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Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie

Martin Anderson


Scott returns to where it all began, as the new 'Alien' prequel finally takes off...

Published on Jul 31, 2009

After thirty years of talking about it, it's finally been announced that original Alien director Ridley Scott will helm the new entry in the  franchise.

Reports back in April mooted Scott for the new film, a prequel to the 1979 blockbuster, though later indications suggested that commercials director Carl Rinsch would lead the project. Fox weren't happy about that. Even though the company has done pretty well over the last three decades by choosing new or non-obvious talent to inject fresh blood into the franchise (including James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet), it seems the pressure for Scott to revisit xenomorph territory has combined with Hollywood's increasingly 'zero-risk' philosophy to tip the decision.

Nothing is known about the set-up of the new movie, except that chronologically it precedes the plight of the Nostromo. Since it's obviously going to involve the human race, I saw a few problems in deriving a credible plot that could predate Alien, but Hollywood has written its way past stickier obstacles than that.

Writer Jon Spaihts successfully pitched to Fox and Scott Free Productions, and is working on the script. Spaihts' other credits include Passengers and St. George and the Dragon.

Barely a fortnight seems to pass without Ridley Scott announcing a new movie - with the likes of Brave New World and The Forever War also slated or mooted for the 71 year-old director, not to mention Stones, The Kind One and Child 44, it looks like the ginseng has really kicked in.

Variety


The plot-obstacles to an Alien prequel...

 
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Alien | Ridley Scott | Martin Anderson

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Users Comments

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By mugwump 1 July 31, 2009 08:44:59 AM

Scott must be getting a MASSIVE payday to do this. Story-wise, the company must have know about the existence of the aliens, so there won't be too much trouble in throwing a new story together.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By twosheds 1 July 31, 2009 09:16:36 AM

mugwump - check out the 'few problems' link in the above article for why, IMO, that is not the case.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By mugwump 1 July 31, 2009 11:19:17 AM

Twosheds,there are some good points there...but I refer you back to this: "Clearly the company is way ahead of the crew's efforts to decipher the signal, which obviously contains a pretty detailed description of the xenomorph and its potential capability as a military weapon." Unfortunately, that's pure speculation. An equally plausible explanation would be that The Company had been to LV426 before - though that would through the plot of Aliens into trouble.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By twosheds 1 July 31, 2009 11:24:49 AM

Mugwump - I've answered all this in the comments thread on that 'Alien Obstacles' page. No point repeating it here, except to say that it makes no sense to send the Nostromo mining ore for years before carrying out its 'secret objective'.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By Soupie 1 July 31, 2009 12:21:30 PM

Am made up chuffed at this news I am :o)

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By Nostromo71 1 July 31, 2009 12:45:16 PM

This COULD be a great movie - at the very least being Ridley Scott it will LOOK great! It's a weird development though - I remember reading in 2000 AD comic over 20 years ago about how the upcomming Alien 3 was to be directed by Ridley Scott & be all about the origin of the Aliens!

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By cordas 1 July 31, 2009 02:27:25 PM

The movie could have nothing to do with LV426, the easiest way around it would be to set it on a different foundling colony that discovers its own cache of eggs. Maybe have it follow something similar to "Legacy of Heorot" by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barne. Obviously with Aliens instead of Grendels. I only hope that they work the film so that it doesn't spoil the extended universe that already exists. Suppose they do the colony story and have the colony nuked at the end by some over excited grunt and the company only gets little bit of a garbled report, which could then tie into Alien.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By _tjn 1 July 31, 2009 03:23:37 PM

in the 'Colonial Marines Tech Handbook', the author puts forward in the last chapter that the reason no-one chased up the loss of the Nostromo until the Narcissus was recovered was that whoever was responsible in the Science Division for substituting Ash and diverting the Nostromo wanted to cover their tracks and pretend the whole thing never happened (as we see with Burke, clearly people feel there is a lot of money riding on being able to bring back the creatures and exploit them commercially). whats to say that hadnt happened previously? and (spit) there's also the Weyland copnnection with the AVP films - *if* Scott takes a nod from that plotline, the Weyland company will have knowledge of the creatures already - but not *where*. which could tie into the first film and provide a springboard for the plot of this one. I do hope they get the same person that was behind the supposed William Gibson penned script for A3 mind - if Cameron had directed that, that could have been something *very* special.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By stefoid 1 July 31, 2009 11:14:04 PM

Good points - the wreck/jockey is really old but the eggs are fresh. therefore the blue light being protection is plausible. To me it looks like the aliens and the xenos are biologically related - at least from the same planet. And if the jockey is protecting the egss, then they have some sort of close relationship. Either symbiotic or perhaps even different stages of life-cycle like a caterpilar/butterfly type of deal. Dont have a problem with jockey being integrated into the ship. These things are buglike 'queen' and 'workers' and so on. Perhaps that particular bug was born and destined to become a spaceship pilot for life, permanently integrated with the ship itself. If they have a relationship, why is the jockey been infested? An accident or by natural design, like certain spiders that each each ther while mating ro whatever? While intersting, it robably doesnt matter in the context of the prequal. The last thing that might mater is the signal - are the jockeys benign and really sent a warning, or are they predatory and sent out a trap signal to lure suckers?

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By Garth 1 August 1, 2009 10:08:46 AM

this could be an amazing movie really looking forward to it. the company or at the military must have known about the xenomorphs existence or at least some forms of alien species as Hudson (i think) asks "is this going to be a stand up fight or another bug hunt?" in aliens surly indicating that the marines have encountered aliens before. as the Nostramos crew were all civilians there was no reason for them to know about aliens lifeforms if the military kept it top secret. this could be a nice way to dance around the original movie and get in some nice big fire fights between humans, aliens and the space jockey species. or am i just talking rubbish?

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By beanie85 1 August 3, 2009 12:01:41 AM

Ridley Scott returns to direct an Alien prequel. Forget the kids who nothing about the Alien universe being apathetic and decidedly hostile to this news. We know the truth of it - this is what we have been waiting for - this is going to be sensational and thrilling. How do I know this? because for 15 years, Ridley has been trying to find a way to tell a truly memorable Alien prequel story. It seems he has found a way. How can that not be the most exciting news in ages? Word of advice, Ridley - make the first call to H.R Giger - he needs to be involved with this project on EVERY CONCEIVABLE LEVEL.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By Rangeboy 1 August 5, 2009 03:52:17 PM

I was watching Ridley's commentary and he says (in 1999) that he would love to make an ''Alien 5 or 6'' which would give you more backstory on how the SJ got there and where it was from etc. He also said that he saw the eggs as a cargo of some sort of biological weapon. If they concentrate on the SJ origins too much it would remove the human elements so I guess it is possible that there was some collusion between the corporation and the SJ race? Perhaps gogin back thousand of years. From other comments about heiroglyphics, there could be something to do with Egyptian civilization. Sending Nostromo was just a way of retrieving their 'goods' after the distress signal went out. Will be looking foward to it but certainly will be a monumental task for Scott and his team. Just hope he keeps the CGI and pandering to 'youth' demographics to a minimum.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By char 1 August 8, 2009 08:40:49 PM

they should make the alien films into 3d because it would look awsome if the face hugger would jump out at you and the baby alien from a stomach it would be the scariest and best film ever

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By Andrew 1 September 15, 2009 11:55:59 AM

I was approached by Fox, begging me for an Alien-Predator script. In two hours I finished:'Alien/Predator vs Ann Coulter: Revenge of the Franchise'. Woody Allen will direct in an off-Greenwich Village production. Fox are thrilled; Coulter is cheap - and won't need special effects...(Coulter aces, as the first human refused by a face-hugger...). The alien species was a biological weapon developed to stop Wayland-Yutani-Halliburt...(sorry, alittle indigestion there...) ripping-off their mineral resources. I think Fox, Predator and Coulter deserve each other...

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By duda 1 October 19, 2009 02:59:34 PM

What i want to know is what the hell was the alien eating to jump from that little snake-sized thing to the full shape by the time it killed the first guy? If it eats flesh, what was it eating? uh oh. Just found a huge mistake in the entire movie. Who cares? make the prequel! And forget the first one ship/LV426, make it all original and about another place far away and a long time ago.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By money_leaker 1 December 31, 2009 11:28:22 PM

Ha! Good point, duda. Also, I was wondering, since Weyland-Yutani was skilled enough to create a perfectly life-like droid in Ash, then why do they not simply send a cadre of these droids to take care of the Company's dangerous and/or confidential business like deep space mining, alien gathering, etc., instead of sending unpredictable, unreliable human beings?

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By lmckee2112@yahoo.com 1 January 8, 2010 06:15:49 AM

My guess would be that they will try to tie Alien into AVP. Whelan-Yutani has already been established in the AVP franchise. And, since those events occured WELL before the Nostromo incident, the Aliens were known to humans, albeit a select few. They also know about the Predators. One of which killed Whelan himself. So, maybe they want the Aliens as a weapon against the recurring Predator threat. And, of course, the Aliens require a living host in order to be transported. Hence the need for humans and not a cadre of androids to pick them up. To me, Ash was there to try to get the humans infected, get them into sleep chambers, and then deliver them to the company. Kind of like the weasel in Aliens. The "Space Jockey" could be explained as intergalactic traders of the Alien species. Think about it, how did the Predators ever get their hands on them to create those nifty training temples??? There just happened to be an "outbreak" on that particular ship that caused it to crash land on LV-426. Personally, I think there is a lot of ground to create a good prequel. This would be a great opportunity to tie the 3 franchises together into one uniform universe as well.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By lmckee2112@yahoo.com 1 January 8, 2010 11:26:05 PM

Rangeboy - I like your view on the Space Jockey being from the same planet as the Aliens. Although, I would hope that they would not be of relation to the Aliens. Cargo would be more plausible imo. I'd love to see them as merchants of the Aliens and the Predators as buyers. Sure, the Predators could probably be able to capture Aliens themselves, but I do not see them as taking prisoners. They are hunters through and through. If they are going to hunt, it will be only for the kill and the trophy. I'd really love to see AVP end in a trilogy. The final chapter could focus on Whelan-Yutani's hunt, or revenge, against the Predators for the life of Whelan. This could take the space marines into uncharted territory by launching them on a space mission to locate and eliminate the Predator threat. I can see tie-ins to the new AVP video game being released with that approach. The Alien prequel could pick up after that final chapter of AVP. The new "Predators" film could then delve more into the background of that race. And as a finale, an all out free-for-all and climax for all 3 franchises could be released. Ripley could lead an all out human assualt on the Alien homeworld where the Predators are already engaged in an epic battle.

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By cerveloguy 1 January 25, 2010 08:35:46 AM

For F@%k's sake - why this imbecilic need to bring Predator and Weyalnd Yutani in to this? The Predator link was just a cheap commercial shot and Weyland can not have known about the ALien pre-film 1 timeline (pls igore the dumb AVP thread), beacause why would they have not just gone to the derelict and collected the eggs?? Why? because they did not know - its the most obvious thing. Why would they send one android? why would they go to LV426 'after' mining the ore and not before?? why not send a mission straight to it equipped to collect lethal specimens? I hope to buggery Ridley gets this right - I am not hopeful as so many fans are simply thick and want a trashly flick...shame..

Re: Official: Ridley Scott to direct new 'Alien' movie
Posted By cerveloguy 1 January 25, 2010 08:44:27 AM

Just to help the undecided. Androids were probably on all WY mining ships as a company rules enforcer, a bit like an IT monitor in a company. Therfore when the distress call was recieved on the home-bound trip he ensured policy was followed and they investigated. We have to assume that the distress call was not recived on the out bound leg as the ships computer would have stopped earlier, yes? if WY knew about it they would not have left a valuable find to be left idle for months or years waiting for another party to find it. Following me? So WY first encounted the Zenomorph during film 1. In fact read the book and establish any link?
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