Ridley Scott's Upcoming Projects

Ridley Scott, 83, is still one of the busiest men in Hollywood. The director of Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, The Martian, and All the Money in the World has plenty of stories left to tell.

==DIRECTING==

THE LAST DUEL (Oct 15, 2021) - Medieval movie starring Matt Damon and Adam Driver as the two men who participated in the last legally sanctioned duel by King Charles VI of France. Ben Affleck and Jodie Comer (Free Guy) co-star.

HOUSE OF GUCCI (Nov 24, 2021) - A decades-spanning story about the Gucci family and their billion-dollar fashion empire. It stars Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, and Salma Hayek.

KITBAG (2023) - A biopic about the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine, to be played by Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer.

QUEEN & COUNTRY (In development) - Sylvia Hoeks (Blade Runner 2049) to play a Special Ops agent on the run after she assassinates a powerful figure in Eastern Europe.

ALIEN PREQUEL (In development) - He'd originally planned to make another film that happens between Alien: Covenant and the original Alien on the timeline, but I've also heard this could take place before Prometheus, when Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) is a younger man.

GLADIATOR 2 (In development) - This sequel would take place 25 years after the original, with Lucius, son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), as the lead character. Lucius was played by Spencer Treat Clark in the original.

==PRODUCING==

DEATH ON THE NILE (February 11, 2022) - The next Hercule Poirot mystery directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. This one co-stars Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, and Rose Leslie.

EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON (In development) - A biopic of Quanah, the last formally recognized chief of the Comanche tribe. It'll be written and directed by Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines).

WAR PARTY (In development) - A Navy SEALs adventure starring Tom Hardy, written and directed by Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly).

EMMA'S WAR (In development) - Based on the true story of a British aid worker who married a warlord in Sudan bent on controlling part of the country.

DAVID (In development) - A retelling of David & Goliath.

Alien Covenant - Movie Review

Starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Carmen Egojo, Amy Siemetz, Jussie Smollett and Callie Hernandez.
Written by John Logan & Dante Harper.
Directed by Ridley Scott.

★★★

This is a sequel to Prometheus, while still being a prequel to Alien, and while the familiar xenomorph does show up, along with the face-grabber, this is still more in the vein of Prometheus.

At the end of that movie, the survivors Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender) set out to find the home planet of the Creators, the large white creatures that apparently designed the aliens. We eventually learn their fate in this movie.

Meanwhile a colonalization crew aboard the Covenant is headed for a new planet to colonize, but they receive what may be a distress signal from a different, habitable planet that they were unaware of. The captain dies in his hibernation pod due to malfunction, and the second-in-command Oram (Billy Crudup) doesn't seem to be up to the job. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) is his backup, and she happens to be the wife of the now-dead captain. This crew of 14 decides to explore the new planet, and if they like it, they may use it to settle as their new home instead.

And on that planet, they meet David.

Now the Prometheus crew has their own synthetic with them named Walter. Fassbender plays both, and he does a great job of making them two complete characters. We can always tell who's who when David cuts his hair to match Walter's. (Which seems a little weird that no one questions it.)

It features some pretty gory deaths once the action kicks in, aliens bursting out of people's chests, backs, and mouths, and then when the main alien grows to its usual height, more people die in body-shredding ways. This movie filled in some holes that Prometheus left, and it's still very open for another film, which director Ridley Scott plans to be the final bridge between these prequels and 1979's Alien.

My biggest problem with this is the giant fluxuations in continuity, as far as how quickly these aliens incubate and grow. Remember when John Hurt had that thing on his face for 24 hours before it let go, and it took a few more hours before something burst out of his chest? This one has a face-grab to chest-burst in about one hour. And I can't say it was that scary. It's monster-movie fun, with a Hammer horror flavor to David, but the first two movies may never be topped.