Ridley Scott will direct Alien prequel
Ben Child, Guardian, 31 July 2009

The director is set to return to his groundbreaking 1979 film that introduced moviegoers to 'facehuggers'



It's the news that fans of the original Alien film have longed to hear – Variety reports that Ridley Scott is to return to the franchise he launched in 1979, taking the director's chair for a prequel.

Twentieth Century Fox's announcement is unfortunate news for Carl Rinsch, a TV adverts director who was Scott's original choice to take the reins on the new film. Some reports had suggested Fox was unhappy with the idea of an untried film-maker resurrecting the slasher-in-space series, and wanted Scott to step up from his original role as producer. It now looks like Fox has got its man.

The new film will be set before the events of Scott's 1979 film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship respond to a distress signal from the empty ship, only to discover too late that the signal was meant to warn them.

The prequel will be Scott's first science fiction project since Blade Runner in 1982 and will be based on a script by Jon Spaihts, who seems to be Hollywood's sci-fi writer of the moment. Apart from the Alien prequel, Spaihts is also working on Shadow 19, which has Keanu Reeves attached; Reeves in turn has hired him to write "space journey epic" Passengers. Spaihts is also reportedly scripting Children of Mars for Disney.

Scott is currently filming Robin Hood, which appears to have dropped its original name, Nottingham – it stars Russell Crowe as the outlaw, with Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian.

There have been four films in the Alien series, plus two spin-off Aliens vs Predator films, which brought Scott's xenomorphs together with the extraterrestrial hunters spawned by John McTiernan in 1987. The prequel looks like it will be the first Alien film proper not to feature the iconic figure of Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul ... en-prequel

Bring it on!!!
but I would really like to see Sigourney Weaver again.

man i've been checking news about a sequel constantly for years now.beggining of the year i know sigourney weaver was still trying to bring back the movie and was having meetings with riddley scott to make another film.she wanted to do a follow up to the 4th film where the aliens made it to earth when they crashed the ship.thank god we don't get to see that even if i would like to see how earth looked like.
i guess they decided to show some earlier stuff,probably to show how the fist alien spaceship with the eggs got on that planet when it was discovered by ripley and her crew.there is a lott of hype to find out more about the origins of that ship and that race.they will probably explain some of this.

the only thing i don't like nowadays is that hollywood only makes prequels.it's like they run out of ideas in everything they do.only prequels to the original films and remakes.it gets annoying.
oh and thanks for the news spitfire,made my day

here's hoping Ridley makes a great flick out of this... he's been talking about doing a prequel for years...

BEST.

THING.

I'VE HEARD.

THIS YEAR.

Since Imd

FUCK YEAH

In theory, there shouldn't be any humans in this film as it's the story of the 'space jockey' race and the alien ship. I can't imagine the Hollywood Studios making a film without a 'human interest'. The worst bits of 'Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem' were the human stories. If it had just been watching the Predator take care of business it would have been so much better.

i like this, i havent seen any aliens movies since i was a kid. i dont remember shit, so ill wait for this.

woa that's awesome news dude!

Something to look forward too!!

The alien movies are fuckin classic, right next to Lethal Weapon n Die Hard, they have to be some of the best action (and horror) movies of all time.
If anyone know's how to resurrect them after the piss-poor AVP movies its Ridley Scott! He da man!

All we need now is James Cameron to come back n put the fuckin Terminator movies back on track!

Based on comments by Ridley.. this movie should be about the way The Company becomes aware that there's a crashed Jockey Ship with xenomorphs... so yeah there will be humans (no surprise there ). An upcoming Alien game (Aliens: Colonial Marines) is reported to also delve into this backstory because they were advised by Ridley himself about his intentions and theories behind the Jockeys and etc...

meh

not again an Alien movie.... 1 is the only good film.... let's cherish that =)

True. But Aliens was also very well done, a good sequel.

2 was ok,

3 was just fine...

4 was mediocre,

AVP was terrible,

AVP2 was... a fucking disaster.

A movie I'm not waiting for. I never liked any of the Alien movies. I'd rather watch The Thing (Carpenters version). Thank god the new Thing movie aint going to be a remake but a prequel instead.