Ridley Scott reveals that Alien: Covenant will have a "pretty hard" R rating

While he surprisingly didn't get a Best Director Oscar nomination yesterday for The Martian (read our review here), Ridley Scott did walk away with the gong at the Golden Globes. Typically the hard-working auteur is already looking ahead to his next project - the highly anticipated Alien: Covenant - and while speaking backstage after the ceremony he revealed that he's aiming for a "pretty hard R".

"I always remember walking down the edge in Saint Louis when we were previewing [Alien],” Scott told reporters. “I couldn’t sit through the film one more time. I walked down the edge into the kitchen scene when John Hurt started to bring up his breakfast. That moment, I realized how pretty scary the film was… I felt a sense of responsibility that I had gone too far because it was extreme. I’m going to try and do that again this year, but much worse".

Aside from 2004's Alien vs. Predator every film in the Alien franchise has been rated R, so this will no doubt come as great news for fans. In an era where so many franchises are aiming for PG-13 ratings to potentially gain bigger audiences, it's encouraging to see Scott and 20th Century Fox embracing the hard R. It's going to be hard to outdo the iconic scene where a xenormorph bursts out of John Hurt's chest, but we're excited to see what harrowing scenarios the director comes up with. Something tells us it won't be for the squeamish...

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.