph and dying. Rinse off the blood and repeat. I appreciate Scott's attempts to bring some deeper meaning to the franchise, but it's done with out reverence to the source and ultimately it comes off sloppy and meaningless.
It's frustrating as all hell to see how muddled this series has become. As formulaic and sometimes filler as the Marvel and new Star Wars movies are, at least they are maintaining some consistency in their world building.
lol! Winde's trying to lay the wood on 'em.
I think the people banging on about not getting a proper sequel really just wanted more engineers.
Me too, really enjoyed reading Windbieste review and you certainly made the film sound close to what I had hoped for.
You cant please everyone and I kind of like the idea that the story is going in a completely different direction than I imagined for all those years, its refreshing, to me anyway.
Roll on Saturday
Personally I love the way Scotts taking the story(controversial opinion I know) just add more Giger and its perfect!
I found 'A:C' to have a lot going on and be more of a space thriller along the lines of a roller coaster ride rather than something genuinely frightening.
-Windebieste.
It's like a roast, you gotta let it sit for a minute if you want to do it right.
Thats' where 'ALIEN: Isolation' succeeded. It placed me directly in the shoes of Amanda Ripley. Yeah. That was scary at times.
For newcomers, yeah. It'll be a scary movie. It would be interesting experiment to take someone who's not been exposed to any 'ALIEN' movies, including the 'AvP' stuff - and see how they react.
And yes. A little tidying up would improve 'PROMETHEUS' outta sight! There's a decent movie there that I hope will one day emerge - much like 'ALIEN 3' has improved as time as passed with each release adding cut content returned to the movie. I think that will eventually happen.
-Windebieste.
^This. The lack of Aliens was indeed not the biggest problem. I'm glad Prometheus is off the table and looking forward to Covenant and it's sequels. Alien: Isolation proved the Xeno is still fckin scary (hell maybe Scott even played it for all we know lol) and it seems Covenant is out to scare people. So bring on the new beasties, storylines and crazy androids.
Here here. I'll see it and stay true to my thoughts, though I suspect i'll be in your camp Windebieste because I've gotta say, some of the plot points I've read really don't upset me or phase me. It's nearly 40 years after the original man-in-a-suit movie, I'm just so glad it's still around and I for one, am glad about some of the elements Ridley is putting in.
He begins ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD in a few days.
Then, He begins THE CARTEL in January 2018.
I suppose, He begins ALIEN: COVENANT 2 in July 2018.
The first 30min were great and then.......
Forget about not having xeno's and stuff. Just a really poor screenplay and lazy directing. Acting was really good for such a piece of shit.
I mean even the mythology he is coming up with is just weak. He's doing more harm than good.
I am lost for words how bad this is.
Release an extended version since the original version woild have been 2hr and 35 minutes long. Dat alternate engineer fight was really effective.
Personally I hate it when directors and such panic due to negative reaction. If you have a vision, stick to it. Because he might have been responding to the wrong complaints.
yep retcon head canon that people believe than 30+ years.
It's Great!
All these panic mongers, perfectionists and overly expectant going on about retcons and crap are full of bullshit. They can all just f**k off.
The only thing being retconned is their precious head canon.
Go see it.
-Windebieste.
I second gantarat. I've read the full plot summary, and I'm strongly leaning towards waiting for the Blu-ray release. And the marketing did spoil way too much, but I don't mind spoilers.
"How many people here have seen the movie yet? Seems like a lot of people are making hyperbolic statements before having seen it. See it for yourself and make up you own mind."
I second gantarat. I've read the full plot summary, and I'm strongly leaning towards waiting for the Blu-ray release. And the marketing did spoil way too much, but I don't mind spoilers.
Unless you wanna see that movie done for under $40m you'll never get that movie. It's not commercially viable enough and too abstract and weird for the general population. Ridley might be powerful enough to get it made but it would be on sever budget restriction as they would see it as a limited market film.
i seen it and very disappoint.
alien prequel pretty much is david story feat alien,engineer.
When Prometheus came out there were a lot of people wondering if it did have the alien in it, or where was the alien, etc. That's something he can pick up on and do differently. When it comes to criticism of the story or writing itself, you can get like 20 different answers from 10 people. So it seems at the end of the day Ridley will just go with the story he wants to tell.
I've been a fan since I saw the first film on VHS in the early 1980's, but after half a dozen films and probably close to 100 viewings.. I'm bored of Xeno's
IMO, the trouble with Prometheus is that the Engineers feel like a tacked on afterthought. Intelligence and power with malevolent intent is a lot more scary and unnerving to me than critters crawling through ducts. Also too much time screwing around with old man Withers.. err Weyland.. It's a wasted opportunity because Prometheus could have been saved with a proper part 2 follow-up.
Nobody watches a movie like The Fellowship of the Ring as a stand alone story. You need to see Two Towers and Return of the King to make it complete. That is what I hoped for, but this feels more like a reboot. Another robot slips a cog movie.
But with Prometheus, (in my sole and personal opinion) it felt like Damon was knowingly trying to input as much philosophical white noise and unanswered questions as possible to confuse people into thinking it was some intricately written and deeply well thought out philosophical masterpiece. I'm one of those people that was blessed to experience the Alien universe at a young age, when I wasn't supposed to be watching stuff like that.
I'd much rather he stepped back and let others expand on the universe again. I'd certainly rather see Alien 5 than yet another Prometheus misstep.