‘Alien’ Franchise Crafts New Creatures for ‘Alien: Earth’ TV Show

Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Alien’ Franchise Crafts New Creatures for ‘Alien: Earth’ TV Show

Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)

Both new and familiar alien lifeforms lurk around in the Disney series “Alien: Earth,” based on the original 1979 Ridley Scott "Alien" movie.

“By bringing the story to Earth, we're shifting to, ‘can humanity itself survive, right?’ And then it becomes a question of, ‘well, what is humanity, and do we really deserve to survive?’” director Noah Hawley told Reuters.

“These creatures that are coming, are a kind of representation of the natural world reasserting its dominance, right? Reminding us that we're still part of the food chain,” the "Fargo" creator added.

"Alien: Earth," which begins streaming on Hulu and FX on Tuesday, follows a group of travelers with various jobs that are drawn into action when a spacecraft carrying alien samples crash-lands on Earth.

It is set two years before the first “Alien” movie that introduced audiences to actor Sigourney Weaver's character, Ellen Ripley, and the terrifying alien called a xenomorph.

Other than the xenomorphs that fans are familiar with, there are four other deadly creatures on the crashed spacecraft.

"These creatures have some, to varying degrees, great recognition factor," said producer David W. Zucker.

"They're sort of perverted versions of insects and otherwise that we can recognize. So, I think that brings it into an even more sort of visceral place, not to mention, touching upon certain sensations that we're already familiar that they can invoke,” he added.

"Don't Worry Darling" actor Sydney Chandler portrays the show’s lead named Wendy, a metahuman with the body of an adult human and the mind of a child, who leads a team that also has adult bodies with childish minds, called The Lost Boys, onto the crashed spaceship.

"Kids are great acting teachers. They're so present, they're so honest, instinctual, they do what their body tells them to do or what their mind thinks of right away,” Chandler said, referring to her approach to Wendy's child-like mannerisms.



Stop-motion 'Wildwood' Showcases 'Human Creativity' in AI Age

(L-R) 'WIldwood' director Travis Knight joins actors Marc Evan Jackson, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Tantoo Cardinal, Jake Johnson and Angela Bassett at the premiere. VALERIE MACON / AFP/File
(L-R) 'WIldwood' director Travis Knight joins actors Marc Evan Jackson, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Tantoo Cardinal, Jake Johnson and Angela Bassett at the premiere. VALERIE MACON / AFP/File
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Stop-motion 'Wildwood' Showcases 'Human Creativity' in AI Age

(L-R) 'WIldwood' director Travis Knight joins actors Marc Evan Jackson, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Tantoo Cardinal, Jake Johnson and Angela Bassett at the premiere. VALERIE MACON / AFP/File
(L-R) 'WIldwood' director Travis Knight joins actors Marc Evan Jackson, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Tantoo Cardinal, Jake Johnson and Angela Bassett at the premiere. VALERIE MACON / AFP/File

After a murder of crows kidnaps her little brother, a young girl ventures into an enchanted forest filled with talking animals and other magical beings, where a looming war will decide everyone's fate.

This is the fanciful tale told in "Wildwood," from the stop-motion animation studio Laika -- an ambitious project that took 16 years to make it to the big screen, and already a frontrunner for next year's Oscars.

"To put that in perspective, 16 years ago, Barack (Obama) was then a fresh-faced president in his very first term. Oh, it was a better time, my friends," director Travis Knight said at the film's premiere in Los Angeles.

"This movie exists because hundreds and hundreds of people poured years of their lives into trying to tell the most beautiful story that they could using their hands, using their imagination," Knight explained in an interview with AFP.

"That is something that computers can't do," added the filmmaker, who is also the CEO of Laika, the US studio behind "Coraline."

In the age of artificial intelligence, Knight extols the virtues of stop-motion, an animation technique in which the movements of tiny physical objects are captured one frame at a time, to create the effect of fluid motion when played back.

"It is a celebration of humanity because what you're seeing in this film is human creativity, human artistry, human effort on a grand scale," he said.

"Computers can try to emulate things that we've gone through, but a computer has never felt loss. It's never felt joy. It hasn't fallen in love. It hasn't had its heart broken."

- 'Universal' -

"Wildwood" is the story of Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her quest to rescue her brother, who has been taken by the crows into the Impassable Wilderness -- or the forests outside Portland, Oregon, which are hidden from mere mortals.

Along with her friend Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), Prue discovers a fantastic world, but one in which ambition and grief are fueling discord that could erupt in conflict.

"It is a big sweeping fantasy story," Knight said. "But it also is an exploration of mature themes and profound emotional things that everyone goes through at various times in their lives."

Lee told AFP that Prue's journey resonated for her, and recalled some of her own challenges in adolescence.

"I didn't go into a magical forest," Lee joked, but said she did understand "that idea of being a young person that feels so mature and so grown up, and feels like they have a really firm grasp on the world and reality, and then it's sort of all put into question."

"And all of a sudden, you have to rethink everything," she added.

Tremblay also said he could identify with Curtis, who tries to emulate the courage he sees in his favorite comic book and game characters.

The actors whose voices are featured in the film also helped shape how their characters move. Their gestures were filmed as they recorded their lines, so that animators could incorporate those mannerisms into the movie.

Angela Bassett, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali and Awkwafina are all part of the cast.

For its technical team, "Wildwood" marks a milestone in terms of the expressions created, and the menagerie of animals featured.

"Every film we've done has been R and D (research and development) for the next one," said animation supervisor Brad Schiff, who explained that the subtleties in facial movement achieved were impossible just a few years ago.

The film, inspired by Colin Meloy's book of the same name, is an ode to Portland, where Laika is based.

"It is a very specific place," said Knight, who lives in the Pacific Northwest city.

"The more specific, the more intimate you make something, ultimately the more universal it becomes."


'Call of Duty' North Korea Invasion Edition Tops Sales Charts in South

Visitors play 'Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4' at a Paris preview last week. The game envisions a North Korean invasion of its southern neighbor. Simon WOHLFAHRT / AFP
Visitors play 'Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4' at a Paris preview last week. The game envisions a North Korean invasion of its southern neighbor. Simon WOHLFAHRT / AFP
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'Call of Duty' North Korea Invasion Edition Tops Sales Charts in South

Visitors play 'Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4' at a Paris preview last week. The game envisions a North Korean invasion of its southern neighbor. Simon WOHLFAHRT / AFP
Visitors play 'Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4' at a Paris preview last week. The game envisions a North Korean invasion of its southern neighbor. Simon WOHLFAHRT / AFP

The latest instalment of the "Call of Duty" video game franchise, featuring a full-scale North Korean invasion of South Korea, has topped sales charts in the would-be target, even as real-life border tensions are ratcheting higher.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4", the latest edition of the globally popular franchise is set against a backdrop of tensions between the United States and Russia.

Its Friday release comes on the heels of an explosion inside the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that injured three South Korean soldiers, further straining ties on the peninsula, said AFP.

The game follows several parallel storylines: a squad of young American and South Korean soldiers fighting for survival, a former serviceman driven by revenge, and a power struggle surrounding a new North Korean leader -- a character players can also take on.

The new edition has generated considerable interest in South Korea, where able-bodied men are required to serve between 18 and 21 months in the military, depending on the branch.

The title has topped both the global and South Korean sales charts on Steam, one of the world's largest digital distribution platforms for PC games.

The campaign begins with a surprise invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces, who deploy paratroopers and infiltrate through an underground tunnel to catch South Korean and US troops off guard.

In reality, the US stations about 28,000 troops in South Korea to help deter the nuclear-armed North. Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Reactions among South Korean gamers have been largely positive, with some posting hashtags featuring a Korean slogan meaning "exterminate communism" on social media and others saying they were considering upgrading their computers or buying new consoles to play the title.

"I cried so much playing the game to a point I almost got dehydrated. It reminds me so much of my grandfather, who fought in the Korean War," a Threads user with the handle b_yeol_t said.

Another user, posting under the handle ireozima_zebal, described the experience as "horrifying" because of its implications for a potential conflict on the Korean peninsula.

"This is what would unfold if the North launched an invasion, with the border province of Gangwon overwhelmed within an hour and our defense line pushed back right on the edge of Seoul," the user said.

But the game has also drawn criticism for turning the fraught history between North and South Korea into entertainment.

The title raises the "question of whether it is appropriate... to present the tragedy of the Korean War and the current antagonism between South and North as something to be consumed for entertainment", Kim Sung-jae, chairman of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, wrote in the Hankyoreh newspaper last month.

On Saturday, North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un had urged his military to become the strongest in the world at a two-day meeting of company commanders in Pyongyang last week.


China's First AI Film Hits Cinemas, But Ticket Sales Lag

Nearly 100 people took more than two years to make the film. Hector RETAMAL / AFP
Nearly 100 people took more than two years to make the film. Hector RETAMAL / AFP
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China's First AI Film Hits Cinemas, But Ticket Sales Lag

Nearly 100 people took more than two years to make the film. Hector RETAMAL / AFP
Nearly 100 people took more than two years to make the film. Hector RETAMAL / AFP

China's first fully AI-generated feature film opens in cinemas on Friday in what promises to be a tough box-office test for the country's booming tech industry as advance ticket sales lag.

More than 10,000 screenings of the sci-fi thriller "Sanxingdui: Future Past" are scheduled for Friday, according to ticketing platform Maoyan.

Public reception, however, has been less than enthusiastic, said AFP.

Presale revenue as of Friday morning stood at 80,000 yuan ($11,980), while total box-office takings were forecast to remain below 150,000 yuan, only a fraction of the reported production cost, according to Maoyan.

Ticket prices range from 20 to 90 yuan, bringing the number sold to a few thousand at most.

Jiang Defu, CEO of the production company Bona Film Group, acknowledged the lukewarm reception in a recent interview but said the film was pushing boundaries.

"We are the first to try it, the first to get a theatrical release permit, and the first to be tested by the audience," he told Chinese film industry outlet Yuli.

"I think that is not easy at all."

Nearly 100 people took more than two years to make the film, which cost more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million), Bona said, although all the actors, their voices and the backdrops are AI-generated.

The film touches on the theme of humanity in a future shaped by AI.

But that was not enough to convince Iris Yang, who attended a free preview screening of the film on Thursday for acquaintances of the production team and industry workers.

Yang said she would not have paid for a ticket, given the movie's quality.

"If AI generation can match the theatrical experience of 'Avatar', I think I would be willing to pay for it," she said, referring to the US franchise known for the quality of its animation.

AI-generated video has gained popularity in the world's second-largest economy. On Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, AI-generated short dramas garnered more than 200 billion views in September alone.

But "the audience won't automatically pay for the tickets just because it's an AI-generated film", independent AI director Zhang Jun told AFP.

Online, Chinese social media users also seemed unconvinced by the launch of AI movies in cinemas.

"If it's free to watch on streaming platforms, it could become legendary. But paying to watch? People are not going to accept it at this stage," one user on Weibo commented.

In Hollywood, the rise of AI has sparked concern among film workers about the prospect of job losses.

An AI-generated sci-fi feature called "Gods Don't Give Gifts" is scheduled for US release on December 4.

And a virtual Hollywood actor called Tilly Norwood, whose interviews have gone viral while fueling job fears, is also set to star in an upcoming movie called "Misaligned".