New "Alien" movie coming from Neill Blomkamp

[greenman]

Unused Title Treatment for Ridley Scott's 'Alien', 1979.

Rather cheesey compared to what we did get which is IMHO the best opening titles in cinema history...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zItdK13pSik

[Replies From View]

Bit gaudy isn't it.  Looks like the kind of thing Michael Jackson would be filmed buying for no reason.

[mothman]

I could see Home Sense selling something like that. Awful, horrible store.

[Glebe]

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked 'Alien: Covenant' Images Give Us the First Look at The New Xenomorphs.

Flippin' 'eck, we're getting full on classic Alien with this!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Looks more like something from Alien Resurrection to me.

Bit gaudy isn't it?

Yes, it looks like it would have been used on an arcade game from the late '80s. I guessed that it was a pastiche by someone else, before I clicked the link, which is unusually insightful for me.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked 'Alien: Covenant' Images Give Us the First Look at The New Xenomorphs.

Flippin' 'eck, we're getting full on classic Alien with this!

Oo er looks a bit rude

[Glebe]

Michael Fassbender Now Says He's Playing Two Characters In Alien: Covenant.

The plot thickens.

[mobias]

The plot thickens.

I bet it bloody doesn't, its a Ridley Scott film. 

[Replies From View]

The shit thickens.

[Glebe]

I'm just shit-chatting.

[St_Eddie]

For those who don't want to know, I'll Spoiler mark the following but I've done some digging online and I can pretty much guarantee that the following is true...

In Alien: Covenant, Katherine Waterston's character

Spoiler alert

will be revealed to be Ellen Ripley's mother, or at the very least; either Ripley's mother will appear in some capacity and/or Ellen Ripley will be seen as a baby/small child.

[close]

For those who doubt me, bear in mind that I called out The Woods being a secret Blair Witch Project sequel months prior to its reveal[nb]http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53620.0[/nb] and I also suggested that The God Particle was a secret Cloverfield movie, again months prior to its reveal[nb]Fourth post of mine on this page... http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,51896.30.html[/nb].  I'm not saying that to boast (because seriously, who gives a flying shit) but rather to verify that I know how to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to rumours on the grapevine.

All of this given, I've already lost faith in the movie. 

Spoiler alert

I mean, what are the chances of Ripley's mother encountering these same creatures decades prior to the events depicted with her daughter in Alien?!  Never mind that Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, also encountered the same creatures in Alien: Isolation (although, at least a logical and natural narrative reason was given there - something which I can't even begin to fathom occurring with with Alien: Covenant - also, I'm sure that unlike myself, many won't consider that game to be canonical to the movies anyway). 

On top of that of course, Neill Blomkamp wants to retcon Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, so that he can make a new third movie wet piece of fan-fiction with Sigourney Weaver back as Ripley as well.  For fuck's sake!  Can't we just move on from fucking Ripley and do something different with the series (that doesn't involve Predators or weed smoking, snake petting morons)?!

Yes.  Ripley is an icon of cinema and was brilliant but her story ended with Alien 3 (because fuck the bollocks that was Alien: Resurrection - itself a cancerous symptom of Hollywood's inability to let Ripley rest in peace and do something a little bit different).  After all, the series is called 'Alien', not 'Ripley', for Jiminy Cricket's sake!  It's the creative bankruptcy of it all that I find to be particularly egregious!  It really is absurd.

[close]

Okay, rant over now.

Yes, it looks like it would have been used on an arcade game from the late '80s.

You're not wrong.  I reminds me of R-Type, which itself was heavily inspired by Giger's work on Alien.



Aside from that, it kind of irks me when movie news sites post things like that concept art as "news"[nb]I hasten to add that I'm not referring to greenman, who posted the image within this thread.  That's a fine thing to do.  I'm specifically referring to movie news sites, where I've seen that same image crop up multiple times recently, across various sites; usually with a header such as 'original Alien title concept art has been unearthed!'.[/nb].  It's been readily available in the concept art gallery of the Alien DVD and Blu-Ray boxset ever since 2003 (and probably other sources way before that).  Still, I suppose it's nice for those who don't own such sets to have a gander but don't go posting it as news, you traffic-hungry melonheads.  I could just as easily start up a movie news site where I post information gleaned from my DVD collection, in an effort to generate clicks and ad revenue but I don't and that's only partially because I'm incredibly lazy.

Sorry, I'm ranting again.  First world problems, eh?

[Noodle Lizard]

Covenant also stars Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, and Billy Crudup.

Oh good.  That'll be good.

[Bad Ambassador]

The release has also been moved up three months, from August to May.

[Glebe]

The release has also been moved up three months, from August to May.

The 'RUN' is a bit redundant.

[Blumf]

Not sure I'm on board with this new Doctor Who

[Replies From View]

Not sure I'm on board with this new Doctor Who

I like him.  Shunted forward by three months instead of back by six, as well.  It's on the up and up.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Not sure I'm on board with this new Doctor Who

It couldn't be any worse than David Tennant.

[Operty1]

None Alien fans will presume the film is called RUN.

[Dr Rock]

Run away? That works does it?

[Replies From View]

'Run Rabbit' would be good.

[Blumf]

'Scarper'

[mothman]

"Fuck. Run." would be my choice[nb]But in terms of an expletive followed by an instruction. I'm not espousing that anyone should have sex with a xenomorph then do a runner and never call it again.[/nb].

[St_Eddie]

[Hangthebuggers]

Crikey!

[kidsick5000]

GERTCHA!

[mobias]

I like the thinking behind this poster. Nothing sells an Alien movie like having an alien in it so best put an alien on the new Alien movie poster.

I predict this movie is going to be great.

[Thomas]

I watched Aliens (1986) yesterday. Far too much army action, too much stuff that was supposed to be 'badass'. Bill Paxton's character couldn't die soon enough, man.

And littering the film with a million easily dispatched aliens reduced all of their sinister, creepy, strange techno-mythical menace. Disappointing, boring sequel.

Unused Title Treatment for Ridley Scott's 'Alien', 1979.

[St_Eddie]

I watched Aliens (1986) yesterday. Far too much army action, too much stuff that was supposed to be 'badass'. Bill Paxton's character couldn't die soon enough, man.

I've long felt that as a flick on it's own terms; Aliens is one of the best action movies out there, whilst simultaneously being a terrible follow-up to Alien.  Perhaps worst of all is the influence that James Cameron's movie has had on the series in general (both in terms of the movies and in particular, the expanded universe); so many damn space marines, blasting xenos like they're oversized cockroaches, as opposed to portraying them as the Lovecraftian nightmare that they truly are.  As a movie following on from Ridley Scott's seminal masterpiece, I find Aliens to be grossly overrated and Alien 3 (particularly the assembly cut) to be equally underrated.

*digs around online*

Ah ha!  Here it is; a piece I wrote online 6 years ago (on a different forum) about my feelings regarding Aliens and Alien 3...

People often bemoan the death of Newt and Hicks at the start of Alien 3.  What these people fail to understand is that their deaths were completely in keeping with the universe and tone established by first film.  Furthermore, the very nature of the story being told in Alien 3 really demands that those characters be killed off, for Alien 3 is a tale of redemption, sacrifice and faith. Thematically it deals heavily with life and death. The scene which shines this thematic beacon the brightest is the funeral speech by Dillon; dedicated to the aforementioned characters...

"Why are the innocent punished? Why the sacrifice? Why the pain? There aren't any promises. Nothing's certain. Only that some get called, some get saved. She won't ever know the hardship and grief for those of us left behind. We commit these bodies to the void... with a glad heart. For within each seed, there is the promise of a flower. And within each death, no matter how small, there's always a new life. A new beginning" - Dillon, Alien 3

Via a superb example of clever editing, during this speech the film cuts back and forth between the funeral itself and the birth of the alien from the ox (or dog, if you're watching the theatrical cut). It's worth noting the futile question of "why" at the beginning of the Dillon's speech, as this shows us that Alien 3 is a film reflective of real life. In real life, you can strive to save someone and still lose them. In real life, things rarely go the way we would like them to.  We often find ourselves asking why must terrible things happen, only to be answered with silence.  Real life has no morals or sense of justice and fairness. Only one thing is certain in real life; death and with each death, a new life.  Much like Ridley Scott's original 1979 masterpiece, Alien 3 is a relitevely grounded science-fiction film; one viewed through the lens of relatable reality (or at least, it's as relatalbe as a film dealing with killer aliens in outer space could possibly be).

At the other end of he spectrum, we have James Cameron's Aliens, which is a blockbuster extravaganza. Arguably one of the finest action adventures ever committed to screen, no less.  In short; it's a classic of the genre which it primarily inhabits (which unlike Alien and Alien 3, is not horror). It shows Ripley tortured by the events of the first film and by the loss of her daughter (although only in the special edition, which incidentally is the superior version). It is however a 'popcorn munching' flick for the masses.  The protagonist's obstacles are set up at the beginning of the movie and then neatly resolved at the end; Ripley overcomes the loss of her daughter by saving Newt; she overcomes her fear of the xenomorph by facing her literal demon and blowing it out of an airlock. The ending of Aliens is in no way true to life, it is a pure happily-ever-after fantasy, tying everything up with a neat bow.

Alien 3 on the other hand, represents a harsh crash back down to reality (or in this case, a penal colony). It is a dark, gritty and thoughtful film, which mirrors our own lives by asking questions that can never be answered and shows a life where bad things can (and indeed do) happen to good people. The film is not entirely nihilistic however, as it also shows us that through redemption, hope and resilience will always spring eternal.

For all those people whom bemoan the narrative of Alien 3 and view it as a betrayal of James Cameron's Aliens; they should perhaps consider that if you were to take the first three Alien films and lay them out, it is in actuality the second film which stands as the odd one out. In many ways, Aliens was a betrayal of the universe established in Alien and Alien 3 is the true spiritual followup to the original masterpiece.

...6 years on and I still stand by that.

[greenman]

Personally I view Alien 3 as more an attempt to merge aspects of Alien and Aliens, the grim horror of the original and the larger than life drama of the sequel. Ripley in Alien 3 is afterall much more a product of Aliens than she is Alien were she was just the one who happened to get out alive after being just as closed off and dysfunctional as everyone else.

[Glebe]

New Alien: Covenant set photo: