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Alien - Six Offical Short Films to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary

Started by St_Eddie, March 14, 2019, 12:14:13 AM

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St_Eddie


To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Alien, 20th Century Fox has produced six short films set within the Alien universe.  Each short will be its own self-contained story, written and directed by its own set of filmmakers.  As per the official announcement...

QuoteThe shorts will be released weekly on IGN, starting on March 29th. Then, beginning May 3rd, they will be available on the official @AlienAnthology social channels and AlienUniverse.com, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

This actually sounds quite interesting and the trailer looks decent, even if it does look to be a low budget project.  Curious to watch these.

Shit Good Nose

Let's hope they're better than the BR 2049 ones (save for Shinichiro Watanabe's anime, which was pretty good).

Any announcement as to who the creatives are, or are we likely looking at newcomers?


Addendum - I think this might be better placed in Movies...


Shit Good Nose

No, please DON'T let him do one.  I'm not sure how much more blatant plagiarism I can take.

NoSleep

I would like to see Tarantino take some libs with the Alien universe just like he did with Django & Basterds (fine examples of historically accurate black comedies dramas).

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: NoSleep on March 14, 2019, 01:53:46 PM
I would like to see Tarantino take some libs with the Alien universe just like he did with Django & Basterds (fine examples of historically accurate black comedies dramas).

"INTERIOR.  DAY.  Peter Weyland and Yutani discuss Sid Haig movies from the 1970s for the next 20 minutes.  In the background we see a young Ellen Ripley re-enact entire scenes from Come Drink With Me and My Young Auntie.      NOTE TO SELF - ask around to see if Luc Merenda or Fabio Testi are still alive.  If alive, write in a cameo here.  Also speak to space futurist about likely afros.".

rasta-spouse

Sounds cool, I hope they give them to a varied range of directors + carte blanche.

Here's my fantasy six who I'd like to see dealing with an Alien:

Paul Wright
Brian De Palma
Lena Dunham
Bong Joon-Ho
Roy Andersson
Guy Ritchie




Shit Good Nose

Quote from: rasta-spouse on March 14, 2019, 02:03:29 PM
Here's my fantasy six who I'd like to see dealing with an Alien:

Lena Dunham

Guy Ritchie

Desolation.


Mind you, Ridders has done a spectacular job of destroying his own world, so someone else may as well do it too.  Does anyone know how to get hold of Tommy Wiseau or Uwe Boll?

rasta-spouse

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on March 14, 2019, 02:12:22 PM
Desolation.


I was aiming for a spread that would get nods from the head honchos of Universal, or wherever.

Dunham's film Tiny Furniture is super, though - just nowadays she's a misfiring edgelord.

Also I would've put Panos Cosmatos, but I saw Mandy which undid all the sci-fi promise of Beyond the Black Rainbow.

St_Eddie


OFFICIAL SYNOPSES FOR THE SIX SHORT FILMS

* Alien: Alone — Hope, an abandoned crew member aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto, has spent a year trying to keep her ship and herself alive as both slowly fall apart. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life. Written and directed by Noah Miller.

* Alien: Containment — Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship's destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected.  Written and directed by Chris Reading.

* Alien: Harvest — The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along.  directed by Benjamin Howdeshell.

* Alien: Night Shift — When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker's condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands.  Written and directed by Aidan Breznick.

* Alien: Ore — As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family.  Written and directed by the Spear Sisters.

* Alien: Specimen — It's the night shift in a colony greenhouse, and Julie, a botanist, does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have triggered her sensitive lab dog. Despite her best efforts the lab unexpectedly goes into full shutdown and she is trapped inside. Little does she know, an Alien specimen has escaped the mysterious cargo, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the creature searches for a host.  Written and directed by Kelsey Taylor.

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on March 14, 2019, 01:43:21 PM
Any announcement as to who the creatives are, or are we likely looking at newcomers?

Sorry I should have made this clear in my original post; it's all newcomers.  20th Century Fox ran a competition last year for people to send in scripts for a short film based around the original Alien.  The winners were each given $30,000 to produce their film (as well as a few props from Alien: Covenant - including an alien suit).

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on March 14, 2019, 01:43:21 PMAddendum - I think this might be better placed in Movies...

Well, they're only short films, which will be streamed online.  I view that as being closer to a TV show, than a movie.

Norton Canes


Norton Canes


Blumf

Quote from: Norton Canes on March 14, 2019, 03:08:47 PM
Alan Bennett's 'Alien'. Now there's a thought.

More likely to do an episode of The Orville, considering he's already worked with MacFarlane
  • [/sup]

    • This is a fact. A depressingly true fact.[/sup]


Blumf

MU/TH/UR did approve of such things. Damages the pouffe, she said.

Shit Good Nose

He said he was a xenomorph.  I said I didn't know what a xenomorph was and I'd certainly never met one before.  I asked if he wanted a cup of tea and he said he would if I was making one.  I said I was and he said "yes please", with an excitement I'd not previously seen at the offering of a cup of tea before.  He asked for a biscuit as well, but I thought that was taking liberties - him being a stranger and all - so I said we didn't have any in the house, even though we had some Rich Teas in the top cupboard.  But I did let him leave his large rugby ball in the sitting room - I thought it looked nice by the telephone table.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on March 14, 2019, 05:25:29 PM
He said he was a xenomorph.  I said I didn't know what a xenomorph was and I'd certainly never met one before.  I asked if he wanted a cup of tea and he said he would if I was making one.  I said I was and he said "yes please", with an excitement I'd not previously seen at the offering of a cup of tea before.  He asked for a biscuit as well, but I thought that was taking liberties - him being a stranger and all - so I said we didn't have any in the house, even though we had some Rich Teas in the top cupboard.  But I did let him leave his large rugby ball in the sitting room - I thought it looked nice by the telephone table.

#MeFacehuggedToo

Blumf

That Mr. Ash from across the corridor dropped in, asking if he could borrow a magazine. "Do you have anything in mind" I asked, gesturing towards the bookcase, whilst deftly shuffling the latest edition of the Boy's Sporting Almanac under a doily. I wouldn't mind, but the state he leaves them in afterwards.

Replies From View

There's an up and coming young director called "David Fincher" whom I reckon could curl out a good one, given enough studio interference.

chveik


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


St_Eddie


St_Eddie


NoSleep

Gaia Weiss from Vikings is the main character and is the best thing about it. Nothing new to see here. The "incredible" was the lowest point.

St_Eddie

Aye, Gaia Weiss was very good in it but as you say, there was nothing new to see here.  It was essentially a low budget version of the backburster scene from Alien: Covenant.  It's not the filmmakers fault that it looks cheap, given the budget they had to work with, but that doesn't change the fact that it looks cheap (to the point where they didn't even show the chestburster beyond tiny glimpses).  It's kind of akin to a scene from some obscure science-fiction film made in the 90's that shows up at 2am on the Horror Channel (for example, the 1993 science-fiction remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, titled Lifepod).

There were some headscratcher moments throughout; why did the black character not get up after falling down?; how is a chestburster able to kill a person capable of defending themselves?; why did the main character give up so easily and resort to sacrificing her life?; what the heck was that post-credits stinger all about?

Still, overall I enjoyed it (it must be said that the opening shot was beautiful and very artfully executed) and look forward to seeing what the other filmmakers will do with their short films.  Hopefully, at least a couple of them will bring something new to the table.  It's going to get very old, very fast if the broad synopsis for every short is 'alien kills people in the same way that we've already seen'.

NoSleep

I didn't mind the low budget aspect of it, just the script was the problem for me. Maybe they're starting with something totally canon/cliche and working up to something original.

NoSleep

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 31, 2019, 06:03:47 PMhow is a chestburster able to kill a person capable of defending themselves?

Acid for blood? Essentially a bug that mustn't be stomped.

St_Eddie

Quote from: NoSleep on March 31, 2019, 06:25:10 PM
Acid for blood? Essentially a bug that mustn't be stomped.

I doubt that she would have been capable of cutting the chestburster open with her bare hands and besides, if she somehow did, then the acid would have eaten through the hull of the shuttle and that clearly never happened.  Equally, I don't think that she would have allowed the chestburster to chomp on her face, simply because she was fearful of causing acid to bleed out of it.

NoSleep

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 31, 2019, 06:51:11 PM
Equally, I don't think that she would have allowed it to chomp on her face because she was fearful of causing acid to bleed out of it.

How would she stop it without causing damage to the organism? Without recourse to killing it the only option is to let it chomp. The only choice is quicker or slower.

NoSleep

I suspect the other girl was an android and broke down for some reason.