Ridley Scott’s involvement in an Alien prequel has proven to be more substantiated than wishful rumors.
Variety is reporting Fox is moving forward to resuscitate the four film franchise by hiring Jon Spaihts to write a prequel script and attaching the original Alien director Ridley Scott to direct.
Scott’s name has come up in rumors to helm an Alien prequel for some time now. Over that time, Robert Rodriguez has gotten a Predator reboot off the ground with Fox which is expected to hit theaters next summer. With Alien also getting a fresh start, we can formally say adieu to the Aliens vs Predators franchise.
Spaihts’ recently completed the script for Keanu Reeves’ space epic Passengers which helped him secure the Alien prequel gig. Though Spaihts’ body of work appears slim at first glance, he has a number of writing projects in the hopper including The Darkest Hour for Timur Bekmambetov, Children of Mars for Disney, and a rewrite of St. George and the Dragon for Sony.
Still unknown at this time is whether Spaihts will write a direct prequel that leads into the events of Alien or a completely separate standalone story constructed to launch a new franchise with new heroes. I am personally pulling for a clever mix of the two.
