Meet Walter in new Alien: Covenant promo – he’s not creepy at all
Twentieth Century Fox’s much anticipated, action-thriller Alien: Covenant, hitting theaters May 19, marks visionary director Ridley Scott’s return to the universe he created. Continuing to enthrall fans, the studio has tapped Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to be the official CPU/GPU partner for Alien: Covenant and today has released its branded short, Meet Walter, that stars Michael Fassbender as his character Walter. As the centerpiece of the #MeetWalter campaign, this short introduces Walter, the latest synthetic android with intelligence powered by AMD, RyzenTM and RadeonTM processors, and manufactured by the film’s fictional corporation Weyland-Yutani.
The short, conceived by Ridley Scott and 3AM, produced by RSA Films with technology partner AMD and directed by Luke Scott, showcases Walter as the world’s most advanced synthetic companion, created to serve and designed to help achieve a better human experience with intelligence. As part of the campaign, a limited-edition poster debuted online (see gallery below) and at SXSW, plus a Twitter activation allows users to tweet #MeetWalter to receive a personalized video autoreply from Walter.
“Partnering with AMD, one of the world’s leading technology companies, for our film’s ‘Meet Walter’ campaign aligned perfectly with our vision of the incredible potential of AI that Michael so wonderfully brings to life through Alien: Covenant’s Walter,” said Ridley Scott. “In AMD we have a partner at the forefront of developing and implementing artificially intelligent technologies, showcasing where the future of AI may well be heading. Bringing AMD into our longstanding collaboration with 20th Century Fox on the Alien films is inspiring and exciting.”
“AMD is at the forefront of advancements in AI, machine learning and at developing technologies which are used every day,” said Zachary Eller, Senior Vice-President, Marketing Partnerships. “Given their amelioration in these technologies, we knew this was the perfect partnership for our film.”
“Once we saw the great connection between ‘Alien: Covenant’, the ‘Meet Walter’ short and AMD processor technologies, including AMD SenseMI technologies in our new Ryzen processors, and our Radeon Instinct accelerators, this technology collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox and Luke Scott was one we couldn’t resist,” said Jim Anderson, SVP & GM Computing & Graphics Business Group.
Alien: Covenant follows the crew of a colony ship bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy that discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape. The ensemble cast includes Michael Fassbender (The X-Men franchise), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them), Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) and Danny McBride (The Angry Birds Movie). In addition to directing, Ridley Scott serves as producer along with Mark Huffman, Michael Schaefer, David Giler and Walter Hill. The screenplay is by John Logan and Dante Harper from a story by Jack Paglen and Michael Green.
