Alien 40th Anniversary Short Films

Autecher

6 short movies set within the Alien movie universe have been commissioned to mark the 40th anniversary of the movie. They are all by first time directors with a budget of $30,000 so there could be some good ones by people hoping to impress and get noticed.... or they could all be shyte. Time will tell!



Synopsis:
The shorts will be released weekly on IGN, starting on March 29th. Then, beginning May 3rd, they will be available on the official @AlienAnthology social channels and AlienUniverse.com, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Alien: Alone — Hope, an abandoned crew member aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto, has spent a year trying to keep her ship and herself alive as both slowly fall apart. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life. Written and directed by Noah Miller.

Alien: Containment — Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship’s destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected. Written and directed by Chris Reading.

Alien: Harvest — The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along. directed by Benjamin Howdeshell.

Alien: Night Shift — When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker’s condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands. Written and directed by Aidan Breznick.

Alien: Ore — As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family. Written and directed by the Spear Sisters.

Alien: Specimen — It’s the night shift in a colony greenhouse, and Julie, a botanist, does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have triggered her sensitive lab dog. Despite her best efforts the lab unexpectedly goes into full shutdown and she is trapped inside. Little does she know, an Alien specimen has escaped the mysterious cargo, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the creature searches for a host. Written and directed by Kelsey Taylor.


Trailer

Harry Palmr

40 years! :eek: I was a big fan (still am) and bought the photobook, the making of and so on I still have them in the attic somewhere. Only saw it for the first time on TV (ITV premier in 1982) as I was just a bit too young to pass for 18 in 1979.

NIMAN

Amazing to think this film is 40.
Stands up so well even today.

Outkast_IRE

NIMAN wrote: »

Amazing to think this film is 40.
Stands up so well even today.

Yeah its helped by the excellent quality remasters they have done for Blu-ray a few years back. I still marvel at how sharp and crisp that movie looks on a big screen from the Blu-ray

CatFromHue

If they're anything like the shorts for Bladerunner 2049 we'll be in for a treat.

I dunno if anyone has read any of the books but there really is so much more to the Alien universe/story than just the 3 main films. Actually thinking about them it does seem odd that they went the way of Prometheus and Covenant.

Arghus

NIMAN wrote: »

Amazing to think this film is 40.
Stands up so well even today.

Watched it on the big screen during the week - thank you re-releases - and it still completely holds up.

Mrcaramelchoc

So 6 different ways the aliens can get you with a bit of storyline to hold it up.talk about milking it.

Autecher

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

So 6 different ways the aliens can get you with a bit of storyline to hold it up.talk about milking it.

Another way of looking at it is you get 6 free short movies about a movie franchise you presumably are a fan of and 7 debuting film directors, who were chosen from over 500 other applicants, get a great experience and chance to impress some folk at Twentieth Century Fox and others in the movie industry.

Dades

Autecher wrote: »

Alien: Containment — Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship’s destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected. Written and directed by Chris Reading.

I'm liking the premise for this one for some reason.

Looking forward to them all though.

Church on Tuesday

All of them can't be any worse than Covenant TBF.

branie2

The year I was born

MfMan

NIMAN wrote: »

Amazing to think this film is 40.
Stands up so well even today.

Yes, quality endures. Superbly produced and directed film.

Slydice

17 sec teaser

El Duda

These Alien shorts don't look anywhere near as good as mine...

Skerries

but they have more Klingons though

Autecher

The first short film


Containment

El Duda

It was ok. Some of the bad acting really takes you out of it. Decent for a student thing though.

pixelburp

Apparently the Disney panel at CinemaCon mentioned that the Alien franchise (and the Planet of the Apes) was one the studio's actively pursuing. Whatever that might entail.

<insert grumbling about monopoly here>

mrcheez

I played Alien Isolation in VR last month partly as a celebration of the the anniversary. Absolutely superb experience, and extremely scary.
There is a section where you replicate the scene exploring the Alien ship and discovering the nest shown in the first film. I felt I was there it was so well done.

There is a graphic novel coming out in August as a sequel to the Amanda Ripley story in Alien Isolation.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/150671126X/

Autecher

The second short film


Specimen

Dave_The_Sheep

Second was far better than the first. Very well made.

TerrorFirmer

Looking forward for them all to be released and being able to sit down and enjoy an anthology, sort of like Love, Death and Robots on Netflix.

mrcheez

Just started on Love Death and Robots last night. Pretty fierce work of art.

Back on Alien, IGN have also created a "digital series" based on the Alien Isolation game cutscenes and using in-game footage to create a mini-movie.

Apart from some dodgy lipsyncing it's very well done whether you are familiar with the game or not

https://youtu.be/Wafu9S8Mjas

dan1895

I found the tension was upped a notch or two from the first short.

Autecher

Night Shift

Autecher

Ore


I won't watch this until later on today but it seems to be getting a better reaction in the comments than the last 3.

Autecher

The last 2 short movies


Alone

And the last one is the best one in my opinion


Harvest

TerrorFirmer

Nice. Looking forward now to watching the lot of them with a few beers.

Will be a decent way to pass a hour.

CastorTroy

Have to watch the last 2 yet but think ranking best to worst so far is 1,2,4,3

corkie

[theverge] Audible is turning William Gibson’s unfilmed Alien script into an audio drama
Coming May 30th

Dave_The_Sheep

Harvest is very good, Alone really isn't at all.

mikhail

Alone felt very amateurish somehow. Nice idea, but very weak execution.

ebbsy

Harvest was very good I thought.

helimachoptor

Watched some if these, pretty good efforts.

mrcheez

Actually I've only seen two of em. Going to watch all now and watch Alien after. Good evening well spent

Keplar240B

"I explain the **** out of the new Alien short film, "Ore." "

Slydice

Still haven't watched these yet.

This is probably unrelated. Think it's more of an Alient Covenant short:

Church on Tuesday

Slydice wrote: »

Still haven't watched these yet.

This is probably unrelated. Think it's more of an Alient Covenant short:

The flute was a nice touch.