When you take a look inside the cockpit of the new spaceship being flown in Ridley Scott's ALIEN: COVENANT, get ready to find Danny McBride at the controls. In a new interview with Rolling Stone to promote his latest HBO comedy series VICE PRINCIPALS, McBride confirms the nature of his role in the next installment in the ALIEN canon.
I’m the pilot of the spaceship Covenant, which is a colonization ship, searching for a planet where we might start life anew. I run the ship.
Given the track record of McBride's characters in the past, I don't know that I'd feel safe aboard such a vessel with my life in his hands. The presence of xenomorphs almost feels like the least of my problems with McBride driving the boat. There really are no good options. It's like trying to answer the question of whether I'd rather be kicked in the balls or shot in the leg. Which path sounds the least worse?
However, with the high risk of McBride's flying comes the high reward of hearing all about the practical effects being employed by Scott in this picture. ALIEN: COVENANT is getting back to basics with its aliens… Wait, did I say aliens?
I didn't know if it would be all green screen, but most of the stuff is practical effects: when you're running from an alien it's really a dude in an alien suit coming after you! The sets are incredible and you're in them: We go through some inclement weather at one point on the spaceship and this whole gigantic set is on a gimbal, shaking up and down. You don't have to use your imagination.
Looks like we're getting more than Engineers and strange space snakes. We're getting aliens of dude-size chasing people around… Once again, the key word is "aliens." Plus, Scott is once again creating worlds that feel real, that feel lived in, that feel as if they're actually there, shortening the leap you need to make as you suspend disbelief than you would when everything looks like an effect.
Someone is really going out of their way to correct the mistakes of PROMETHEUS, huh?
ALIEN: CONVENANT is scheduled for release on August 4, 2017.