Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic film The Dog Stars opens in theaters this week (my review), and so he’s hitting the outlets to promote it. Naturally, it’s also sparked conversation about some of his other projects, including the Alien: Covenant sequel with Michael Fassbender that he’s been dying to make since 2017, and may be close to happening if there’s truth to what he told the LA Times.
According to Scott, the film, possibly titled Alien: Awakening, is still in development at Scott Free and 20th Century Studios. You may recall, Alien: Covenant was the sequel to Prometheus, which largely centered on Fassbender’s rogue synthetic, David, who developed quite the God complex out there in deep space. Scott says the next film would find David building a “brave new world for himself.”
“AIs can go off. And if they do, it’s like a bomb”, Scott said, revealing his clear fascination with AI and its impact on the world.
“The uneasy question is: Can the AI only be as good as the information fed into it?” Scott said. “If I say ‘Here’s a blank canvas, write me such and such,’ would that just be a melange of millions of other scripts? Probably. But the danger is it’ll pass that point and become smarter than we are.”
There’s been some talk behind the scenes that Scott was a big reason why Fede Alvarez dropped out of directing a sequel to Alien: Romulus, which was the first big hit in the Alien franchise in quite some time. It seemed as if Scott had pulled away from creative decision-making following the failure of Alien: Covenant, but perhaps he was just biding time until he could return to what truly interested him. He’s been attached to Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth series as a producer, and obviously was involved with Alien: Romulus in the same capacity. That sequel could move forward with Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) at the helm, although other names have been kicked around.
Scott’s The Dog Stars hits theaters on August 28th.
