Planning to shoot three Alien films in Sydney ... director Ridley Scott, right, talks to Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop at Fox Studios. Credit:Dallas Kilponen The Prometheus director is on the hunt for budding Engineers and Xenomorphs, the ruthless intergalactic beings who reap havoc on the human species in the blockbuster Alien franchise. The casting call comes as Scott prepares to shoot Alien: Covenant in Sydney in April. Contenders must be between eight and 40 years old, "skinny and very tall," according to agency MCTV Management Group.

Danger lurks ... Logan Marshall-Green, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender in Prometheus. Casting scouts are also looking for "skinny and very short", possibly to provide some exaggerated scale to the humanoid horrors. "But strong and agile," the statement specifies. Other worthy attributes include "fast in movement. Acrobats, dancers, gymnasts, contortionists, Cirque du Soleil-type performers". MCTV asks talent already listed on its books to apply, adding if they know of anyone who fits the description to get in touch.

"They would need to be based in Sydney, Australia," MCTV said. The Engineers first appeared in Prometheus as the albino humanoids with gladiatorial physiques that towered over the film's stars, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender. Scott said Alien: Covenant would follow on from 2012's Prometheus, and Fassbender would return as both android David and a doppelganger. The new movie will show the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovering a dangerous world whose sole inhabitant is David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. In a 2015 interview, Scott said the new film would showcase the smorgasbord of aliens that have appeared in his films.

"We'll have them all: egg, face-hugger, chest-burst and then the big boy [Engineers]," he said. The 2.18-metre-tall actor Bolaji Badejo played the titular xenomorph Alien in the 1979 movie, terrorising Sigourney Weaver and the rest of the Nostromo crew. With Fassbender arriving in mid-March, the movie will start a 16-week shoot shortly afterwards at Fox Studios and 'outside' locations. Scott wants to create a green planet for the movie with help from digital effects. "It needs monumental stuff – monumental forests, monumental rocks," he said. "And the rest will be in studio with some fairly formidable CGI."

In November, NSW Industry Minister Anthony Roberts said the movie would deliver $US81 million ($111 million) and more than 600 jobs to the state's economy. Scott has indicated that he plans to make two more Alien movies after Covenant and hoped to shoot them all in Sydney. Alien: Covenant is due to be released October 2017.