ALIEN DAY: In Space, No One Can Hear You Celebrate: April 26 (LV-426)

IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU CELEBRATE

     Because every day is some sort of celebratory day now, 20th Century Fox has made today "Alien Day."  It was announced back on March 29th, and of course there's probably a monetary component involved at the bottom of this decision to help hype the 30th anniversary of the original Alien film this July as well as boosting info for both the upcoming films- Ridley Scott's Prometheus follow up and Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 film.

     The date itself should be a familiar number to fans of the series as it is the number of the planetary body LV-426.  The distress signal came from that the Nostromo picked up, then later to be colonized and nuked from orbit to complete the Colonial Marines' disastrous bug hunt.

     To kick things off Jeffrey Godsick (President of 20th Fox Consumer Products) had this to say:

“The ALIEN franchise holds a special place not only within the universe of Fox but with movie enthusiasts across the galaxy.  We noticed that fans of the ALIEN films were starting to rally around the calendar date of April 26th - given the connection to the planet LV-426. Quite simply, it gave us the idea to do something special on this day; to officially mark the occasion alongside fans and to build excitement online, in stores and once again, in theaters."

     And then, from the official press release:

"Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products announced today an out-of-this-world global celebration of the ALIEN franchise culminating with a special 24 hour, fan-focused social media event on April 26th – a nod to LV-426, the planet from the iconic ALIEN films. ALIEN DAY (#AlienDay426) to encompass a wide range of executions including nationwide screenings, never-before-seen consumer product activations and the kickoff of the ALIEN: Ultimate Trivia Challenge*, allowing fans to test their ALIEN knowledge – with the chance to win memorable prizes every 42.6 minutes on Twitter."

#ALIENDAY426

     I'm not going to lie, I'm really into this.  Dark Horse Comics has a ton of the Alien comics on sale for 50% off on Comixology (sale ends on 05/02 leaving plenty of time to shop), so I'll buy a bunch of those.  Although I've already got Alien: Salvation and can safely recommend that to any Alien fan or any Mike Mignola fans, it's a great short book.  There's a wealth of great material in there for fans.

     NECA and Funko have new figures on the way, Titan and Audible books, and other special edition merchandise will be available.  Zen Studios made an Alien Pinball app game available on iTunes, Google Play, or Xbox.  In addition, participating theaters will be showing an Alien and Aliens double feature!  But the coolest item might be the fact Reebok is issuing the iconic high-top ALIEN STOMPERS!  Sadly though, the shoes are all sold out and going for ridiculous Weyland-Yutani prices on Ebay.

     To join in on the face-hugging fun just go on over to Twitter and Instagram @AlienAnthology or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/alienanthology.  The horror here will be how much we all spend on all this cool merchandise.

     Personally, I'll be celebrating by playing some Alien: Isolation.

     Sources [ Blastr ] [ Inquisitr ]

*Trivia participants must pre-register their handles In advance of the contest kickoff at http://AlienAnthology.com.