It took a while before Ridley Scott finally revealed the official title of his Prometheus sequel, and revealed that Alien: Covenant would be the first of three movies that ultimately leads into his original Alien. “[That film] was borne out of my frustration [after] Alien in 1979”, Scott said. “So I came up with the notion of the first Prometheus, which starts to indicate who might have made it and where it came from”.
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And Ridley explained that the story will eventually come full circle.
“So I’m now going to the next one, which is the next evolution directly connected with the first one”. Back in March, 2015 we reported a potential Prometheus 2 plot leak which suggested that the sequel (not titled Alien: Covenant at the time) would feature “multiple David 8 Androids”. The movie is called Alien: Covenant, and the fast track for this project ended up pushing back Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 to an undetermined time, and if Scott’s new plan for the Alien franchise continues, it might be a long time before we see that movie. It’s now in pre-production in Australia at Sydney’s Fox Studios. 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, risky world – whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
While he was looking forward to shooting in Sydney, Scott said a sequel to Blade Runner, which he will produce and Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) will direct, was likely headed for Beijing. Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) will also appear briefly in the movie.
“It needs monumental stuff, monumental rocks, and the rest will be in studio with some fairly formidable CGI”, he added. “Those questions will be answered”, says Scott. Scott is keen to use Australian actors, revealing that that he wanted Cate Blanchett for “The Martian” but she was unavailable.
The NSW government did not specify how much finance it will provide, but said that the film would contribute some $43 million (A$60 million) to the local economy.
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Scott was flanked by politicians including Federal foreign minister Julie Bishop, to whom he had successfully appealed for changes to Australia’s tax act, to make an Australian shoot cost-effective for large-scale productions.
