Movies
Another ‘Prometheus’ Character to Board ‘Alien: Covenant’
Alright, this one might fall under potential spoiler territory, so I’m going to put it lower in the post so that I don’t ruin something for anyone who wants to see Alien: Covenant as purely as possible. To that end, let’s get the nitty gritty details out of the way first and then I’ll explain the headline below the fold.
Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in ‘Alien’ with ‘Alien: Covenant’, the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with ‘Prometheus’ — and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
Michael Fassbender is returning as Prometheus‘ android David, with Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Jobs, The Babysitters) leading a new crew that includes Demian Bichir and Danny McBride (“Eastbound and Down”), as well as Alex England (Gods of Egypt), Billy Crudup, Amy Seimetz (A Horrible Way to Die, “The Killing”), Jussie Smollett (“Empire”), Carmen Ejogo, and Callie Hernandez (Machete Kills).
Alien: Covenant will come to theaters on August 4th, 2017.
Okay, now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s get to the headline and what it’s all about, shall we?
According to AVPGalaxy.net, Guy Pearce, who played Peter Weyland in Prometheus, will be returning in Alien: Covenant during the film’s opening scenes as a younger version of himself, although still aged and hopefully not looking as dreadful as he did in the 2012 film.
The site describes the scene where Pearce will make his appearance and it sounds sorta like something out of another Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner. Apparently the upcoming feature will open with a sequence of David being brought online only to face a test from Pearce in the form of several questions. The way it’s described reminds me of the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner that was performed by Deckard.
Weyland and David discuss many things but ultimately begin focusing on the classical piece “Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla by Richard Wagner. This leads David to explain how he understands the piece, which he states is about Gods leaving behind their creations after being disgusted by their actions. However, as the creations seek out their Gods, they find that they have the same inherent flaws, which leads into discussions of mortality and everything associated. This is supposed to be the impetus for Weyland’s motivation in Prometheus.
We’ll see what else this movie brings us in the coming months. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing the first trailer in the early months of 2017 followed by a lot more information coming out.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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