Whatever the future holds for “Alien” remains to be seen, but at least we can count out the franchise being owned by Disney. Ridley Scott has forever talked about numerous prequels to his classic piece of sci-fi horror, but we’ll see what Fox decides after the underwhelming returns on “Alien: Covenant” (though the director seems to think the numbers are just fine). At any rate, Scott is now indicating that perhaps the franchise has run out of xenomorph-y steam.
In an excerpt from a roundtable talk with THR (via Dark Horizons), the filmmaker talks about why he wasn’t able to helm “Blade Runner 2049” and the future of the “Alien” series.
“It was a crossfire of too much business. I’m doing a lot of TV and films, there are six films going out this year,” Scott explained. “I figured it was a good piece of business to follow through ‘Prometheus,’ which, from ground zero, had good lift-off. So we went to ‘Covenant’ to perpetuate the idea and [revive] the franchise of the ‘Alien.’ I think the beast has almost run out, personally. [On ‘2049’] you’ve got to come in with something else, you’ve got to replace that. And on ‘Blade Runner,’ I think Denis [Villeneuve] was a fantastic choice.”
It’s not clear if Scott means the entire “Alien” series is out of juice, or just its original premise, but he’s made it clear for a while now he wants to take the property in a whole new direction.
“I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.’s. The world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one,” he said last month.
I don’t know….then maybe make a movie about A.I. instead of lumping those ideas into the “Alien” franchise? It seems the more Scott wants to grow his property, the further away from the beautiful simplicity of the first film it gets.
Thoughts? Let us know below.
https://twitter.com/THR/status/926135786763726849
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Personally I feel what has always tied the Alien series together was Ripley’s journey, and not so much the creature in itself. From a cynical point of view, I think the studio and the director, believed it would make sense to make more films in the Alien universe, emulating some elements (female lead), to have an established audience in place, though the films feel quite different and are treading a path that is also quite different. Why not let someone else tackle these films – Ridley Scott is clearly more interested in pursuing a plotline that has nothing to do with the Alien mythology. Give the creative direction to someone like Danny Boyle, who was at some point under consideration to direct Alien: Resurrection.
I want this franchise to play out until Ripley tracks down an ancient, Kurtz’d-out David at the edge of space.
“Alien” had two great films. They should have just let it be at that point.
I’m most likely giving Ridley Scott more credit than is warranted but there’s an idea to consider with his transition to AI as the focus for the series. For a while now he’s talked about his love of the idea of shared universes a la ‘Marvel’ and the storytelling possibilities it creates. What if David’s journey, started in Prometheus, is designed to be it’s own seperate series; focusing on the evolution of AI in a story that entwines it’s narrative with the ‘Alien’ franchise; a shared universe? Alien Covenant certainly made it clear this story is David’s, so it could be possible that Scott has made his AI trilogy that just so happens to take place in the ‘Alien’ universe.
I think Ridley Scott should really stick to smaller things, like Matchstick Men and The Counselor which were effortlessly good. all his other (bigger) projects weren’t so good (Robin Hood, Exodus, both Xeno-movies..)
The Counsellor was a nightmare, The Martian was a huge movie and extremely well received all the way around.
“extremely well received” means good now, got it.
Well…yeah, it kinda does.
Okay, so I guess Mr. Scott wants to basically make a darker, scarier version of The 100’s A.L.I.E. arc.
Sadly the light has likely gone out for good. Covenant was a complete mess. Instead of giving viewers what they actually wanted and continuing the journey Prometheus ended with, we had to go over the cliché “final girl” horror trope aaaalllll over again, nobody wanted that. Many would have much preferred to see what Blompkamp could have done with an “Aliens” sequel, we will never know.
Prometheus promised a story about the Engineers. Covenant broke that promise. The Xenomorph isn’t the problem. It’s the writer’s lack of faith in his own story…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ca1640f6015f53dccd23b2da58aa80788a9ea52e758526bac2b2c0a2e74aff3.gif I don’t think he even knows what Alien is supposed to be about anymore.
Great so after he dumped two really forgettable flicks on us in place of the very cool sounding sequel to Aliens that almost happened, NOW he decides the franchise is almost out of juice.