Ridley Breaks Silence on Alien Prequel

[Hunter]

Sir Ridley Scott was in town the other night, mainly to look on with pride as his daughter, Jordan, debuted her film, Cracks, at the London Film Festival - but we grabbed him for a quick natter about the Alien prequel that he's aiming to direct soon-ish.

Since the prequel was announced, it's been assumed that it would tell the story of how those nasty, slavering xenomorphs came to land on LV-426 in the first place. But after listening to Sir Ridley, suddenly we're not so sure...

"It's a brand new box of tricks," said Sir Ridley. "We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It's very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior."

Interesting. And damned intriguing, to boot. Presumably, rather than make a film about how those massive elephantine aliens (remember the giant pilot with his chest blown outwards in Sir Ridley's original?) were decimated by the acid-blooded bastards, Sir Ridley and his writer, Jon Spaihts, have decided to reboot the story in an attempt to give it a human focus.

How this will fit in with existing series continuity remains, like much about the new Fox movie, to be seen, but with Sir Ridley on board, we're sure that the Alien series is on course for a return to genuine quality. Frankly, though, we're still a little surprised that the man who is arguably Britain's greatest living director would return to the scene of his greatest triumph. So why do it?

"I never thought I'd look forward to a sequel," said Sir Ridley. "But a prequel is kind of interesting. I'm looking forward to doing that."

Empire Online

[Hudson]

 

[xeno_alpha]

Hummm so they aren't exploring the concept of the Space Jockey's origins etc, that's good.  But still, I'm going to wait and see what other details arise in the future before i get excited about this movie.

[Hunter]

Well, after months of uncertainty it's nice to hear something! I mean, I want this to happen... Who doesn't want to see Ridley Scott tackle an Alien film again?

[xeno_alpha]

Ridley Scott on board and the possibilty that the Space Jockey origins might not be explored are the only 2 pieces of good news for far from the scarce info we have.  But yeah it is good to hear something, and thanks for the heads up by the way (+)

I still have my slight doubts at the moment though, not sure why.  I'm hoping future news and info will change my mind.

[Hudson]

Don't get me wrong; I'm glad they're not planning on demystifying anything, but in the same way I'm nervous that they'll come up with something original that's also really stupid.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

Well, it certainly does sound interesting. Whatever happened thirty years earlier as a plan was given up for dead. It makes me think of course about how Aliens take place 50 years after Alien. Maybe still there is something new to find out about the space jockey

[maledoro]

I just hope this isn't another Steel Egg: "There was another human ship before the Nostromo!"

[Hudson]

I just hope this isn't another Steel Egg: "There was another human ship before the Nostromo!"

So basically Steel Egg is "Alien...again?"

[maledoro]

So basically Steel Egg is "Alien...again?"

Pretty much. You got a captain who resembles Dallas and virtual clones of Parker and Brett, too.

[ondemand]

WOW! its gonna go different way then everyone was speculateing!

[SM]

Who's "everyone"?

[Hudson]

WOW! its gonna go different way then everyone was speculateing!

Either just careless grammar and spelling errors or an actual language barrier.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

*swear word* I want to be on the concept design team for this movie, even if it meant being kicked off the project before preproduction because no one could understand why I was hired in the beginning

[Hudson]

I'm hoping that Ridley will go for some of the more seasoned veterans he's used in the past for that aspect of the movie.