Ridley Scott Attached to Direct 'Alien' Prequel
Now does this make it worth doing?
When news of a proposed prequel to Alien first surfaced I never got the impression the online collective was all that upset since Ridley and Tony Scott's names were attached to the project and overseeing it. At the time it was thought the Scott's would be bringing protegee director, Carl Erik Rinsch aboard to helm the project, but as The Playlist found out in June via EW Fox was more interested in bringing Ridley back to the franchise and it appears they got their wish.
Variety is reporting 20th Century Fox has hired Jon Spaihts to write a prequel that has Ridley Scott attached to return as director. Spaihts got the job after pitching the studio and Scott Free, which will produce the film.
There are no story details known at this point outside of knowing the film is set up to be a prequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 original, in which the crew of the space freighter Nostromo fall prey to a vicious creature that had gestated inside one of the ill-fated crew members.
As of right now, Spaihts is an unknown entity to audiences, but Variety points out his name isn't unknown in Hollywood as Keanue Reeves has already come aboard Shadow 19 from the writer for Warner Bros. and Reeves also hired him to pen the space journey epic Passengers.
Variety also reports he is rewriting The Darkest Hour for Fox, Children of Mars for Disney and St. George and the Dragon for Sony.
I, for one, am extremely excited about this as Scott's Alien is my personal favorite in the franchise. Unfortunately there is no word on an anticipated production start.
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NOW I AM PUMPED! First Rodriguez gets involved in rebooting Predator and now Scott is coming on board for a Alien prequel, things might be turning around.
Sounds great, though I really would like to have seen what Danny Boyle could've done with the Alien franchise. I know his name wasn't attached anywhere but I think he would've been interesting.
@Colin: Definitely.
@Colin & Owen: We have seen what Danny Boyle could do with an 'in space, no one can hear you scream' movie. Sunshine.
Great to hear Scott's back, I just hope the hype doesn't get too big.
For me Ridley Scott is (nowadays) a hit and miss director. I loved American Gansgter and surely Gladiator is a masterpiece. But Kingdom of Heaven, A Good Year and his last boring movie (I don't even remember the name, the one with DiCaprio) were extremely disapointing.
Not that I'm saying this new Alien movie will not live up to expectations BECAUSE of Ridley Scott. Better him than some videoclip director. I'm just not that hyped YET.
When I first heard about this prequel idea, my first reaction was "really? what a waste of time." Now after thinking about it this prequel sounds like it could be pretty cool.
Maybe it can involve humans, as The Company did in fact seem to possibly already know about this species, but I wholeheartedly agree with online comments, no humans please!! It could be damn interesting just to see the Aliens origins and the Space Jockey. Hey, we gotta have a little faith in Hollywood, they recently let great directors like Peter Jackson and Chris Nolan work their magic with the scifi/fantasy genre.
At first when I heard about Ridley Scott "finally" take another shot at the franchise which he started (and subsequently, hasn't spawned even a "decent" film since 1993's Alien3), I was ecstatic. However, now that I've had time to rethink my feelings I've realized something.
1979 Alien
1982 Blade Runner
2011 Alien Prequel (?)
Do you notice something? While on one hand, in a mere 3-year period Ridley Scott was able to direct two of the greatest sci-fi films of all time; on the other hand, he hasn't directed a sci-fi film in 27 years & hasn't directed an Alien film in 30? George Lucas "only" took a 22 year break between Star Wars & Episode I and that film didn't exactly live up to all of the hype (although I personally liked it). James Cameron "only" took an 18 year break from sci-fi and, while he has suceeded in hyping up the special effects of his new film (similar to a certain Mr. Lucas), he has yet to prove whether he can turn it into a cohesive whole and more importantly, a good film.
Do I trust Sir Ridley? You betcha. The fact that someone was able to write an Alien script which was so good that it managed to not only turn Mr. Scott's head but persuade him to return to the franchise that made him a house-hold name to begin with, is reason enought for excitement.
I just hope he can deliver the goods after nearly 3 Decades of sci-fi silence.