Movies
Ridley Scott Confirms ‘Alien’ Franchise’s Uncertainty After Disney’s Acquisition of Fox
Just two weeks ago, an unconfirmed report indicated that Twentieth Century Fox had pulled the plug on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Awakening, the tentatively-titled third film in the Alien prequels that would follow both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. It wasn’t that surprising – considering the weak box office performance of Covenant, and Scott’s ability to go back to the drawing board and reel in a budget – but what really muddied the waters was Disney’s acquisition of Twentieth Century Fox. Would Disney, a family-friendly company, back such a violent, R-rated franchise? Would they look at the numbers of Prometheus and Covenant and say to themselves, “Man, what a great investment!”? I think not, and it’s looking more and more grim for Scott’s plans to turn Alien into the next Star Wars. In fact, after months of posturing that nothing would stand in the way of Awakening‘s early 2018 production, Scott has finally confirmed the franchise’s uncertainty:
“It looks to me that the Fox deal is certainly going to go ahead with Disney, and I’ve been with Fox for a number years now,” the All the Money In the World director told Digital Spy before sounding doubt about Disney’s willingness to make a darker kind of film. “I’m hoping I’ll still probably be there so whether or not they go ahead with such a dark subject, being Disney, as aliens remains to be seen.”
He continued: “I think they should because I think, when people have a hard and fast franchise which has ongoing interest, it’s crazy not to do something with it.“
As John Squires and I have expressed on several occasions, we’re hoping that Disney shifts gears and goes back to Neill Blomkamp‘s plans for an Alien 5 with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn returning to their Aliens role. PG-13 and fun seem to be the right course to take this slowly dying franchise.
Even Scott reveals that PG-13 films are the focus of Disney’s strategy: “That’s why they’re so successful. And they draw the line at anything that crosses PG-13,” Scott told the site. “[If] they find that they’re so successful with that that they want to cross the line and do something a little darker, and if they do that, do they want to do that under Disney or do they want to do that under the Fox banner? I think there’s a business plan afoot definitely.”
With that said, Deadpool and Logan have been big money markers for Fox, and New Mutants is poised to explode as well. It’ll be interesting to see how Disney retools Fox once this merger is approved.
What do you think?
After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.
You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!
Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.
Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”
“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.
She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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