Returning once again to his Alien roots, Sir Ridley Scott's greatest hope is a simple one.
"I want to scare the sh** out of you," he told Newshub.
And indeed, he does.
In space, no one can hear you scream. But in Milford Sound, it could be argued, those screams will resonate rather disturbingly off the cliff tops.
Sir Ridley shot in Fiordland for two weeks with most of his cast and crew for Alien: Covenant.
He calls the area "just so majestic", but isn't a fan of the nefarious Fiordland sandfly.
"You've got a lot of little black flies... whoa."
"I had no issues with them," star Billy Crudup countered.
"We had a talk as soon as I landed: 'Do not, do NOT screw up my hair'. And they did not, they got it."
In the film, Milford Sound doubles for a new planet discovered by Crudup and his crew of space colonists.
What a gorgeous place to call home, they think, until they realise nothing else lives there...
"Hey we're not saying [Milford Sound] is ruined, it just may have changed," says Crudup of the scary life the film adds to the area.
Returning to Ridley's Alien world is Michael Fassbender, after his first outing in Prometheus.
This was also the third time Fassbender has shot a film in NZ and he felt even more at home this time.
"I was pleased to find out that there was a place that rained more than Fossa, where I come from in the southwest of Ireland," he says.
In the violent film, however, rain is the very least of people's problems.
Alien: Covenant opened in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday.
Newshub.
