Director Ridley Scott, who is later this year returning to the world of his first big hit “Alien” with a sequel called “Alien: Covenant,” which promises to improve on its lacklustre prequel that was supposed to answer questions and ended up asking way, way more. Hopefully the return of the “Alien” title and its titular creature the xenomorph will tie into a return of that same quality of an intimate chiller on an epic scale, although that wasn’t the case for “Alien 3” or “Alien: Resurrection,” but then again, they didn’t have the magic touch of Sir Ridley.
But “Prometheus” did and that was still a lemon, but here’s hoping he can catch lightning it another bottle.
Scott opened up about the film on set
IGN caught up with Scott on the set of “Alien: Covenant,” saying right off the bat that he would describe the original “Alien” as “a posh horror Film,” before expressing his disdain for the cheap and inartistic horror films of modern Cinema. He sees horror as a genre polluted by “bloodlust” leading to “bloody films...that are not even frightening.” Although he acknowledges “Alien” is a film that “scared the sh*t out of people,” but does not categorise it with horror. First off, Scott made it clear that he is going for a film closer to “Alien” than “Prometheus” with “Covenant,” and that’s great news.
He also noted that his aim with directing the film is to create “real tension and real fear,” which he says makes it “really heartening when you scare people.”
The plot of “Alien: Covenant” concerns a colony ship floating through space when they discover a human distress signal and head to a strange planet to check it out. That’s when things go awry real fast as the crew gets picked off one by one.
Special effects man Neil Corbould compares what Scott is doing to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” He said, “They put the old X-wings back and the old cast, and Ridley’s doing the same,” calling the new film “a modern-day version” of the 1979 original’s haunted house-type premise.
Stepping into the creatures workshop of “Alien: Covenant,” it becomes clear that Scott is doing as much of the film in-camera as possible and using visual effects only to refine the weaker areas.
So, he’s utilising the old-school tricks of latex, silicone, and KY jelly, which is apparently the best practical makeup tool on the planet.
There’s an entirely new alien in town: the Neomorph
In “Alien: Covenant,” a big plot point is autopsying the xenomorphs and their mechanics in order to create a whole new type of killer alien, which Michael Fassbender (who returns here as his android character from “Prometheus,” David, as well as an updated version called Walter) confirmed as being called Neomorphs. The Neomorphs are the bridge between whatever “Prometheus” was and the iconic creature from ‘79’s “Alien,” so their evolution will be hinted at in this one.
Scott also made it clear that “Alien: Covenant” is an “Alien” film, and not “Prometheus 2.” He knows “Prometheus” wasn’t universally beloved like his earlier film and now he’s addressing that by taking steps towards bridging the gap between the two.
Scott is aiming to answer a “really simple” question that “nobody asked.” That question is: who made the deadly xenomorph and why did they do it? This film will be the “Aliens” to “Prometheus.” Corbould says that the audience is “going to get a lot more aliens, more than they probably anticipated.”
