Considering a month or two back, the very idea of a possible Alien prequel movie wasn't even in the conscious of many, there's certainly been quite a lot happening. After original rumours that Fox was planning a remake were debunked, it then become clear that the plan was to do some sort of prequel to the first Alien film, with the Scott brothers - Ridley and Tony - on producer duties. Furthermore, the suggested director for the project was Carl Rinsch, who has been making his money helming commercials to date.

Fox, to be fair, didn't do too well the last time it plucked a commercials/music video guy to direct an Alien movie, and David Fincher - who has clearly gone on to much bigger and better things - borderline refuses to be associated with Alien 3 as a result. That didn't stop the reports that Rinsch was in the driving seat for a project that, as Martin wrote, has a few plot obstacles it needs to deal with first.

However, Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that Fox is not so keen on Rinsch after all, and before pressing the magical green light button, it's holding out to get Ridley Scott back behind the camera instead. As the articles states, "Sources at Fox, however, tell EW that the studio is not interested in greenlighting a prequel unless Scott himself directs."

There's also some tittle-tattle in there about Scott's daughter being involved with Finsch, but we'd be amazed if that was at the heart of the story. There's been no formal word from any party, but it does seem to throw a spanner in the works somewhat, and threaten the seeming haste of the project (certainly it's fallen behind the similarly-sprung-out-of-nowhere Predator sequel, which is out next summer).

For now, here's the Entertainment Weekly story, and we'll be monitoring developments with interest.