Empire Podcast Alien: Covenant with Ridley Scott [SPOILERS]

[KiramidHead]

I listened to the interview. Scott didn't actually answer the question about Shaw, he just mumbled something about returning actors and then told an anecdote about Noomi. What the hell, man?

[Ryan741]

That about seeing the devil line by Oran really is chilling, never twigged at the time for me.

[BishopShouldGo]

Any other interesting points?

[Lee]

There's a workprint version of Prometheus? What are the missing scenes?

[Xanadu]

So Engineers are like aliens from Day the Earth Stood Still out to destroy humans for  killing the planet and the black goo is their mutated twisted version of Gort

[Primordial]

did anyone else notice him saying it would be better if daniels is killed off but the studio has contractually obligated her to remain alive.

What about Shaw, .... was it always a decision to kill her off-screen ?
".... she (Daniels) has to come..back, it is policy of them but I'm not sure that is the right..thing, we kept Sigourney on quite rightly through the whole five show process, and Shaw..could have,..." then he starts speaking of the Dragon Tatoo etc.
According to him, it seems that it was either Shaw or Daniels, but a choice was made.

It is always a pleasure to listen to Ridley, it would be better if his thoughts were perceived better throughout the movie. 

[jdxmoore]

He's an excellent question dodger that's for sure 

Why should he answer all questions though?  Some don't need to be answered especially when the story is not fully told yet!

The imagination is a powerful thing.  I loved Prometheus and Covenant primarily because they got my imagination going around some big questions

[question11]

did anyone else notice him saying it would be better if daniels is killed off but the studio has contractually obligated her to remain alive.

What about Shaw, .... was it always a decision to kill her off-screen ?
".... she (Daniels) has to come..back, it is policy of them but I'm not sure that is the right..thing, we kept Sigourney on quite rightly through the whole five show process, and Shaw..could have,..." then he starts speaking of the Dragon Tatoo etc.
According to him, it seems that it was either Shaw or Daniels, but a choice was made.

It is always a pleasure to listen to Ridley, it would be better if his thoughts were perceived better throughout the movie.

yeah, it's obvious that the studio execs wanted shaw killed off and replaced with the new it girl waterston. personally i can't stand daniels. the poser short haircut. the "just here for the ride" deer in the headlights look. the fact that she married james franco (lol).

i would love for ridley to say f it and just nerf her character.

hopefully the sequel gets caught in development hell and daniels gets the shaw treatment.

i'm sorry i see nothing in daniels worth keeping.
kudos to ridley scott for admitting that noomi rapace is in a different league of acting.

[Primordial]

@jdxmoore
I agree all questions must not be answered. I would even say that sometimes, he'd better raise some questions and not answer them (like why did the Engineers change their mind and wanted to kill us ? it is unsatisfying unless you accept that our creators don't give a f*** about animal life by punishing mankind and you put aside the "what happened 2000 years ago for them to take that decision" question)
I had in mind the parallel Ridley was stating about the english colonists going to america and the Covenant colonists. (Unless I missed something, only saw the movie once), I would have prefered more insight on that, for example. Some people including myself rightfully complain about lack of characterisation so more profound dialogues would surely be beneficial.
And yeah, 'Prometheus' definitely triggered my imagination !

@question11
That has the merit to be clear ! I personally liked her, different opinions I guess. I would have kept both, Shaw and Daniels (that doesn't mean they have to survive at all costs, not knowing one character's fate is a good thing)

[Imbrie]

This is all a real shame. The novel gave some hope that David was not the creator of the Alien so my interest was re-ignited but Ridley is clearly adamant that David is the creator. I'm sorry to say that he is destroying this franchise for me and interest has entirely waned.

[BringbackJonesy!]

@ Lee - I believe that the 'workprint' version is a fan edit, but I haven't seen it myself.  However, if you search YouTube for 'Prometheus Workprint Edition' you will come across a trailer for it which features some of the extra scenes in it.  Until I get around to doing my own ideal cuts of Prometheus and Alien Covenant, my own current go-to is the excellent 'Prometheus Special Edition' fan edit by Agent 9 (YouTube also has a trailer for that)

Like that version, I'd definately get rid of the official 'Engineer' prologue to keep their reveal a mystery for much later in the movie, and replace it with the younger Weyland TED sequence instead, no matter what.  And there's plenty of trimming i'd like to do to Alien Covenant too.

As I previously described, I no longer regard Ridley's 'Prometheus' movies as being part of the ALIEN/ALIENS storyline setting whatsover...and it's clear that from his comments that a lot of his ideas make little sense regarding this franchise now.   Having said that, I'm still interested to see what he has David doing next, but I'll look on this storyline as being a totally separate, 'alternative universe' reinterpretation to the original Dan 'O Bannon/Ronald Shusett Alien storyline instead.

On first hearing of Ridley's new proposed take on his original 'Spacejockey' as being a 'spacesuit' instead of a huge skeleton, I remember being nervous that it would end up being a human (possibly Shaw) that would end up inside it by the end of 'Prometheus', rather than some large extra-terrestrial being of some sort.  I was wrong about that, but I wonder if it will now end up being the man-made David who will pilot that particular 'derelict' by the end of these new movies?  We've already seen David put on the 'chair' during 'The Crossing' clip, after all...but on the other hand, he's NOT seen wearing the supposed 'helmet' section in that,whereas it WAS being worn on 'whoever' was in the 'suit' in Ridley's way of looking at his original movie. 

Either way, it won't matter to me...as I will keep it separate from the original two movies, and look on the ALIEN/ALIENS 'Spacejockey' and 'Xenomorph' storyline as showing truly 'alien' Lovecraftian nightmares, thankyou very much.

[Xenomorphine]

To be fair, the black good kills off all non-plant life and allows (supposedly) the Engineers the opportunity to start over.

Still doesn't make any sense.

And why not just use more efficient weapons?

[Bishop2]

Now please, can people accept that David created the Alien? I don't like it either, but it's the truth. Ridley has said it three times now.

Whether that's his intent now, his own films completely contradict this idea.

The sculptures/statues in Prometheus show VERY, VERY Alien-like creatures in more than one place.

So basically, at the very least, we have to decide that the Engineers designed the eggs and xenomorphs (both shown in the Prometheus walls), and David just decided "Oh hey wouldn't it be cool if those wall sculptures were real?!?!?"

More realistically, those creatures already existed.

[JokersWarPig]

Now please, can people accept that David created the Alien? I don't like it either, but it's the truth. Ridley has said it three times now.

Whether that's his intent now, his own films completely contradict this idea.

This.

[XenoHunter99]

I will not comment on the movie. It's too disappointing and mostly as I expected all along. As for the interview, killing the animal life also dooms the plant life as most plants rely on animals for survival. We have an ecosystem - both plants and animals needed to make it work. Insects are pollinators, worms are soil processors, and so on. If Engineers are creators and destroyers, it would make more sense for them to develop something like Star Trek's genesis device and reformat the whole planet. The black goo should be able to accomplish that. It appears to be some sort of nanotech compound. At that point, it's really only a question of what the nanites are programmed to do. Why make monsters when a planet's population can be simultaneously slaughtered and recast as something else? Then, it's not Alien any more; but maybe it would be best for Alien to finally pass into history. Thanks for the good times and Giger's monster, Ridley. Now, please stop.