Next week, audiences will return to space for more xenomorph terror in “Alien: Covenant.” If it’s successful (i.e. makes more than the $403 million worldwide of its predecessor, “Prometheus“) the material is already taking shape for a sequel, and Ridley Scott promises you won’t have to wait too long.
“We’re writing [a sequel] now, as we speak. I’ll be filming that within 14 months,” he confidently told IGN.
The 79-year-old filmmaker isn’t wasting a minute, and it speaks to his phenomenal ability to churn out movies, that he feels he can get his next movie, the kidnapping thriller “All The Money In The World,” in the can quickly before returning to his beloved franchise. Scott has already spoken about the next movie, tentatively called “Alien: Awakening,” noting that in the franchise timeline, it would actually fit between “Prometheus” and ‘Covenant,’ with three more movies to follow. Geez.
If all of that makes you long for Neill Blomkamp‘s now deceased “Alien 5,” Scott doesn’t exactly sympathize, and frankly, he wonders how that standalone would’ve worked alongside the current franchise.
“I was going to be the producer. If I could have, I would have,” Scott said about the movie. “Except I do question – why have both [movies] out there? It seems like shooting your big toe off – it doesn’t make sense. But they didn’t go forward with it, Fox, so I just kind of kept out of it.”
Well, Scott may be downplaying his role just a bit — it has been reported that the director essentially told Fox he wanted to make ‘Covenant’ before Blomkamp’s picture which eventually turned into the latter’s movie not happening at all. And I can’t imagine he didn’t have some opinion about another director playing with his franchise. Either way, it’s not moving forward.
“Alien: Covenant” opens on May 19th.