Michael Fassbender (Walter) stars in ALIEN: COVENANT
Ridley Scott Has New Ideas to “Re-evolve” the ‘Alien’ Backstory
Director Ridley Scott has finally given us, a little, hope that we may get another prequel to his 1979 film Alien. Recently, Scott spoke with LA Times film critic Justin Chang. The director shared some history on choosing Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, and the future direction of the story.
His iconic film, Alien is considered a pivotal film within the horror genre. But he wasn’t the first choice to helm the script written by Dan O’Bannon. In fact, he says he was the fifth choice.
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto, the film takes place aboard the spaceship, the Nostromo. When the crew fails to follow quarantine protocols, they are invaded by a horrific parasite of unknown origin. Things only go from bad to worse as the crew tries to contain and destroy the creature.
The starring role of Ellen Ripley, which Weaver returned for in Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, was originally written as a man, says Scott. “I think the idea actually came from Alan Ladd Jr.,” Ridley Scott said. “I think it was Alan Ladd [then president of 20th Century Fox] who said, ‘Why can’t Ripley be a woman?’ And there was a long pause, that at that moment I never thought about it. I thought, why not, it’s a fresh direction, the ways I thought about that. And away we went.”
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Ridley Scott returned to the Alien universe in 2012 with the set-up prequel Prometheus and again for 2017’s Alien: Covenant. And he says there’s still more to add to the story.
“I still think there’s a lot of mileage in ‘Alien,’ but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve,” Scott said. “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.”
So while we haven’t heard anything since Alien: Covenant underperformed at the box office. Ridley Scott and the Alien franchise could still live on to bring fans more blood and more chest bursting glory. For now you can find Alien streaming on HBO On-Demand, HBOGo and HBOMax. Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for more of all things horror.
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Aren’t those exactly the questions he answered in Prometheus?
If he is not going to carry through on his original plan, quit blowing wind up our backsides about what ifs–he should have left Neil Blomkamp (spelling?) have a shot when he came up with his idea if he didn’t have a clear, focussed aim for his prequels–all this “re-evolving” is backsliding to compensate a lack of commitment to get the films done.