Ridley Scott has had quite a year. After successfully proving his doubters wrong with The Martian, he is in the driver’s seat and will be dipping back into his own past. Not only is he producing a sequel to Blade Runner, with acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) and Academy Award cinematographer Roger Deakins (Skyfall) behind the camera. He will also be revisiting another property that he created, with the Alien franchise.
Scott is directing the sequel to Prometheus, which should stand as an origin story for the Xenomorphs. Many were disappointed by Prometheus, mostly because Scott veered from making overt connections to the Alien franchise. Despite a marketing campaign that seemed to make promises to the contrary. It seems that Scott learned his lesson and he will be doubling down on Xenomorph action this next time around.
Today Fox Studios, cemented their intentions to identify the Prometheus sequel, as an Alien prequel. The follow-up will be titled Alien: Covenant. In addition they released the first official synopsis for the upcoming sequel.
Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in ALIEN with ALIEN: COVENANT, the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with PROMETHEUS — and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
There was a huge amount of subtext in regards to the origin of religion and how worlds were created in Prometheus. So it comes as little surprise that the title and ship brings the notion to forefront again. A covenant is essentially a biblical agreement. How exactly that will apply to the new cast that will be on board the Covenant is unknown. However, what is known is that most of the crew will not be making it until the credits roll.
It looks as if Noomi Rapace’s character Elizabeth Shaw has been written out of the sequel. We last saw her and Michael Fassbender’s dismembered robotic head blasting off into space looking for further adventures. However, with no mention of her in the synopsis, it’s worth seeing if Rapace shows up on set in the near future. Regardless, Fassbender is such a gifted actor that he could carry the movie as just a head rolling around. In any case, it seems even more apparent why Neil Blomkamp’s Alien film was put on indefinite hold. Scott was tired of other directors toying with his creation. So it’s only fitting that he comes back wholeheartedly to the franchise that he made iconic.
There is a lot more to come as Alien: Covenant is scheduled for a October 6, 2017 release.
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Source: /Film