Alien: Covenant removes Xenomorphs from Chinese release
Ever wanted to watch an ‘Alien’ movie without any aliens?
That’s exactly what’s in store for Chinese fans as ‘Alien: Covenant’ gets the aliens taken out.
According to news site The Beijinger, almost every scene featuring xenomorphs has been removed from China’s release of ‘Alien: Covenant’… essentially making it an ‘Alien’ movie without the aliens.
And the fans clearly aren’t too pleased.
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The film has reportedly been slashed by 6 whole minutes, and the majority of these scenes featured the iconic xenomorphs.
Some Chinese viewers have already expressed their distaste for the cuts via online message boards… and one viewer who attended an advance screening said that the censored version is “extremely frustrating” to watch.
They also revealed what Chinese audiences can expect NOT to see, including all gory images of aliens covered in blood as well as scenes where the aliens attack human characters.
And the iconic ‘back’ scene from the trailers has been cut, too – edited so that you only see the reactions of his crewmates, and not the horrific scene itself.
And let’s just say these edits haven’t gone down well.
“#China censored version of #AlienCovenant cuts off 6 minutes,” said reporter Charlies Liu via Twitter. “Barely has any alien in it.”
And this could be hugely problematic for the future of the ‘Alien’ franchise…
It’s no secret that ‘Alien: Covenant’ isn’t exactly doing well at the box office. Made on a budget of around $98 million, it’s only managed an incredibly modest $175 million globally so far.
And that’s unlikely to convince 20th Century Fox to back a sequel…
The real hope then, was for ‘Alien: Covenant’ to do well in China, with the possibility of swinging the box office figures to far more favourable sums. But with the removal of most of its alien scenes, it’s really not looking good.
But for now, we’ll have to wait and see.
‘Alien: Covenant’ stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, James Franco, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Callie Hernandez, Carmen Ejogo, Guy Pearce and Noomi Rapace.
Ridley Scott directs, based on a script by John Logan, Jack Paglen, Michael Green, and Dante Harper.
‘Alien: Covenant’ opened in cinemas on 19 May 2017.
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