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Nobody Knows Anything (Except that Audiences Are Stupid)

It just screams INTERSTELLAR SEQUEL, doesn't it?
May 22, 2017

I am fascinated by this paragraph from a Deadline writeup of Alien: Covenant's mediocre box office opening. Specifically, the bolded line:

As social media monitor RelishMix noticed on the social buzz heading into the weekend, "For the casual moviegoer, there remains sincere confusion over where the series is at this stage. Viewers are wondering if this is a Prometheus sequel, a prequel or some offshoot within the series that has nothing to do with the original characters like Ripley. Others still were wondering if the film was related to Interstellar because of the similarities in the musical score. And, comments specific to the ‘Crossing’ short, directed by Ridley Scott, express more confusion. Will this be part of the DVD extras as a deleted scene? Is it important to see this before Covenant — or after?" Also, it didn’t help that during the early development of Alien: Covenant nee Alien: Paradise Lost, Scott was wishy-washy on whether the sequel would be the further adventures of Prometheus‘ Noomi Rapace character Elizabeth ShawEarly on that was apparently the plan, then there were headlines that she dropped out of the production, followed by news that she was definitely aboard and shooting scenes. Well, Rapace isn’t in Alien: Covenant except for in photos. 

So many thoughts!

  • I think it is reasonable for people to have been confused by the marketing of Alien: Covenant, especially with regard to the shorts that were released on YouTube ahead of the film. It was entirely unclear if these were scenes from the film, preludes, interludes, or what.
  • That being said. If you were confused as to whether or not this movie was related to Interstellar, you're probably an idiot.
  • I mean, really dumb.
  • It says "ALIEN" right in the headline.
  • Many of the ads featured the classic xenomorph. Many of the ads also featured Michael Fassbender playing a David-like android, last seen in Prometheus.
  • THE TITLE HAD THE WORD ALIEN IN IT FOR GOD'S SAKE.
  • The music actually didn't really sound that much like the score for Interstellar?
  • I mean, there were echoes of Prometheus and the original Alien in the score of Covenant—I thought it was a nice, if occasionally clumsy, synthesis of the two—but not so much Interstellar.
  • As best as I can tell Hans Zimmer had nothing to do with this score and Jed Kurzel didn't, like, call him in for spot work.
  • Do you think this was something a marketing dickhead tried to sneak into Deadline on the theory that the people there will print any stupid thing?
  • I'm curious what conversations in households such as that were like. "Hey, honey, want to go see Alien: Covenant?" "Is that the sequel to Interstellar that's out now?" "Maybe? They do sound pretty similar." "Eh, let's just stay in and watch The Counselor; I'd rather watch something by Ridley Scott."
  • Can we stop these people from further polluting the gene pool?
  • Seriously, the marketing people are just screwing with Deadline, right? No one actually thought this was related to Interstellar, did they?

Anyway. I liked Alien: Covenant despite the fact that once I started watching it I realized it wasn't about Matthew McConaughey's efforts to reach Anne Hathaway on a faraway planet. But, you know, maybe you could do that one next, Sir Ridley?