First official "set pic" posted on the official ALIEN facebook feed, Katherine Waterston is visible on the far right hand side sporting a cropped, Ripley-esque haircut:
EXCLUSIVE: Even though Noomi Rapace emerged from Prometheus as one of the few survivors and the one who seemed most to want to follow the adventure forward with Michael Fassbender’s character, it was long reported she would not be back to reprise her role as Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott’s next installment Alien: Covenant. Maybe that has changed.
Sources say Rapace is in Australia and on the set to shoot weeks worth of scenes in Scott’s film, which brings back Fassbender’s robot character and has a cast that includes Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demian Bichir. Info is on lockdown, so we’ll have to wait for the film to be released August 4, 2017, by Fox to see how it all worked out.
Ridley says the film is going to "scare the ----" out of you, and promises a more horrifying sequence than the Chestburster in this "hard R" film -- or so he said at an exhibitors' sizzle reel the other night. We shall see, but I will be there!
I have a lot of confidence in this...for all of the grousing about the "idiotic" behavior of the scientists in Prometheus (uhhh, did they not see John Hurt stick his face directly into an unknown extraterrestrial organism in Alien?), it was an underrated, gorgeous film. Did it have some occasionally glaring narrative flaws? Certainly, but it was hardly a deal-breaker for me. Opening this in May instead of March is a very good sign.
I didn't really think Prometheus was that great. I thought it was watchable, but for me me it was too much of an Alien re-hash (ship lands on strange world, investigates ancient caverns, brings contagion back to ship where treacherous robot betrays crew and protects organism) -- but lacking the visual imagination of the original film. The score left a lot to be desired as well.
There were some impressive sequences and I liked Rapace's character, but it just didn't have enough new ideas to be satisfying.
So my hopes aren't up as far as this new movie. I wish Scott would direct another period piece or fantasy film instead.
Now if James Cameron and Gail-Ann Hurd would re-team to make an Alien sequel -- THAT would excite me!