Last night at the AFI Film Festival, Ridley Scott sat down with Scott Foundas for an hour-long conversation spanning Scott’s entire career (you can read about it in detail here). And, of course, you can’t have a career-spanning conversation with Ridley Scott without touching upon “Alien,” his 1979 sci-fi horror and sophomore effort that minted his career and launched a massive Hollywood franchise.
And, of course, Scott has circled back to the “Alien” series with “Prometheus,” and recently suggested wanting to reclaim sole ownership of the property (sorry, Neil Blomkamp). While the sequel to "Prometheus" has been going by the name “Alien: Paradise Lost,” last night during the AFI talk, Scott casually mentioned a new title as an aside.
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Ridley Scott
“I’ve got no plan,” Scott said, discussing his overall career and which project follows another. “I go from pillar to post randomly. I have this childlike fascination and thrill of doing it.” He then launched into a story about how “The Martian” came about.
“I was going to be doing what will be called ‘Alien: Covenant,’ which starts shooting next February, and we were struggling then with the screenplay there and then there was a phone call, somebody saying, ‘Listen, we’ve got this thing which is completely written called ‘Martian,’ and I said, ‘Huh.’ And I sped read it in an hour and by mid-afternoon, I talked to Fox and said, ‘I need to talk to ‘Drew [Goddard]…’”
And yes, the rest is history. Goddard had written it for himself, but was happy to hand over the project to Scott, and, in fact, he suggested the director for the gig. But hold the phone then. So “Alien: Paradise Lost” is now “Alien: Covenant”? Sure sounds that way from last night’s conversation.
“Alien: Covenant,” or whatever he ends up calling the damn thing, is already scheduled for a May 30, 2017 release. With potential more sequels to come, this new franchise could keep Scott busy for several more years. Listen to the full conversation below and hit the 20:40 mark to hear the story that reveals the new film title.
No, it does not need Sigourney Weaver to be an alien movie. It needs the Giger Alien, that\’s it. A good plot-line would help too.
How about Fox make both of them and may the best – Man…wait…alien win. Must have Sigourney Weaver or not really An alien movie. since it is about money…what makes them think that one will negatively impact the other? Ok. who out there would go see one and not the other if they were both released at around the same time?
@davids cat, i totally agree blade runner is overrated and alien is just a horror film, it\’s amazing how many dweebs (to coin a phrase from mark) fawn over those movies. In my opinion the only truly decent films he\’s ever made were american gangster and black hawk down the latter being very good in my opinion, but what do i know my taste probably isn\’t refined enough for the indiewire crowd or mark the art critic and part time internet tough guy. In response to the article the title sounds stupid and any movie that needs 3 writers and isn\’t finished while going into production in a couple of months is going to be bad, at least it sounds like the odds are stacked against it, then again the fact that the first one wasn\’t that good means it\’s already got a mountain to climb so maybe they don\’t care and this is just a money grab
@ mark you sound like a pretentious internet tough guy who would soil himself if he spoke to anybody like that in real life. Seeing as taste is subjective why don\’t you fill us in on what the art of cinema is nob chops
Hey mark why don\’t you fill us in on the art of cinema
What?
@david sounds like yet another dweeb fanboy with no understanding of the art of cinema.
@david you should really end your posts with "in my opinion". The guy has just made the highest grossing picture of his career with the martian, helmed a best picture winner with gladiator (a film i notice every basement dwelling specky four eyed nerd on the internet seems to loath) and was also nominated for best director for that movie along with thelma and louise and black hawk down, he also won best debut film at cannes for the duellists. None of these movies happen to be called alien or blade runner. But it seems to be a running thing now for people to write off everything he did after those two movies. Personally i think alien is great for a slasher in space movie and blade runner is hugely overrated but that\’s just my opinion, bottom line being there not that goddamn great it\’s just nostalgia goggles from the same type of people that insist everything that gets made today is crap.
Despite being responsible for two brilliant masterpieces (blade runner and alien) scott is an average director at best. No wonder he keeps returning to alien
Apparently the only film related news these days is Ridley Scott and his Prometheus follow up. And I\’m pretty sure all he\’s talked about during The Martian press tour is Prometheus 2. Or Paradise. Or Aliens: Paradise Lost. Or Aliens: Covenant. Stupid, stupid title.
Hey mark why don’t you fill us in on the art of cinema