Oct 29 2009 'Alien' Prequel To Take Place Prior To 'Alien'

Big news about Ridley Scott's Alien prequel. It's going to take place before the original! Specifically, about thirty years prior:

“It’s a brand new box of tricks,” said Sir Ridley. “We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”

I just hope this doesn't turn into something like The Wedding Singer, where it's just a string of jokes about how funny the fashion of the 2970s were.

Ridley Scott Talks Alien Prequel [Empire]

Jul 31 2009 Ridley Scott on 'Alien' Prequel: "Alright, Guys, I'm In!"

Ridley Scott, who parted from the continually-declining Alien franchise after his first installment, is officially returning to direct that prequel people have been talking about. Says Variety:

Twentieth Century Fox is resuscitating its "Alien" franchise. The studio 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.

The film is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

Of course, this assumes he'll still have a career after Monopoly: The Movie. Because Ridley Scott is making a Monopoly movie, and you'd think that would be enough of an indicator of dementia people would stop letting him use film cameras.

Apr 28 2009 Let's Find Out How Those 'Alien' Guys Got Started

What came first, the Alien or the face-hugger egg? What was the Alien Queen like as a teenager? How do those guys build such complex, Swedish surrealist interiors to their cave homes? Answers may be on the way. From IESB:

[Fox co-chairman] Rothman said of the possible [Alien prequel] film, "There's been some talk. Ridley Scott, Ridley is right now working on Robin Hood, but I think he's toying with the idea and that would be great for us. I mean, it's always been a matter of, really, if you can get the originator to do it that would be the greatest thing, so I've got my fingers crossed, all of them."

My prediction: Alien Zero (the zero is represented by an alien egg), starring Christian Bale. It ends with Bale and his pregnant wife narrowly escaping from planet LV-426 in a small shuttle pod, the two vowing to never again speak of all those crazy aliens they just fought. Suddenly, the wife grabs at her stomach. An alien spawn? No--it's the standard baby. It's time. Bale smiles.

"We'll name her Sigourney Weaver."

Dec 8 2008 Scott, Weaver working on Aliens Movie Sans Alien?

Sigourney Weaver has been doing some chatting with MTV, during which it was revealed she's talked with Ridley Scott about the two returning to the Alien franchise. If I had to name one thing that seemed odd about their conversation about another Alien, I'd say it's that they might be eliminating the whole alien thing:

"We’d have to go back to the drawing board on [the alien],” she said. “Ridley said that right away when we first talked about [a fifth film].”

And finally, the quote that’s gotten me mighty curious, “What we’re interested in is taking the character of Ripley and seeing what other science fiction story we can tell about someone who has lived several lives.”

I didn’t really process what Weaver was saying at the time I suppose but it sounds to me like we might be less looking at “Alien 5″ and more of “Chronicles of Ripley.”

The participation of original Alien director Ridley Scott makes this better than most spin-off cash-in attempts, but let's not forget that Steven Spielberg was also involved in a questionable attempt at bringing back a action hero now in their 60s back to screens, and that didn't work out that well.

Personally, I'd rather have a spin-off starring that horrible, pale human/alien hybrid from Resurrection. That thing filled my mental inbox with nightmares that I'm still sorting through. You put that guy in a suburban neighborhood with a samurai sword and you've just created a six-movie franchise. I think it works for either horror or comedy.