Latest news with #Spaceship
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
12 Ways ‘Alien: Earth' Is Respectfully Reimagining the Franchise
Alien: Earth creator Noah Hawley knows the tables are stacked against him. He knows the Alien franchise is a tough one to crack and that the idea of bringing it to televsion might elicit groans from certain fans. But Hawley is also really good at his job. He somehow turned Fargo into a TV show worthy of the incredible film. He made Legion one of the best comic book shows in recent memory. And he knows he'll never be able to remake or recapture the terror you felt watching the Ridley Scott original, or the exhilaration created by James Cameron's sequel. Instead, he's figured out a way to draw inspiration from those things, but also make it his own. The hope is that it'll create something that's 100% recognizable as Alien, but will also stand on its own as a way to totally flip the franchise on its head. Starting August 12, Alien: Earth tells a story set three years before the events of the first movie. However, while that was in space, this takes place—you guessed it—on Earth. There, a spaceship that was tasked with acquiring deadly aliens from across the galaxy is finally on its way home, when something goes wrong and it crashes. To explore the crash, a team of hybrids—synthetic beings with the consciousness of children—are sent in to explore. What they'll find is not just the iconic xenomorph, but several other species as well. A few weeks back, io9 was among a group of journalists who were able to watch the pilot episode of Alien: Earth (which was awesome) and speak with Hawley, as well as producer David Zucker, about all things Alien: Earth. Here are the highlights. Alien: Earth couldn't exist without the xenomorph, but Hawley knew he had to add new creatures to hopefully capture what makes Alien so special. 'One of the things you can never reproduce in an audience that has seen an Alien movie is the feeling you had the first time you saw the life cycle of this creature in that first film,' Hawley said. 'It's just unreproducible. You know that it's an egg, it's a face hugger, it's a chestburster, and all that. And so that's where the idea for other creatures came from. I want you to have that feeling because that feeling is integral to the Alien experience. But I can't do it with those creatures. So let's introduce new creatures where you don't know how they reproduce or what they eat. So that you can have that, 'I'm out' feeling multiple times a week.' Another intergral part of the Alien franchise is that, yes, the aliens are brutal killers. But the humans who are trying to capture them are often worse. That's why Alien: Earth will feature an equally important story centered on a technological race, personified by those hybrid characters. 'One of the interesting features of the movies, especially Jim Cameron's movie where he has that line from Sigourney [Weaver] to Paul Reiser where she says, 'I don't know which species is worse. At least they don't fuck each other over for a percentage.' Right? And so this idea about humanity and the terrible things that we do to each other, it really opened my mind as to the types of horror that would populate the show, not just body horror or creature horror, but also the moral horror of what people do. And the question is, if you take a girl and you put her into this synthetic body, is she going to choose human or other? And so it becomes about the push-pull between 'Well, why be human if this is what humans do to each other?' But there's such a beauty to the human experience, etc. So that's the tension, I feel like, that elevates it above just who lives and who dies.' Hawley's story is set in the world of Alien, with names and companies you'll recognize, but that wasn't the most important thing to him. 'I've said before but, if I have a skill at reinventing classic movies, it's understanding what the original made me feel and why, and then recreating those feelings in you by telling you a new story,' he said. That new story had to fit visually in the world of Alien. 'I was very adamant that technology-wise we embrace the retrofuturism of the franchise,' Hawley said. 'That is the visual definition for me. There are three classic sci-fi brands. There's Star Wars, Star Trek, and Alien. And none of them look like the other one. You would never confuse one for the other. And so if we want to make Alien, something's got to be dripping. Something's got to be rusty. You have to have those sorts of aesthetics to it. And then the challenge was, well, we're not even focused on the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and we're on Earth. And so how, from an aesthetic standpoint, do you make sure that it feels like Alien to the audience when, obviously, if we're not on a ship, it's just not going to look like that. So that was a long, long process.' Yes, there are other creatures. No, it won't be focused on the life cycle of the xenomorph. But the xenos are in there, crucial to the show, and in a way you've never seen them before. 'We never really see these creatures within an ecosystem, right?' Hawley said. 'They're always sort of an apex predator existing in a space with no other wildlife, really. And I was interested in that idea of, if you're going to bring these creatures to a terrestrial environment, how are they going to change it? And how are other creatures, bugs, any of it, going to interact with them? So some of that we address, some of that is still percolating for future stories.' 'I think just the idea of seeing these creatures in a landscape, an Earth landscape, is such a profoundly unsettling and kind of exhilarating thing when we get to that moment,' he added. 'It really felt like such a gift after, at that time, six movies, to be doing something new, right? To have that opportunity.' Hawley knows that it will be hard, if not impossible, to top the H.R. Giger design of the original Alien. But he also knows he has to make sure these new creatures can stand up against them. So lots of care has, and continues to be, taken in their designs. 'I will be adjusting the design until they tell me I absolutely can't do it anymore,' he said. 'Every element of it, from the skin texture to sound design, it all goes to the 'Get into your nightmares' part of it. And mostly my hope is that people who watch the show will never do anything comfortably again.' So, yes, this is a new story with new threads and perspectives, but it fits in with the original movies in some fun ways. That's especially driven by the fact this show isn't on a spaceship or an alien planet. It's on Earth, which is something the original films have almost wholly avoided. 'It's the first time we're coming to Earth,' Hawley said. 'I mean, there's a little on Earth in Prometheus, but with no sort of expansion on who rules the Earth, what are the politics, how does that work throughout the galaxy, etc. And so it was a gift to get a franchise this big with very little mythology to it.' 'So that I could say, 'All right, well, what do we know about the next hundred years?' Hawley continued. 'It's going to get hotter. It's going to get wetter. I'm not betting against capitalism so I think the corporations, that power is going to aggregate. And all we really know about Aliens is that there's this corporation called Weyland-Yutani. And for me, I just think that story, that Weyland-Yutani story, is really interesting, but I like the idea also of introducing that there's still a competition. And I also thought, in terms of the moment on Earth. I thought about the moment at the turn of the 20th century where you had Edison and Tesla and Westinghouse, and you weren't sure who was going to control electricity. So I thought if we had that kind of moment in which it's a contest between the sort of cybernetic enhancements and AI and transhumanism—and, like any technology race, you know, you don't remember who the competitor to Xerox was, right? And so that was exciting to me to explore that.' In addition to the opportunity of exploring what's happening on Earth, Hawley loved that the movies gave him a lot of open space to add to the story. 'If you remember the movie, they just get sent to this planet,' he said. 'I mean, clearly somebody knows about these creatures, right? They knew enough to send them there, but their knowledge of these creatures [is a mystery]. Now, of course, [the crew of the Nostromo] has been in cryosleep for, I don't know how many decades or years or whatever. So that's the interesting thing about the lack of mythology is these people who find those first eggs have been out of contact with Earth for who knows how long. And so there is a gray area that we could play in and try to create something with as big a scale as possible to justify the title while still making it credible for the rest of the canon.' 'I've had some conversations with [the filmmakers],' Hawley admitted. '[But], you know, this is not a Kevin Feige Marvel Universe moment. I'm not saying that that in success that that we shouldn't be coordinating or thinking big picture about that. The show [just] has to be a hit before you can really have those conversations.' Hawley doesn't know how far the show will go along but, he has thought about potential links between the show and films. 'I haven't literally calendared it out,' he said, 'But we know that Ripley ends up in an escape pod and is found 57 years later. So we really have no idea what they know on Earth about what happened on the Nostromo. And so is my challenge really figuring what happens in those three years or in the 60 years before she comes back? So those are all active questions that were that we're discussing.' 'Well, it's not up to me,' Hawley said. But, in his mind it's a recurring series that could go on for more seasons. 'We created it as a recurring series, and I have great plans and ambitions for it as such.' For this one, we'll turn it over to David Zucker, the chief creative officer for Scott Free, Ridley Scott's production company. 'In all candor, we were approached many times [about making Alien shows] and there was no interest on our behalf,' Zucker said. 'And frankly, I don't think one could even conceive of delivering something of this kind of equivalency of what one can do [as] feature TV in this sort of modern era. But I think the thing that that also didn't exist before John [Landgraf, chairman of FX] and Noah had this conversation is somebody who could have this kind of vision, this kind of originality. Ridley was really, I think, enthralled by being able to relaunch the franchise. And he's excited about the extension of it, but it really required somebody who could take the essence, as Noah's talked about, and find a way to take viewers in an entirely different experience. And that that was just something we had never encountered before and couldn't have have imagined that that opportunity would exist. So the planets align, as they say.' The planets will further align on August 12 when Alien: Earth debuts on FX. Check back for more soon. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Burna Boy Announces No Sign of Weakness Tour: Here Are the Dates
Burna Boy is already planning to take his upcoming album, No Sign of Weakness, on the road this winter with a headlining North American tour, he announced Wednesday (June 18). The 17-date trek kicks off on Nov. 12 at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., becoming the first Nigerian artist to headline the iconic venue. The tour will also go through major cities including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Boston and Atlanta before wrapping up with two dates at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, on Dec. 17 and 18. With the exception of his history-making opening show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the No Sign of Weakness Tour will feature the African Giant performing on a 360-degree stage in the middle of the floor. More from Billboard 11 Trailblazing Achievements by African Artists Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of 'Evita' Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to Receive Vanguard Award at The Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala & Benefit Concert Burna is releasing his eighth studio album on July 11 via Spaceship, Bad Habit and Atlantic Records. So far, he's released four singles ahead of the project: 'Bundle by Bundle,' 'Update,' 'Sweet Love' and 'TaTaTa' featuring Travis Scott. No Sign of Weakness will arrive two years after the Afro-fusion superstar's last album, I Told Them…. The 15-track LP reached No. 31 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on World Albums, and earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for best global music album. Singles 'Sittin' on Top of the World,' featuring 21 Savage on the remix, and 'City Boys' were also up for Grammys, for best melodic rap performance and best African music performance, respectively. Fans can sign up for artist presale, which continues through Sunday, June 22, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Artist presales and VIP packages are available Tuesday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time via Ticketmaster. General onsale starts next Friday, June 27, at 10 a.m. local time. Visit Burna Boy's website for more details and ticket information. See the dates for Burna Boy's No Sign of Weakness Tour below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Sydney Morning Herald
16-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Start-up boss to face trial for kidnapping, domestic violence
A former start-up boss once backed by billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Peter Thiel will face trial accused of a year-long campaign of domestic violence against his former partner, including stalking, kidnapping and assault. Paul Kevin Bennetts co-founded and ran superannuation firm Spaceship with backing from the founders of Atlassian and PayPal in 2016. At the time he told Vogue Australia Spaceship would look to the tech industry to enrich the super balances of Millennials. But just a few years later, trouble was brewing in Bennetts' professional and personal life. He left Starship in May 2019. Bennetts was banned from providing financial services by ASIC in January 2022, after he 'dishonestly obtained' his directors qualifications. ASIC found Bennetts had asked one of his company's compliance officers to sit his assessments. It was just a few months later that Bennetts was allegedly abusing his partner. Court documents show Bennetts will face trial in the District Court on a raft of domestic violence charges. The lengthy list includes four counts of assault, 12 counts of stalking or intimidation, two counts of taking or detaining a person for advantage – the legal term for kidnapping – and possess a recording made with a surveillance device. The court documents show the allegations against Bennetts began in August 2022 and continued until November 2023. He was charged in December 2023. All charges relate to one woman, his former partner, whom the Herald will not identify. Bennetts has pleaded not guilty to each count.
The Age
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Start-up boss to face trial for kidnapping, domestic violence
A former start-up boss once backed by billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Peter Thiel will face trial accused of a year-long campaign of domestic violence against his former partner, including stalking, kidnapping and assault. Paul Kevin Bennetts co-founded and ran superannuation firm Spaceship with backing from the founders of Atlassian and PayPal in 2016. At the time he told Vogue Australia Spaceship would look to the tech industry to enrich the super balances of Millennials. But just a few years later, trouble was brewing in Bennetts' professional and personal life. He left Starship in May 2019. Bennetts was banned from providing financial services by ASIC in January 2022, after he 'dishonestly obtained' his directors qualifications. ASIC found Bennetts had asked one of his company's compliance officers to sit his assessments. It was just a few months later that Bennetts was allegedly abusing his partner. Court documents show Bennetts will face trial in the District Court on a raft of domestic violence charges. The lengthy list includes four counts of assault, 12 counts of stalking or intimidation, two counts of taking or detaining a person for advantage – the legal term for kidnapping – and possess a recording made with a surveillance device. The court documents show the allegations against Bennetts began in August 2022 and continued until November 2023. He was charged in December 2023. All charges relate to one woman, his former partner, whom the Herald will not identify. Bennetts has pleaded not guilty to each count.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Burna Boy Reveals Release Date for New Album, Shares New Song Featuring Travis Scott: Listen
Burna Boy and Travis Scott, photo by John Cotter/Respective Collective For a long time, Burna Boy has been teasing a new album called No Sign of Weakness. He has now announced that the follow-up to 2023's I Told Them... is out July 10 (via Spaceship/Bad Habit/Atlantic). The Nigerian Afrobeats superstar has also shared 'TaTaTa,' a new collaboration with Travis Scott and the Nigerian-born producer Chillz Chilleaux. Listen to the new song below. Last December, Burna Boy shared the single 'Bundle by Bundle,' and he followed it with 'Update' and 'Sweet Love.' Those three tracks, along with 'TaTaTa,' will appear on the 16-song No Sign of Weakness. Read about Burna Boy's Twice as Tall at No. 46 in 'The 50 Best Albums of 2020.' Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
