‘?Alien: Covenant?’: ?Danny McBride? Talks ?’Prometheus’ Sequel
Alien: Covenant‘s Danny McBride discusses the Prometheus sequel, while the practical effects for the sci-fi film are briefly teased on social media.
Alien: Covenant, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus, has begun filming this summer in an undisclosed location in Sydney, Australia. It’s got Prometheus stars Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace returning to reprise their roles, despite the reports claiming otherwise, with Scott coming back to helm the project.
9 Things We Know About #AlienCovenant So Far. https://t.co/7JNLOfg7sW pic.twitter.com/onrOrXcmTi
— GeekFeed (@GeekFeedDotCom) July 9, 2016
One of the stars of the upcoming film, Eastbound & Down‘s Danny McBride, recently sat down with Rolling Stone and talked briefly about production, his character and working with legendary director Ridley Scott. McBride lets us know upfront that he’ll be playing a pilot, though his name has yet to be revealed.
“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.”
It looks like Scott’s Alien: Covenant is going to include mostly practical effects, as opposed to massive amounts of digital effects and CGI. It’s something that should certainly please a lot of fans of Ridley’s 1979 film Alien. Star Wars fans were more than thrilled to hear that The Force Awakens would be going back to more practical effects rather than the heavy CGI used throughout George Lucas’ prequel trilogy.
You can see the original skeletal structure of the Xenomorphs in the Twitter image below, confirming that we will be seeing at least one Xenomorph in Alien: Covenant.
Where it all begins. #AlienCovenant pic.twitter.com/X0aGEEtH3P
— Alien (@AlienAnthology) July 6, 2016
Danny McBride comments on the practical vs. digital effects while filming on set for Alien: Covenant, and what that’s been like for him. The actor even implies that there will be actors in costumes and suits, rather than creatures created by CGI.
“No, I didn’t know if it would be all green screen, but most of the stuff is practical effects,” McBride said. “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.”
Ridley Scott has directed over 20 feature films and actors have always praised him while working with him on set. McBride definitely confirms all of that, while saying how fast the filming process is.
“He’s got so much energy, and he shoots everything with four cameras,” McBride said. “We move through stuff fast. When I got here some people said, ‘Oh man, he does two takes, three takes, tops,’ but I love it. It creates this attitude on set of, like, ‘You better f***ing come with it because you’ve got two shots — you better bring it.'”
Alien: Covenant takes place just ten years after the events of 2012’s Prometheus. Alien: Covenant is going to center on the crew of the colony ship Covenant, as it lands on a mysterious world that is inhabited by David (Fassbender).
District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp is currently working on an entry in the Alien franchise, one that will bring back actress Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley. Ridley Scott is attached as a producer. Not much is known about the project, but Blomkamp has said, “One thing that makes me feel good about it is that Ridley is producing it. He likes the idea of what I want to make.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEpY8FxqhOG/
Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant is currently scheduled for release on August 4, 2017. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Danny McBride, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Carmen Ejogo, and Demián Bichir.
[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]
