Ridley Scott is wasting no time getting started on his next Alien sequel. Alien: Covenant hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but as you probably know by now, Covenant is only the first in a series of films that connect the mythology he built in Prometheus to franchise roots in his 1979 classic. The script for the Covenant follow-up has been in development for a while now, and speaking with IGN UK, Scott revealed that they’re currently writing the screenplay and the plan is to head into production next year.

“We’re writing [a sequel] now, as we speak. I’ll be filming that within 14 months,” Scott told the outlet. Now, production schedules shift all the time, and that’s not quite an official studio confirmation, but it is the second time the director has recently suggested he’s planning to get back in the Alien saddle by next year.

Scott also spoke a bit more about Neill Blomkamp‘s scrapped Alien sequel, which he seems to suggest was planned to be titled Awakening. However, Scott previously suggested that Awakening was the title of a film that would fit along with Prometheus and Covenant, so that remains to be seen. Awakening certainly seems to fit in with the themes Scott is exploring in his prequel films, but either way, that’s probably a working title.

“They wanted to do Alien, er, Awakening – Neill Blomkamp… I said fine. I was going to be the producer. If I could have, I would have,” Scott said. “Except I do question – why have both (Blomkamp’s Alien and Scott’s Alien) out there? It seems like shooting your big toe off – it doesn’t make sense. But they didn’t go forward with it, Fox, so I just kind of kept out of it.”

The 2018 timing might allow the director to squeeze in one of his many other projects in development. Scott is also gearing up for Sony’s All the Money in the World, the David Scarpa-scripted Getty kidnapping drama, for which Scott is eyeing a lead in Natalie Portman. Then there’s The Cartel at Fox, an adaption of Don Winslow‘s bestselling crime drama, which is often called The Godfather of drug war stories. Last year, there were also reports that he would reteam with his The Martian scribe Drew Goddard for an adaptation of the S. Craig Zahler novel Wraiths of the Broken Land, which would be the first Western of his career. Finally, Scott’s also got a World War II drama centered on the Battle of Britain in the works at Fox.

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