I try not to make my films sick, but scary, says Ridley Scott 

Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant will be more terrifying than its predecessors
I try not to make my films sick, but scary, says Ridley Scott 

Arguably cinema’s foremost visualist, British director Ridley Scott returns to the thrilling, visceral and seminal vision of the universe he first conjured up in the 1979 science-fiction classic Alien. Both a sequel to the revelations of 2012’s Prometheus and the next instalment in Scott’s on-going franchise, if anything Alien: Covenant is even more ambitious and scarier than its predecessors.

Did you have the Alien: Covenant concept already in mind while you were making Prometheus?
I’ve got the whole concept that will lead us back to the original Alien. I was always surprised by why no one in the subsequent three sequels ever asked who would create this thing and why. Prometheus was resurrecting Alien off from ground zero, because it was dead, and getting finally to who would do such a thing and for what reason. It touched on the creation of AI. This one really gets to it. This is the next phase. 

How would you describe this new planet? 
It might feel familiar. I’m trying to find a reality for the story. About 30 years ago, when I made Alien, I was coming round the fact that we aren’t necessarily biological accidents. I look on who was in charge as a form of superior life and part of their job was to evolve other planets. If you apply that thinking not only does it make sense, it makes biological sense. That is the Engineers. And this is their homeworld. 

Did you deliberately want Katherine Waterston’s Daniels to echo Ripley in Alien
Yes, we wanted to follow the tradition of having a leading lady but it is no longer that new. 
I never thought it was particularly remarkable that I had a leading lady in Sigourney [Weaver] in Alien. The same with Katherine — it seemed to make sense to follow in the tradition. Particularly as this is a ship which carries people who you would call in the old days as explorers or colonisers. 

How much of the look has the new film been predetermined by the styles of Alien and Prometheus?
I try and keep everything different. So the style of the film, I think, is quite different from Alien. Also we are going into a different universe that the original didn’t go into, we’re on a new planet and we’re inside the world of the Engineers. So it’s quite different. It’s a much more layered, complex story. That said, I know I’ve got to keep the audience frightened. 

Is it harder to shock an audience now compared to 1979?
It’s much harder. I used to watch the audience reactions to Alien and realised that you can go only so far with the violence. You’ve got to really think about who you showing this to and is it sick or is it not? 
I try not to make it sick but scary. 

Alien: Covenant releases today. 

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