After the overwhelming success of last year’s sci-fi flick “The Martian,” director Ridley Scott is returning to the “Alien” franchise for his next film. The three-time Oscar nominee is putting the finishing touches on “Alien: Covenant,” the sixth film in a series that kicked off back in 1979. While Scott directed that classic, he left it to others, including James Cameron, to helm the first three follow-ups. He returned for the acclaimed 2012 prequel “Prometheus” and this new film is a sequel to that one.
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This installment, written by Tony-winning playwright John Logan (“Red), is due out May 19, and is getting a sneak peek on the Feb. 22 episode of the new FX hit series “Legion.” We know that it takes place aboard the Covenant, a space ship that is being pursued by an aggressive alien life form which it first encounters when trying to colonize a seemingly uninhabited planet. One-time Oscar nominee James Franco is the original captain of the ship while Billy Crudup is his replacement.
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Among those on the crew are Michael Fassbender, who plays Wayne, a more advance version of the android David that he introduced in “Prometheus.” Also in the cast is Katherine Waterston, who played foil to Eddie Redmayne in last fall’s blockbuster “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Here she is Daniels, a crew member forced to fight off an alien invader. From the trailer above, she looks to be the new Ripley, the role in the original films that earned Sigourney Weaver an Oscar nomination.
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