Ridley Scott‘s latest film “The Dog Stars” has the director dabbling in the post-apocalyptic genre; his take on “I Am Legend” with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the late 1990s failed to come together, so this feels a little full-circle. And he’s now on the promotional tour of the film that debuts in theaters this weekend. During those press rounds, he’s talking up this third “Alien” prequel, formerly known as “Alien: Awakening,” with Michael Fassbender‘s psychotic mad-scientist android David still in the works over at Scott Free and 20th Century Studios.
Speaking with the L.A. Times, Scott revealed that they are still developing “Alien: Awakening” (we’re unsure if they’ll ultimately use that old working title), teasing that David is trying to set up a “brave new world for himself.” As you might suspect, Scott is still deeply fascinated by Fassbender’s malfunctioning robotic character, as AI has been a topic of interest: “AIs can go off. And if they do, it’s like a bomb.”
“The uneasy question is: Can the AI only be as good as the information fed into it?” Scott said. “If I say ‘Here’s a blank canvas, write me such and such,’ would that just be a melange of millions of other scripts? Probably. But the danger is it’ll pass that point and become smarter than we are.”
When “Awakening” fizzled out after “Alien: Covenant” didn’t do great at the box office (seemingly spoiling multiple sequel plans, at the time), Scott pivoted to the HBO Max sci-fi series “Raised by Wolves,” which just happened to feature a pair of robot parents attempting to raise a group of human children on a harsh alien landscape, only for humans to find their way to the planet and conflict to arise.
If you weren’t aware, how “Alien: Covenant” ended it had David revealing himself to have replaced his android doppelganger, Walter, and placed characters played by Katharine Waterston (Daniels) and Danny McBride (Tennessee) in cryo-sleep before taking full control of the ship, packed to the brim with human colonists, and now has Xenomorph embryos on hand that could end up being used for further horrific experiments (continued from what David was doing on the planet Paradise before the group of humans arrived there). In theory, we could see how the giant Space Jockey (much bigger than the Engineers) and derelict ship on LV-426 (the setting from “Alien” and “Aliens“) connect to David’s experiments.
Scott is a producer on Noah Hawley‘s “Alien: Earth” series (now gearing up for Season 2) via Scott Free, and part of the team on “Alien: Romulus” as well, as a sequel to that film is still in the works after Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues penned a follow-up script (Álvarez exiting as the director of “Alien: Romulus 2” and might be eyeing Michael Sarnoski), with chatter of Brian Duffield (“Whalefall”) being courted to work on the franchise.
“The Dog Stars” is in theaters on August 28, and other projects on the horizon for the in-demand director are his “Treasure Island” adpatation heading into production this November, with Hugh Jackman playing the iconic Long John Silver. He’s also tackling an adaptation of John Harris‘ World War I novel “Covenant With Death,” a Bee Gees biopic, and a Western titled “Freewalkers.” So, with such a busy schedule, it is unclear if “Alien: Awakening” is something he’ll end up directing himself or hand off to someone else to helm instead.
