Over the weekend, the original ALIEN was screened at the SXSW Film Conference in Austin, Texas, but before that screening got started director Ridley Scott kicked things off with a fifteen minute presentation of clips from the upcoming prequel ALIEN: COVENANT, which Scott says is meant to "scare the living shit out of you."
The fifteen minutes shown consisted of three clips, which Joan E. Solsman gave a spoilery write-up over on CNET. I won't reveal the spoilers, but here are portions of Solsman's scene descriptions:
The first clip showed the crew of the Covenant, a colony ship, detaching and flying a lander shuttle to the mysterious planet they've been sent to colonize. …
The second clip shows the buildup and aftermath of the "backburster" neomorph explosion seen in the film's red-band teaser. Tennessee (Danny McBride), over the radio, asks about a possible quarantine, and an anxious Faris (Amy Seimetz), seemingly alone on the launcher, stumbles over responses, getting out "It's scary." Carmen Ejogo's character approaches the launcher from outside, calling for help, while soon-to-be-back-bursting guy leans on her, coughing up blood. …
Finally, the third clip shows Fassbender again, this time presumably playing David, the android of "Prometheus." He and a stunned-looking Captain Crudup are in a cavelike laboratory. David explains what he's learned about this alien race in his studies on the planet, all in dialogue that went by way too fast for somebody taking notes in the dark.
The clips shown at SXSW sound interesting, but for me the most important (and relieving) bit of information to come out of the event is that Scott has dispelled the rumor that Katherine Waterston's character in ALIEN: COVENANT is the mother of original ALIEN heroine Ellen Ripley. This rumor first came up several months ago, and I hated the idea of the movies being connected in that way. I'm not excited about this prequel stuff to begin with, and I thought having Ripley's mother fighting the same creature her daughter would end up fighting (again and again and again) would be utterly absurd.
Thankfully, that's not the case. Scott misspoke slightly when shutting the rumor down, but shut it down he did. When asked if Waterston's Daniels is related to Ripley, he answered:
No. That was probably way back when. 'Should she be the daughter of Ripley?' I said 'No.' She's herself."
So the idea was thrown around at some point, but then wisely pushed aside.
Set 10 years after PROMETHEUS, ALIEN: COVENANT stars Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Tess Haubrich, Uli Latukefu, James Franco, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce. Andrew Crawford was in the Xenomorph suit on set and Javier Botet provided a motion capture performance.
Scripted by Michael Green, Jack Paglen, and John Logan, the film has the following synopsis:
The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
ALIEN: COVENANT is scheduled for release on May 19th.