Director Ridley Scott has been talking about more movies in the Alien franchise for some time, and with Alien: Covenant about to hit theaters, he has now stated that its sequel will start shooting by next year.
Speaking to IGN, Scott confirmed that the Covenant follow-up was well underway. “We’re writing [a sequel] now, as we speak,” he said. “I’ll be filming that within 14 months.”
Scott had previously said that the next movie in the franchise would be called Alien: Awakening and suggested that it would actually take place between 2012’s Prometheus and Covenant. However, the director now states that Awakening was the title of Neill Blomkamp’s now-cancelled Alien sequel.
“They wanted to do Alien: Awakening [with] Neill Blomkamp”, he said. “I said fine. I was going to be the producer. If I could have, I would have. Except I do question–why have both [movies] out there? It seems like shooting your big toe off–it doesn’t make sense.
“But [Fox] didn’t go forward with it, so I just kind of kept out of it. I mean, I’d literally ignited this thing to bring it off the ground again, because it was lying there dormant on a shelf. I had this thing to bring it back up–but here we are.”
Scott has previously spoken about his desire to keep making Alien movies. In March, he said: “If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I’m not going to close it down again. No way.”
Alien: Covenant hits theaters on May 19 in the US and May 12 in the UK. You can read GameSpot’s review here–reviewer Eddie Makuch said it is “a fun movie that has a number of standout scenes. It is a notable improvement over Prometheus, but it runs the risk of feeling too familiar and formulaic overall.”