PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Fresh from SXSW, the people over at MovieWeb have made an announcement that Alien fans have been waiting to hear for years – Ridley Scott is officially back in the horror game with his newest feature Alien: Covenant. Just before a screening of the original 1979 classic, the director showed a few scenes from his most recent foray into space, which is an official follow up to Prometheus (2012). After viewing these scenes, MovieWeb‘s Ryan Scott had this to say:
“One thing that I can definitively say about Alien: Covenant after seeing the footage is that, as frustrated as many were with Prometheus at the time, that movie as absolutely necessary to get us to where we are now. Not only that, but I am confident that Prometheus will look way better in hindsight after seeing Alien: Covenant. Even based on the little footage, that much is clear. Ridley Scott knows what he is doing here.”
Alien: Covenant’s synopsis:
Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.
In his own writings, Ryan Scott talked much about the scenes that were shown. I want this article to remain spoiler-free but if you want to know more, be sure to check out his review here. After viewing the three scenes, Scott called the first one “classic Alien through and through,” where “…the Covenant crew is seen making their initial descent to the planet they are scouting.”
On the second scene, Scott says, “Once on the ground, things have gone from optimistic and hopeful to downright worst case scenario in seemingly no time at all….What I can say is that this sequence is gruesome, tense and thrilling. Also bloody. So much blood. Ridley Scott makes good and creative use of the blood. Again, classic Alien.” The third scene “was the most encouraging thing we were shown all night… Billy Crudup (is) hanging out with Michael Fassbender’s android David from Prometheus. It turns out he has been making use of his years alone on this planet and by that I mean he has been ‘studying’ the alien life.”
As I said, a lot more happened in these scenes, so don’t despair at my information-free descriptions. Remember when we announced that comedy guru Danny McBride was writing the script for the 2018 Halloween movie and everyone freaked out, saying he had no business in the horror field? After seeing this mere ten minutes of footage, Scott extols that McBride “…is the true standout and might have a promising career outside of R-rated comedies after this.”
He also heaped mounds of praise on both the cinematography and the other casting choices, which includes returning Prometheus actors Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce, as well as Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016), James Franco (Spider-Man 2002), Billy Crudup (Almost Famous 2000), Demian Bichir (The Hateful Eight 2015), Carmen Ejogo (The Purge: Anarchy 2014), Amy Seimetz (You’re Next 2011), Jussie Smollett (The Mighty Ducks 1992), Goran D. Kleut (Hacksaw Ridge 2016), Callie Hernandez (La La Land 2016), and Benjamin Rigby (That’s Not Me 2015). Alien: Covenant is set for release on May 19.
The cast for the movie includes Michael Fassbender,
