Director Ridley Scott returns to Alien franchise with prequel

alien_from_the_movieNot content to let the Predator franchise re-surge alone, 20th Century Fox has revived the Alien franchise with a script that will finally see original director Ridley Scott return.

According to Variety, untested screenwriter Jon Spaihts is the lucky sonuvagun who booked this job, after coming off two successful script sales that have Keanu Reeves attached to star (Shadow 19 at Warner Bros., Passengers at Morgan Creek).

From the article:

The film is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

The article goes on to say that the studio and Scott loved his take on the scenario and that it’s the first of the franchise to be directed by Scott, which really has me wondering: exactly what is in this script that’s so uniquely different from the original to keep the story fresh and yet something that isn’t in the existing sequels that hooked Scott enough to be interested?

Call me cautiously optimistic, but this could actually be something I’d be interested in.

9 thoughts on “Director Ridley Scott returns to Alien franchise with prequel

  • “exactly what is in this script that’s so uniquely different from the original to keep the story fresh”

    My thoughts exactly. The articles synopsis is exactly that of the original film.

    Let's stop with the Alien Franchise and just watch “Alien” and “Aliens” and forget that there were any other films that featured Geiger's acid-blood-having monstrosities.

    and

    Begin Stock Rant:
    Hollywood! Please come up with a slightly original idea instead of 're-booting', 're-imagining', or re-making! Thank you
    End Stock Rant.

  • I agree, if Scott is willing to go back to the franchise, it must be a heck of a script — but like you said, what else can they do that hasn't already been done before.

  • Just the other day, I was just thinking how great the original alien trilogy was and lamenting that recent films had strayed from its roots.

    This could be good.

  • jimiphoenix says:

    arkonbey… that IS a synopsis of the first film. There is no concrete information regarding the storyline of the prequel in the article.

    Alien and Blade Runner were Scott's masterpieces, so I'm going to regard this news with cautious optimism for the moment. He's naturally at his best in films which have a strong bent towards incredible production design (an aspect which he's been known to micromanage in productions he's involved in), with Alien obviously being his first major foray into that kind of territory.

  • transient says:

    I prefer 3 to 2 myself. It seemed to me Fincher kept more in line with the atmosphere the 1st setup, but still made a different film. Whereas Cameron just took a more/bigger = better approach. Don't get me wrong, Aliens is a fine flick, but just seemed shallow compared to 1 & 3.

  • Is it? Dang. Doom on me for not paying attention.

    Still. My Stock Rant holds 🙂

    Alien and Blade Runner were so groundbreaking, he should try to break ground again.

  • they should base it off the alien ship in which they find the eggs in number 1, they could expand so much if its about the aliens history

  • they should base it off the alien ship in which they find the eggs in number 1, they could expand so much if its about the aliens history

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