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.
