Ridley Scott

In hindsight, it seems kind of odd that we had two directors competing to make movies in the same franchise. Back in 2015, director Neill Blomkamp sort of bull-rushed Hollywood by releasing concept art from the Alien 5 sequel he had been working on for 20th Century Fox. This was despite the fact that Ridley Scott had already made Prometheus  —  a direct prequel to the events of the Alien universe  —  and was working on what would later become Alien: Covenant. After months of rumors and Blomkamp’s promise to bring back a few beloved characters, the project petered out, and Scott emerged the sole proprietor of the Alien franchise.

And a very happy Alien Day to you, ScreenCrush readership! I trust you’ve already paid homage to the late John Hurt with the customary tense salad dinner and pantomimed death-spasms, and have refilled the ceremonial offerings at the Yaphet Kotto shrines we all keep in our closets. Today’s a day filled with wonders, many of which we outlined earlier this month, including various special screenings, a live trivia challenge, and plenty of exclusive merchandise to gussy up the mantle in need of something that says “expulsive viscera.” But one of today‘s surprise offerings dwarfs all pre-announced attractions, at least in terms of potential to give me nightmares.

As promised, the latest chapter in Ridley Scott’s Alien will introduce a new iteration (evolution? variation?) of the classic Xenomorph — the Neomorph. This one is just as terrifying as its sleek predecessors, but unlike those iconic creatures, the Neomorph is leaner and more…limber (so to speak), its body a shade of unnerving white instead of black. Until now, the Neomorph has been only briefly spotted in trailers, but new photos from Alien: Covenant reveal our best (and bloodiest) look yet at the crew’s formidable antagonist.

It wouldn’t be a Ridley Scott movie without a well-timed, ominous viral campaign. Much like the series of short videos starring the crew of The Martian on their space station, Alien: Covenant has come out with two transmissions from the people on that particular doomed ship, intercut with some creepy found footage of their expedition onto a new planet. We all know that no matter how good the intentions of the Covenant crew are, it’s all going to go terribly, terribly wrong, thanks to our Xenomorph friend.

Thanks to the wonders of CGI technology (or “movie magic”), we’ve seen several actors restored to their youthful forms on the big screen — or, in the case of Peter Cushing in last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, brought back from the dead (a questionable move, to say the least). Martin Scorsese is planning to digitally de-age Robert De Niro for his long-developing mob drama The Irishman, and now another iconic director is mulling the possibility.

Alien: Covenant arrives in just over a month, and today 20th Century Fox debuted a fun, mash-up-style international poster that gives us a new look at everyone’s favorite Xenomorph.

In space… no one can hear your crackly John Denver records. The timeless country standard “Take Me Home, Country Road” provides an eerie soundtrack for the latest peek at Ridley Scott’s long-time-coming Alien prequel Covenant. Over some rather breathtaking shots of a hostile, foreign world (no offense, New Zealand), we hear the familiar ode to the beauty of the American South, contrasting the harsh new climate with mental pictures of the gentle, rolling hills of West Virginia. Things get progressively creepier as the Xenomorph descends on our motley crew of intergalactic colonists, scaling their spacecraft and trying to get at the humans inside like they’re the filling of a delicious meaty empanada.

Ridley Scott, who is apparently unstoppable and has evolved beyond sleep, has already signed on to yet another new project. While his Getty kidnapping drama is currently casting quite the slate of A-listers, that’s not stopping him from signing on to a movie about the World War II Battle of Britain, the first and one of the craziest air campaigns in military history.

The ending of Alien — one of the scariest movies of all time — isn’t exactly happy, but at least one of the members of the Nostromo crew survives. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley lives to fight another day, and another alien, but the original ending that Ridley Scott suggested wasn’t nearly as upbeat.

The hardcore Alien superfans among us already know full well that the moon of Acheron, the home of the ruthless extraterrestrial killing machines known as Xenomorphs, was scientifically classified as LV-426. And just as Star Wars devotees used a little in-joke to lay claim to a day of their own (May 4 is Star Wars Day, as in, “may the fourth be with you”), now April 26 will be henceforth recognized as Alien Day. A new press release has claimed the twenty-sixth of April as a day to recognize and celebrate Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi horror fusion, with plenty of special activities and events planned to commemorate the occasion.