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Ridley Scott Wraps Up Filming On Set Of ‘Alien: Covenant’, Releases New Set Photo

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:23 PST, Jul 20, 2016

Ridley Scott challenged the status quo in the field of movie direction when he directed Alien in 1979. After the huge success of low-budget movies, studios like 20th Century Fox had just opened the doors to young and untested filmmakers like Ridley Scott to experiment with their unique ideas. The Consequence of Sound reports that 20th Century Fox gave Ridley Scott the much-deserved breakthrough that he needed when things were not going well with its Dune project.

The studio assigned the majority of the project crew, including key people like the production designer and special effects supervisor, to Ridley Scott for the production of their new film: Alien. The movie was a box-office success and was critically acclaimed for its visual effects, proven when it received an Academy Award in the Best Visual Effects category.

H. H. Giger, the artist and production designer for Ridley Scott’s film, received due credit for his contribution to the film and the modern horror genre. It was he who had created the creature and the environment which, at the time, were difficult to even comprehend. Ridley Scott went the extra mile by not only doing a terrific job of creating a dreadful environment that the audience could become completely absorbed in, but also for pacing the movie with a perfect sense of timing.

And now in 2016, Ridley Scott will once again take his audiences to the universe that he created in his 1979 masterpiece with Alien: Covenant, the second installment in the trilogy that began with Prometheus and connects directly to Ridley Scott’s 1979 directorial work. Collider reports that filming has just wrapped up on the set of Ridley Scott’s new film, and the famous director celebrated by posting a new set photo showing himself and Katherine Waterston, the protagonist of the new film.

According to the Independent, in the upcoming movie, the curious crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers an unexplored paradise, which is in fact a dark, dangerous world whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The only disappointment to audiences may be that this time around they will not get to see Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the Alien franchise that was played by Sigourney Weaver.

Instead, it will be Neill Blomkamp, who will be directing the fifth movie in the Alien film series, which will indeed star Weaver. In fact, Ridley Scott wanted his movie to be shot and released first. But the Sigourney Weaver movie is said to have an amazing script, and the cast and the crew were excited about going ahead with it. Additionally, many fans feel that the saga can’t get back to its 70s and 80s high point if it doesn’t feature Ellen Ripley. This might have left fans of both Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver in a dilemma as there was a possibility of the two movies being released at the same time. However, according to the Guardian, the shooting of the Alien movie will take longer than expected and audiences can enjoy both movies, which are based on the same theme.

More importantly, the audience will be able to witness Ridley Scott’s trademark style of movie direction. Ridley Scott has forged a style that is recognizably his own, one that is synonymous with the sci-fi fantasy and horror genre. In fact, Ridley Scott was also slated to direct the film version of I Am Legend, Richard Matheson’s post-apocalyptic horror novel which is one of the best of its genre.

Matheson’s work has been made into separate movies: 1964’s The Last Man on Earth, which starred Vincent Price, 1971’s The Omega Man, which starred Charlton Heston, and 2007’s I Am Legend, which starred Will Smith. According to Bl*ody Disgusting!, back in the 1990s, Ridley Scott teamed with scriptwriter John Logan to bring the horror fiction novel to life and by delivering his wide, expansive awe-inspiring shots.

And the team had decided to cast none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role. However, Ridley Scott’s vision did not progress well and the project was shelved by the producers.

In retrospect, fans now wonder whether Ridley Scott would have been the perfect director to accurately portray the human loneliness in horrifying circumstances, just as the original novel intended.

[Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP]

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