By Jackie Shannon
With powerhouse director, Ridley Scott, currently in pre-production on Alien: Covenant – his sequel to 2012’s Prometheus – and the film set to shoot at Fox Studios in Sydney, you can expect a few Australian actors to snag roles alongside confirmed international cast members, Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Demian Bachir, Danny McBride, and Katherine Waterston.
The first lucky local thesp is Ben Rigby, who has previously appeared in TV’s Neighbours, a host of short films, and in the low budget 2015 horror flick, Plague. He will next be seen in Garth Davis’ Lion, opposite Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman.
While Rigby’s role in Alien: Covenant remains unconfirmed, the young actor is understandably over the moon.
“Being offered the opportunity to work with Ridley and this insanely talented cast is quite literally out of this world,” Rigby tells FilmInk. “I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”
The successful but much debated Prometheus was set 30 years prior to the events in Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi masterpiece, Alien, and though plot details remain shrouded in mystery, the narrative of Alien: Covenant is hotly rumoured to tie in directly with the film that kick-started one of the most popular franchises in movie history.
Alien: Covenant is slated for release on October 6, 2017.
