Ridley Scott cut a total of 20 minutes of footage from Alien: Covenant. Fans were quick to notice a variety of scenes present in the various Alien: Covenant trailers which went unseen in the final cut of the film, but those are only minute fractions of the total 20 minutes lost. Despite claims of the film being relatively on the mark with regards to following the film's final script draft, there's no mistaking the fact that a large chunk of Covenant's story was left on the cutting room floor before it debuted to audiences worldwide. Speaking to Collider, Scott explained:
I always come out at almost 2:23 first cut. Look at it, and go I’ve got to get to two hours.
Usually cuts are made to reduce redundancy and improve the pacing and flow of the film's story. However, Covenant's final two acts seemed to progress at an increasingly fast pace - almost rushing a number of sequences.
What exactly these cut scenes entail, we're unsure. We're also unsure if they will ever be included in a special Director's cut of the film during its home entertainment release. However, as we learn more we'll be sure to keep you updated!
Are you curious about the 20 minutes of footage that was left out of Alien: Covenant? Let us know in the comments!
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^They probably will include this stuff on the BluRay. They usually do. For Prometheus, they had an alternate scene where Fifield was more mutated by the black goo, an alternate scene where the engineer spoke to David before taking his head off and a bunch of other stuff. The BluRay will probably get some deleted scenes and stuff. Heck, maybe we'll get that rumored Xenomorph vs Neomorph scene.
Only 20 m, im expecting to BR release asap, in my opinion this movie was made very quickly, despite the desires of the staff production, was really short, according to what parts of the footage was filmed or could fit, The Last Supper, is the best one for me, the Daniels NY Apartment, is this just a conceptual draw or was it really filmed?, after this I find a few things to add.
I am anxiously awaiting the Directors Cut to make sense of what "could have been..." with AC...They better hurry soon as I am about to runout of Xanax...
I don't understand why Ridley Scott says "...I've got to get to two hours". Why? I don't think removal of scenes just for pacing or shoe-horning more people in the theater should trump a good, well told story. If these scenes would have bolstered the movie, I will be even further disappointed.
I've watched all Sir Ridley's DC and they're great.
For that matter, when I first watched "Blade Runner" in the movie theater, there was a voice over - Deckard's narration - and the movie ended with him and Rachael in a transport in a very sunny scene - as the producers wanted. When Sir Ridley had his way, he got rid of that ridiculous voice over and ended the movie at the elevator scene, when Rachael and Deckard fled.
The movie was so rushed it was ridicolus, all the events in the entire movie happened during just a few hours they spent on the planets surface, there was no room for building a tension at all, and all the caracters could just die without anyone caring. He did it similar in prometheus , but this was even more rushed.
I don't know. alien covenant at least gave some of the charecters some development so you actually care when they die. in prometheous i didn't give a crap about anyone but shaw. speaking of prometheous, is there ever going to be a directors cut cuz that would be awsome.
It will be interesting to see what 20 Minutes was cut...
Here is what is 100% Cut..
Daniels and Jacob Flash Back in their New York Apartment where they are talking about the Covenant mission and setting up a Cabin on a Lake.
Extended Scenes as far as Aliens on Screen and Death Scenes.
We can speculate about the rest, but it does appear some scenes from Davids Interaction with Walter, Daniels and the Crew inside his Hide Out have been cut.
Then the Crossing Prologue was supposed to be in the movie.
The Last Super and few other bits we saw in the TV Spots are purely Viral Marketing however...
A Number of Re-shoots and added scenes had made it to the movie so it would be interesting to see which scenes was changed. The Ending had 3 Versions Apparently.
The movie was rushed after David came to the Rescue....
Prior to this the pacing was fine, the reason for the long build up was to try and get us to make more of a connection to the Characters.... AC had throw away Characters, but they was not as throw away as their Prometheus equivalents.
The movie was quite good until the Part when David finally had taken the Colonists to his Hide-Away.... This is when things was rushed..
Because....
This is when they had to try and fit in Prometheus links, because those who never saw that movie would be wondering who the Hell this Robot is, how the Hell and why did he arrive on this Planet.... They tried to cover it as quick as they could while trying to side step Prometheus, they could not completely ignore it.
This left limited time to then explore how they can bring in Not One... But TWOXenomorphs... and so the Quicker Gestation and Growth Rates was needed to push this Plot Device Forwards.
Then due to having the movie needing to be Cut down to 2 hours, meant that Xenomorph Scenes had to be cut down a bit.. because Ultimately they had to bring home the TWIST at the End.
These plus a lack of Budget, are what caused the movie to not do as well as it could have... +45 Minutes + 4-5 Months Production/Post Production and +$50M Budget and we would have seen a BIG difference.
Pietro Scalia who edited the movie has given a extensive interview which is the subject of a thread on AVP Galaxy so it bears directly on this thread .
If like me you were expecting Act 2 to be the connective tissue to Prometheus and then move to the terror act you would find his observations most interesting.
They had twelve minutes of material that dealt with this issue which includes the Crossing, once considered as a prologue. They reoriented the opening and placed the Prometheus link as a flash back in the movie after establishing the Covenant crew. So what happened to that 12 minutes ?
Fox and many of the audience and some critics felt that it should be removed completely, drove a wedge into the momentum of the film and "made it slow".
Those of us who had waited five years for the story to be told felt let down by what we actually received - a couple of minutes.
What is the back ground to this outcome?
Ridley has indicated he was delighted he brought the film in under budget 100 instead of 160 million and under time 87 day shoot as against 100.
Pietro was editing with a non Prometheus audience in mind and gave some answers for the Prometheus audience. The film needed to have gore to meet another criticism and therefore was R rated and had to be capable of an extra evening showing to make the numbers work so a two hour cut. As I said elsewhere "A camel is a horse designed by a committee".
They actually filmed a second flash back how Shaw died which was to come in the D/W scene in the garden and was another lie to be dissembled - perhaps we will receive all of this is in an extended cut.
Although the third act is a testament to "the beast is cooked" even the low brow expectations of what it might have achieved suspense etc would be achieved if it was cut slower.
Other than the obvious issue of reacting to the wrong memo regarding Prometheus's short comings the irony is that Elizabeth and Davids story had huge potential and if executed properly would have blown out the real time story, Ridley and John Logan would have recognised that so David and Elizabeth had to be plot point significant, only it could have been much better executed on that level but effectively for me it would have meant the movie was over by the end of the second act.
As it was it effectively it ended with David turning up and the 2nd act begins sub titled frustration.
I feel like all the details that were left out were included in the novel. I loved the movie but the novel was really really amazing. I highly recommend it!
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