Tag: Alien: Awakening

'Alien: Earth' Streaming Next Summer, Series Spinoff Is Set Two Years Before Original 'Alien'
Posted on in News, Television News

‘Alien: Earth’ Streaming Next Summer, Series Spinoff Is Set Two Years Before Original ‘Alien’

Most recently, we finally got some new footage from Noah Hawley‘s (“Fargo,” “Legion”) “Alien” series spinoff “Alien: Earth” from a Disney+ promotional video from earlier in the month, and a “new teaser” from this week has confirmed a summer 2025 debut on Hulu and Disney+. Sadly, this teaser (See below) doesn’t exactly include any new footage, just the previous look at a xenomorph we got over the summer.

If you weren’t already aware, the show’s cast includes Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, and Moe Bar-El.

Olyphant is reportedly playing a new android in the show, and we’re still trying to figure out if the show is indeed going to be regarded as hard canon like “Alien: Romulus” or simply a standalone project that won’t impact past or future stories.

Illuminating the Empty Spaces of 'Alien' | by Nat Brehmer | Medium

From a timeline perspective, “Alien: Earth” takes place in 2120, which directly places it two years before the events of the original “Alien” by Ridley Scott and set much after his more recent prequels, “Prometheus” (27 years) and “Alien: Covenant” (16 years).

“Alien: Romulus” took place between “Alien” and “Aliens,” adding brand new characters and establishing that Weyland-Yutanti tinkered with the Big Chap and had a cloning program before Carter Burke doomed the colonists of Hadley’s Hope or the cloning plot of “Alien: Resurrection.” Until we get official confirmation from Hawley, there is wiggle room for them to retroactively add these new show events to the main franchise timeline in the same way without retconning anything in a major way (Neill Blomkamp’s never-made “Alien 5” would have retconned the films after “Aliens” and explored the company’s experiments with the xenomorphs including bio-suits).

In theory, xenomorphs could have overrun a city or island on Earth only to be nuked into dust and covered up by the company to hide active weapons programs using alien bio-technology. This would explain this hint of previous knowledge of the xenomorphs from Ash and Carter Burke, an established database on them from the occurences of “Alien: Earth” or previous attempts to experiment even before “Romulus.”

Check out the show’s official logline from FX/Disney:

“When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series ‘Alien: Earth’ from creator Noah Hawley.“

Elsewhere in the franchise, writer/director Fede Alvarez is said to be developing a follow-up sequel to “Alien: Romulus” (Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are confirmed to reprise their roles) potentially with Ridley Scott (had once been developing a third David-centric prequel called “Alien: Awakening“) returning as producer via Scott Free, and the next live-action “Predator” film “Predator: Badlands” is set to hit the big screen next November. There is some hope that with the two film franchises now being set in the distant future and off-world, 20th Century Studios could eventually attempt an organic and authentic new adaptation of “Alien vs Predator.” By ignoring the previous two films and giving fans something closer to what the original comic books and video games were doing with the crossover.

Time will tell if The Colonial Marines (who haven’t officially appeared since James Cameron’s “Aliens”) will be the third splinter group to their own series or spinoff before an off-world clash between the two deadly alien species.

While “Prey” was a Hulu-exclusive film, “Alien: Romulus” was gifted a traditional theatrical release and earned an impressive $350.8 million for the studio at the worldwide box office. Making it the second highest-grossing installment. “Romulus” has proved there is still gas left in the tank despite mixed reactions to Ridley’s two prequels. We’re curious to see how “Alien: Earth” impacts things next summer and what new ideas Halwey has cooked up beyond expanding on the company trying to weaponize the xenomorph (an over-arching theme of the franchise and briefly touched upon in “Alien: Romulus” and “Alien: Resurrection” via cloning technology.

SOURCE: FX

'Aliens Vs. Predator': 'Alien: Romulus' Director Fede Álvarez Pitches Co-Directing New Crossover With Dan Trachtenberg
Posted on in Film News, News

‘Aliens Vs. Predator’: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Director Fede Álvarez Pitches Co-Directing New ‘AVP’ Film With Dan Trachtenberg

“Alien: Romulus” has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for “Alien” franchise after being on life support when Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” failed to replicate the success of “Prometheus,” and put his third prequel movie “Alien: Awakening” (Scott had mapped out plans with screenwriter Michael Green for many more installments beyond that) into limbo for foreseeable future. The movie has a budget of $80 million (modest in comparison to other genre-focused studio tentpoles) and is set between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens,” now projected to earn an impressive $100 million-plus at the global box office and nabbing over $40 million domestically. This makes “Romulus” the second-biggest domestic opening (previously held by “Alien Vs. Predator“) for the franchise behind the $51 million “Prometheus” (Budget was $130 million) opening weekend in 2012.

Of course, this success certainly bodes well for more movies, including the potential for a “Romulus” sequel (without spoiling the film, it ends with the open-ended plausibility of a sequel). While on the red carpet promoting the film, director Fede Álvarez was asked by Deadline (See video below) about the potential for a new “Alien Vs. Predator” film project (the IP actually titled “Aliens Vs. Predator” for the video games, comic books, and other material).

Álvarez didn’t exactly reveal too many details on what he would do with the property, but he pitched the idea of co-directing the big-screen crossover with “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg.

[Laughs] I don’t know, depends on how well [“Alien: Romulus”] does and if people still want to see that. I think [it’s] maybe something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tranchtenberg]. That could be something we could do…I direct one half, and he directs the other half,” the filmmaker told Deadline.

Álvarez also compared the idea to the collaborative working relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on films like “From Dusk Till Dawn” (Fede misspoke as Tarantino wrote the script and Rodriguez helmed) and “Grindhouse” (their horror double-feature). They did co-direct together on “Sin City” and “Four Rooms.”

When we consider 20th Century Studios’ recent attentiveness to these franchises, it’s really only a matter of time before they attempt another “AVP” project.

For his part, Trachtenberg is overseeing the next two installments in the “Predator” franchise, with both “Badlands” (Elle Fanning reportedly is in the mix to potentially lead it) and an untitled follow-up to “Prey.” The latter will most likely feature Naru (Amber Midthunder) being invited into a predator clan, not unlike the “AVP” comic book character Machiko Noguchi, and potentially extending her lifespan via pred-tech, allowing Naru to potentially be still alive in a futuristic setting. Giving them plausible wiggle room to add Naru to a hypothetical “AVP” reboot that could connect to “Alien: Romulus” via the yet-to-be-explored planet of Yvaga.

“Alien Vs. Predator” was released back in 2004 and had director Paul W.S. Anderson take direct cues from things like the schlock sci-fi exploitation movie “Galaxy of Terror” (Roger Corman’s “Alien” knockoff that a young James Cameron worked on at New World Pictures) and H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” (also takes place in ancient ruins hidden in Antarctica with unspeakable monsters awaken by explorers). The PG-13 movie ended up making the studio money but got ripped apart by fans and critics alike, leading to a smaller budget for the R-rated sequel “AVP: Requiem.” A sequel that felt worse than the previous film due to the small-town contemporary setting (used to save studio money on production costs) and weak/unforgettable characters.

Given the poor reception of those movies, don’t expect too much of a continuation or any direct links moving forward. Its been seen those movies take place outside of the main “Alien” franchise timeline/canon and a reason to simply reboot. A couple of integral elements were always missing from those movies, such as the return of the Colonial Marines (oddly enough, we haven’t seen them on the big screen since 1986 despite being a massive part of the “Alien” expanded universe) and a futuristic off-world setting (the Jackson’s Star Colony was a massive highlight from “Romulus”). Those might be more expensive additions but that would be sort of no-brainer if they’re going to take a third crack at this property.

While the bungled video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” botched the single-player campaign and the game itself was buggy as hell, it did add creative variant types of Xenomorphs (just as “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” did), which really should be a huge part of a new “AVP” film. They could easily give audiences multiple different takes on the creatures, like Rhino, Burster, Spitter, Boiler, Prowler, Bull, Flying Queen, and the Alien King.

How they would get to those variants wouldn’t be all that hard, given an off-world colony would likely have established agriculture farms on the colonized planet, using a mix of animal life imported off-world (think the oxen and dog from “Alien 3”) alongside other inhabitants on an alien planet as their hosts instead of only humans. Another angle could be doing warring Xenomorph hives (A conflict between hives and red xenos introduced via the Dark Horse Comics run “Aliens: Genocide” from 1991-1992) are expansion elements that could be perfect fodder for these new movies, given the aim of each installment seems to be adding to lifecycle lore and creating different variants of the species.

In a perfect world, a new “AVP” installment could bring together “Alien: Romulus,” and whatever Trachtenberg is doing with his “Predator” movies. Instead of simply being it’s own standalone.

I also wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the ‘Alien: Romulus” box office success may boost the idea at the studio of revisiting never-made “Alien” projects like the aforementioned “Alien: Awakening” or even the twice-nixed “Alien 5” with Sigourney Weaver reprising the Ellen Ripley role. Although, the former seems a lot more realistic between the two, allowing for franchise stewards Ridey and Scott Free Productions to complete their planned prequel trilogy and potentially bring back the Engineers (Paradise wasn’t apparently their homeworld but possibly one of many of their terraformed/seeded planets inhabited by devoted humanoids that may have worshiped them as Gods) alongside Michael Fassbender’s David, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, and Danny McBride’s Tennesse. At the end of the film, we see David now in complete control of the Covenant ship, the final two crew members, and the entire group of sleeping colonists.

20th Century Studios, FX/Hulu, and Scott Free are behind the new streaming series “Alien: Earth” from creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) and could be another puzzle piece to getting the money folks at the studio to give Scott his wish to complete his David Saga trilogy. Raising the demand and profile of a franchise launched all the way back in 1979 will be key to finding a new generation of audiences to support it.

We’ll just have to be patient to see what the studio does next with these characters and if a crossover like “AVP” or “Alien: Awakening” will ever materialize.

SOURCE: DEADLINE & THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in News, Television News

Ridley Scott Already Taking Shots At Noah Hawley’s ‘Alien’ Series: “It’ll Never Be As Good As The First One”

Last December, it was made official by Disney that Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) would be making an Earthbound series set within the Alien franchise for FX On Hulu with Ridley Scott taking a producing role (Scott being the gatekeeper of the Alien franchise via Scott Free).

While speaking with The Independent, Ridley Scott gives the impression he might be more hands-off than we previously expected and proceeded to theorize the show will “never” be as good as his original 1979 film, which comes off as more of a dig towards Hawley than trying to motivate the successful creator of FX’s Legion and Fargo to outshine Alien.

“Wherever [the series goes], whatever they do, ‘It’ll never be as good as the first one,’ [Scott grins] ‘That’s what I’ll say.’”

These somewhat passive-aggressive comments aren’t terribly shocking given that Ridley Scott seems to big his own biggest cheerleader and believing he alone knows what is best for the Alien franchise. Then again, Alien: Covenant ended up one of the biggest misfires in the franchise and due to it’s weak audience response, the cliffhanger ending never paid off similar to Prometheus.

When Neill Blomkamp got candid about Alien 5 over the summer, the director cited Ridley Scott as the reason his movie never went into production and how he basically intervened with the studio to have him thrown off Alien 5, potentially because of Chappie.

“At the end of the day even though Ridley Scott is producing it, he brought that to the world, so if he changes his mind or if there is a director on it he doesn’t want, whatever it may be, it’s his. I understand that, it makes logical sense to me.”

“It’s possible that Ridley watched Chappie and he was like, this guy can’t do Alien so let’s just go ahead and move on.”

Scott already taking minor shots on the series in the press isn’t all that surprising, hopefully, he won’t throw his weight around for a second time to get another Alien project killed/blocked.

The director has The Last Duel and House of Gucci hitting theaters alongside period dramas Kitbag and a sequel to Gladiator on the horizon to go behind cameras in the near future. While he’s teased talks with 20th Century Studios about a third Alien prequel, that hasn’t been made official or greenlit.

FX boss John Landgraf previously indicated back in August that the show could be ready for 2023 (possible 2022 shoot) and will feel like it is part of the cinematic universe.

“I think you’ll also see that the show will feel like a part of the cinematic universe you’re familiar with in terms of Alien. I have optimism that that show may well roll out in 2023. It will probably roll out 2023, but we want to get it right.”

Noah Hawley is also busy lining up an untitled heist thriller at Netflix starring Rege-Jean Page and will be produced by The Russo Brothers.

Granted, Alien is an amazing movie, but it comes off as reductive and childish for Scott to dismiss the potential of the series before it’s even started filming.

SOURCE: THE INDEPENDENT

Posted on in Features

‘Independence Day’ Director Roland Emmerich Almost Made An ‘Alien vs. Predator’ Movie In The 1990s

Friday marked the 25th anniversary of German director Roland Emmerich‘s alien invasion film “Independence Day,” but it wasn’t the only big sci-fi spectacle he had been working on for 20th Century Fox. 

In the wake of David Fincher‘s “Alien 3,” it felt like 20th Century Fox was over the “Alien” franchise, and Sigourney Weaver leading it. Ellen Ripley had killed herself at the end of the film making subsequent sequels seemingly moot after their lead character’s death and flopping at the box office. Thinking they were done with the Ripley saga, between “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection” the studio tried to develop an early incarnation of an “Alien vs. Predator” movie years before the Paul W.S. Anderson version.

Screenwriter Peter Briggs (“Hellboy“) wrote a spec script in 1991 to impress producer Joel Silver.

A rumor appeared in 1992 (same year that “Universal Soldier” is released) that Emmerich was going to direct an “AVP” film based on the popular Dark Horse Comics run, this wasn’t hard to imagine because 1990’s “Predator 2” had given audiences a nod to the comic book crossover as they added a xenomorph skull on a wall of trophies in the predator ship at the end of the film. In 1994, “Stargate” is released and that success leads to another original humans vs. aliens project with the 1996 box office juggernaut “Independence Day,” Toho and TriStar Pictures feel confident enough to allow Roland Emmerich to direct a modern “Godzilla” reboot using CGI special effects.

In 1996, “Alien Resurrection” begins shooting in Los Angeles with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet overseeing the sequel and Ellen Ripley is brought back via the wonders of cloning (originally going to be a clone of Newt), thanks “Jurassic Park.” The film ends with the survivors landing in Paris and leaves the door open for a fifth installment.

In the November 1997 issue of Starlog Magazine, screenwriter Dean Devlin (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla“) was interviewed about his Fox Television series “The Visitor” and asked about the status with “Alien vs. Predator” he replied, “For the time being, it’s dead. We wanted to do it if they had not just decided to do ‘Alien Resurrection,’ and now we’re all just waiting around to see how that film does. If it really works, the studio is going to want to continue the franchise with just the alien. If that were to happen, then we won’t be involved at all.” 

This interview taking place before “Alien Resurrection”s late November release and while the sequel made slightly more than “Alien 3,” it still didn’t meet studio expectations. The following year, Roland and Dean released their critical disaster “Godzilla,” which was ridiculed and likely could have been a reason why 20th Century Fox ultimately didn’t want them handling a crossover to their two lucrative sci-fi franchises. 

Speaking of “Predator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to return as Dutch in the sequel before the role was reworked as Peter Keyes for actor Gary Busey and there has been a longstanding rumor that Arnold was going to star in this “AVP” movie, there might be something behind that.

In 1991, before Emmerich’s “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in 1992, Schwarzenegger visited the film’s set, and we have a bunch of photos that documented that visit. There is a possibility that Arnold was there to get a read on Roland Emmerich and speak to Jean-Claude Van Damme about his experience working with him. 

JCVD’s star was rising in the 1990s and had played the first incarnation of the alien hunter in “Predator” before leaving during Stan Winston‘s redesign of the creature (with some help from James Cameron) to lead his action film “Bloodsport” instead of being hidden behind a predator costume. 

Producers had been trying to lure him back to the “Predator” franchise every chance they got and a crossover with a huge budget along with the right director could be attractive enough for Arnold to get involved. A reminder, the studio was looking to move past Weaver since Ripley was dead and Schwarzenegger was hot as a pistol at the box office, Dutch was theoretically still alive and every “Predator” sequel since there have been attempts to have him appear.

It wouldn’t be the last time Arnold Schwarzenegger hypothetically got involved with a project connected to the “Alien” franchise, as James Cameron had wanted to bring in his “Terminator 2” and “True Lies” actor to co-star with Sigourney Weaver on the first incarnation of “Alien 5” that was abandoned when 20th Century Fox decided to go with an Earthbound PG-13 project from “Resident Evil” director Paul W.S. Anderson. 

“Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney [Weaver]. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie,” Cameron told the BBC in 2003 about the possibility of adding Schwarzenegger to his “Alien 5.”

Paul W.S. Anderson begins shooting “Alien vs. Predator” in Prague at the end of 2003 and essentially kills “Alien 5,” finally ending the Ellen Ripley saga for good.

James Cameron pivots to “Avatar” and the film still holds the global box office record thanks to a re-release with four sequels on the horizon.

The original version of “Alien 5” would see Ridley Scott direct with Cameron producing and co-writing (possibly with “Alien Resurrection” screenwriter Joss Whedon writing too) and would take Ripley to the homeworld of the xenomorph. The project was never made, but Ridley Scott returned to tackle his prequel “Prometheus” attempting to explore the origin of Space Jockey (engineers) and was a producer on Neill Blomkamp‘s new “Alien 5” incarnation (approved by James Cameron) that would have acted as a direct sequel to “Aliens” (ignoring the other two sequels) before that also stalled, “Alien: Covenant” stepping in to fill the void. 

Scott is currently producing Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” series at FX that will be set on Earth and return the franchise to its class warfare root. He’s also talked-up a third prequel film still being in the works that has previously used the working title of “Alien: Awakening.”

Posted on in Television News

Noah Hawley Comments On The Status of An ‘Alien’ Series – Plus Talk of Renewed Interest

A while back it was reported that Fargo and Legion series creator Noah Hawley had attempted to pitch 20th Century Fox to develop a series at FX set within the Alien universe which was ultimately rejected before the merger with Disney.

An Alien series wouldn’t be the first new project that was purposed.

District 9’s Neill Blomkamp had tried to finally get an Alien 5 movie (Ridley Scott and James Cameron pitched a version before AVP years ago) off the ground with Sigourney Weaver attached to star and Ridley Scott producing but that never materialized. As Scott has been talking up a third installment of his Alien prequel, a follow-up to Alien: Covenant that had been once called Alien: Awakening and more recently has been indicating that it’s in development stages. Franchise screenwriters/producers Walter Hill and David Giler seemingly inspired by Blomkamp’s concept of erasing the two sequels had written a couple of drafts for Alien V with Weaver reading an early draft of it.

It was announced that Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Land, Black Mirror) would be directing Predator 5 aka Skulls, that according to him had been in the works for almost four years. An old synopsis for the project suggested it could be taking a period western setting with the main human character being “a female Comanche warrior”.

There had been some hints that Disney might want to circle back to Noah’s Alien series idea and Deadline asked him about it in their interview for Season 4 of Fargo. Admitting he’s since had talks about the show since the merger which sounds like new interest in making it as Deadline suggests a deal for a show is incoming.

DEADLINE: Are you still involved with the Alien reboot TV series? I understand deals are trying to be done.

HAWLEY: “I know that there’s an effort to reshuffle a lot of things post-Disney takeover and it was a conversation that I had a couple years back. And I have not in the last few weeks been having those conversations about it. But I know that like any studio that there’s a great desire to make the most of one’s library so I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like that.”

DEADLINE: But you’re involved in it?

HAWLEY: “Ya know, I have conversations from time to time but I’m not committed.”

DEADLINE: And there isn’t a hard conceit to it yet?

HAWLEY: “No, I haven’t — nothing is at that stage.”

Back in September, Noah gave some insight to Observer what he wanted to do and hinted that he would like to explore a character-driven series set in the universe that may have focused on the humans behind the Weyland-Yutani company and those underneath them. An interesting proposal given that filmmakers have really only scratched the surface of what that futuristic universe looks like.

HAWLEY: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst. There’s this moment in the second film when Sigourney says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t screw each other over for a percentage.’ If you look at what Aliens tends to be, it’s usually a trapped story – trapped in a ship, trapped in a prison, etc. And because the Alien has this life cycle to it, where it goes from egg, to chestburster, to xenomorph, there becomes a certain routine to it.”

“I thought it would be interesting if you could expand. If you’re going to make something for television, you’ve got 10 hours let’s say. Even if you have a lot of action, like two hours, then you’re still going to have eight hours left. So what is the show about? That’s what I tried to talk to them about. As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What’s the show about? Let’s take the Alien out of the show. What’s the show about? What are the themes, who are the characters and what is the human drama? Then we drop the aliens back in and we go, ‘This is great. Not only is there great human drama, but there’s aliens!’”

We had heard a while back there had been some interest in Ridley Scott getting involved with a Hulu series, the streamer now has a strong relationship with FX’s programming post-merger and would be a perfect home for an Alien series if/when it come together. If there were to be any Alien series Scott is most likely landing an automatic executive producer credit given his current status on the franchise and previous involvement with Alien 5 as a producer.

It’s also worth noting that Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves (formerly at TNT) had been touted by HBO Max as their most successful original series and that could help influence folks at Disney, 20th Century Studios, FX, and Hulu to give Noah’s series a second look as it sounds like they might already have.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Katherine Waterston Hopeful Daniels Is Still Alive For Another ‘Alien’ Film From Ridley Scott

While speaking with The Playlist, Alien: Covenant actress Katherine Waterston reaffirmed a desire to reprise the role of Daniels for another Alien prequel film, if her character is still alive.

PLAYLIST: Would you make another Alien movie?

WATERSTON: “In a heartbeat. I loved working with Ridley and I loved playing that part. I hope we can! I would love it! I hope she’s still alive!”

Katherine isn’t speaking out of school questioning if Daniels is still alive as they killed Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw off-screen when she was supposed to return in a bigger role originally in earlier incarnations of Alien: Covenant.

However, Ridley Scott spoke with Forbes recently where he suggested that if he makes another Alien film it might deviate from the last two installments and might not even connect to them.

SCOTT: “That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”

ALIEN: COVENANT – 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.

SOURCE: THE PLAYLIST

Posted on in Television News

Noah Hawley Suggests His Unmade ‘Alien’ Series At FX Would Have Been Character-Driven and Further Explore The Universe

Last year it was revealed that Legion and Fargo showrunner/creator Noah Hawley had attempted to pitch FX and 20th Century Fox a miniseries that takes place within the Alien universe before the merger with Disney. Unfortunately the executives didn’t bite and it never came together.

We now have some idea of what it would have looked like thanks to some interesting new comments from Noah. While speaking with the Observer, Noah seemingly was interested in exploring the themes and characters within the universe rather than simply the action and xenomorphs. 

HAWLEY: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst. There’s this moment in the second film when Sigourney says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t screw each other over for a percentage.’ If you look at what Aliens tends to be, it’s usually a trapped story – trapped in a ship, trapped in a prison, etc. And because the Alien has this life cycle to it, where it goes from egg, to chestburster, to xenomorph, there becomes a certain routine to it.”

“I thought it would be interesting if you could expand. If you’re going to make something for television, you’ve got 10 hours let’s say. Even if you have a lot of action, like two hours, then you’re still going to have eight hours left. So what is the show about? That’s what I tried to talk to them about. As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What’s the show about? Let’s take the Alien out of the show. What’s the show about? What are the themes, who are the characters and what is the human drama? Then we drop the aliens back in and we go, ‘This is great. Not only is there great human drama, but there’s aliens!’”

As it stands there doesn’t seem to be any official movement on the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott keeps talking up a third Alien prequel that may distance itself from the last two installments and there has been a new Alien 5 aka Alien V script making the rounds from Walter Hill and David Giler. The pair of screenwriters previously worked on the first three Alien films.

I would have loved to have seen something new within the Alien universe and a series allows creative people a little more wiggle-room as you’re not completely focused on box office returns. Maybe down the line, Disney will revisit the idea of a series and push for it to land at Hulu/FX allowing to keep its mature tone.

SOURCE: OBSERVER 

Posted on in Film News

Ridley Scott Says Next ‘Alien’ Film Still In Development – Teases It Might Be Something New?

We’ve all been extremely interested in what direction the Alien franchise could be getting in the wake of the Disney merger with 21st Century Studios, as it had been confirmed by Ridley Scott himself that he was speaking with studio executives about making a third movie that had once been referred to by the title Alien: Awakening. 

While promoting his upcoming science fiction series Raised By Wolves, Ridley Scott has confirmed to Forbes that there is still active development on a third untitled Alien film and potentially gives insight on a new direction for the film, rather than continuing his string of prequels trying to make a new path via Michael Fassbender’s David.  

Scott doesn’t come out and say this third movie will be a new take, he alludes that it might not be similar or connected to Prometheus and Covenant.

Here is that quick blurb from his interview with Forbes. 

SCOTT: “That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”

Some of the ideas for Alien: Awakening were to fill gaps between the events of the last two films or directly seeing David getting his hands on Covenant’s colony of human settlers for future xenomorph experiments leading into the original Alien from 1979 explaining how the derelict ship got on LV-426. However, a lot of fans are not really in favor of Scott misidentifying that element of the original movie.

Another idea for the film was that surviving Engineers from other planets seeking out David to avenge his mass murder on Paradise.

I was a massive fan of all the Engineer and bio-weapon stuff from Prometheus but when Alien: Covenant abandoned all that to become a generic sci-fi slasher it sort of left a bad taste in my mouth. Such wasted potential after Scott spent all that time focusing on the Engineers being such important figures in the Alien universe/mythology only to have David commit genocide against them.

There had been a huge fan response to Neill Blomkamp’s purposed Alien 5 and the return of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, the normally coy actress had already been convinced by a pitch from Neill and was on board even before the studio agreed to allow him to develop it formally. 

Alien 5 was expected to negate the events of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, making it a direct sequel to James Cameron’s beloved Aliens with characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop expected to make a return. Cameron seemingly was a fan of the film’s script calling it “gangbusters” during the Aliens 30th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016. 

Jim’s comments contradicted statements made by Ridley that a script didn’t exist. 

The idea had been that while Ripley would have been the main hero of the film, Newt (most likely recast with a new actress) would have taken over the mantle in a hypothetical Alien 6 movie as previously outlined by Neill Blomkamp when he was explaining his vision for his film and how it could revitalize the franchise. 

However, there seemed to be a bit of a power struggle behind the scenes between Ridley Scott’s desire to get Alien: Covenant made and fandom’s overwhelming support to see Sigourney return to the Alien franchise with Blomkamp’s film. The two projects may have been in direct competition and Ridley was in a position of power as a producer on Alien 5 to have 20th Century greenlight his sequel instead. 

Scott was so hellbent on getting Alien: Covenant made he handed the reigns of Blade Runner 2049 over to Denis Villeneuve and stepped down as that project’s director. 

Blomkamp has since moved on to other projects and doesn’t seem very keen on the idea of returning to Alien 5 anytime soon.

This year a new treatment for Alien 5 was making news after franchise screenwriter Walter Hill revealed that he and his partner David Giler tackled a script dated March 2020 that may or may not feed into Blomkamp’s idea of removing Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection from franchise canon, teasing those events may have been a dream.

Scott himself is a busy bee as he has to finish filming his period thriller The Last Duel and is planning on shooting his drama Gucci sometime in the next year or so. At one point, Ridley was attached to direct a Merlin prequel film for Disney but for whatever reason pivoted to other projects instead. 

Raised By Wolves debuts today on HBO Max. 

RAISED BY WOLVES – The ambitious new sci-fi series centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task. 

SOURCE: FORBES 

Posted on in Film News

New ‘Alien 5’ 50-Page Treatment Was Penned By Franchise Producer/Screenwriter Walter Hill

We’ve been waiting to hear some update concerning the Alien franchise and while there has been some teases from Ridley Scott that his third prequel Alien: Awakening is still in development phases. A fifth Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley might be still in the cards despite the Neill Blomkamp incarnation of the project being placed on ice.

While speaking with Empire, Weaver revealed that she received a 50-page Alien 5 treatment 18 months ago from franchise producer and screenwriter Walter Hill. Hill has been part of the franchise since the original 1979 film and worked on scripts (including rewrites and treatments) for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.

She doesn’t sound as enthusiastic about Ripley’s return it as she was when Blomkamp was attached for Alien 5 as it sounds like Ridley Scott could be calling the shots.

WEAVER: “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”

I think Alien 5 is still the best way to go. Neill Blomkamp wanted to make a film that directly connected to Aliens with the return of characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop after being killed-off in Alien 3, which was co-written by Walter Hill.

There is a good chance that Hill’s version might have been a continuation from Alien: Resurrection following a clone version of Ripley. Something that had been the original intention of Alien 5 when Ridley Scott and James Cameron teamed-up for their own incarnation before the studio passed to make Alien vs Predator instead.

At one point, James Cameron was able to read Neill’s script and called it “gangbusters” during an Aliens Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2016.

Ridley Scott has seemingly been the main reason Alien 5 hasn’t come together as he pulled his weight at Fox to have Alien: Covenant made instead of Blomkamp’s film, essentially killing it in the process.

SOURCE: EMPIRE

Posted on in Film News

Ridley Scott Still Hopeful ‘Alien: Awakening’ Will Get Made – His Third ‘Alien’ Prequel

You might be unaware but a full year ago it was reported by Variety that 20th Century Studios was still developing a third Alien prequel film (previously referred to Alien: Awakening) from director Ridley Scott attached and script being written.

This was reinforced by Scott himself when speaking The Hollywood Reporter that there were discussions for future installments.

Ruminating on the immediate future of the Alien franchise, now that Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, Scott confirms that there are discussions for future installments, but warns that if the basic premise of “the beast” does not evolve like the Xenomorph itself, the “joke” gets old.

The Los Angeles Times was able to speak with Ridley recently and he gave some more hope to fans that are waiting for some official announcement about the project moving forward.

SCOTT: “I still think there’s a lot of mileage in ‘Alien,’ but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve. What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”

We don’t know what the main details of Alien: Awakening could be other than David now having access to the Covenant colonists for his experiments. However, an excerpt from Empire Magazine claimed that the third film from screenwriter John Logan (Alien: Covenant) may see David face surviving Engineers, alluding to how the derelict ship got on LV-426 and led to the events of the original Alien.

Lead actor Michael Fassbender is still keen to return for more films after speaking with Italian outlet Bad Taste last year while promoting Dark Phoenix.

FASSBENDER: “I’d love to. I just absolutely love working with Ridley and it was a real moment for me. When I stepped onto the set of Prometheus and got to work with him, and yeah I love the character. It’s a lot of fun, so yeah.” 

We’ll have to wait for 20th Century Studios to make an official announcement, but it’s worth mentioning that the new President of Production, Steve Asbell, has a facehugger on his official Twitter avatar image.

SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES