20th Century Fox
The movie franchise may be king, but not every franchise is equal. Some reboots have struggled to connect with audiences (i.e., make money). For every MCU entry or live-action Disney remake there’s an underperforming Terminator fivequel, a wanly-received Predator reboot. And then there’s Alien, whose most recent installment — 2017’s Alien: Covenant — received mixed reviews and Hoovered up a mere $74.3 million in North America.
Those numbers aren’t discouraging Ridley Scott, who directed the 1979 original, as well as its first prequel, 2012’s Prometheus. The filmmaker spoke with Variety for the 40th anniversary of the one that started them all, and buried in the lengthy piece was this: Scott is reportedly working on a Covenant follow-up, which is in the script phase.
The Variety piece offers no further explanations, nor even a quote from Scott about his involvement. Scott also spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, in which he was also vague about the future of the Alien franchise. He told THR he was, in their words, “pushing a fresh take” as opposed to repeating himself or giving audiences what they want (i.e., lots of alien chow action). He still didn’t offer specifics, saying instead that “we’re looking where we’re going to evolve.”
So there you have it: Scott is working on a follow-up to a film that likely lost a lot of money, though one that may be underrated — more interesting as a philosophical blockbuster than a horror movie about hungry Xenomorphs. Of course, Scott could always piggy-back off the viral success of the high school play adaptation of the movie that made his name.
