It's official: Ridley Scott will be directing the prequel Alien, returning to the franchise he created. And along for the chest-bursting ride is an up-and-coming scifi screenwriter, with a reboot idea Scott couldn't refuse.


Ever since Scott announced his intentions to make an Alien prequel, speculation has abounded as to whether Scott himself would return to the director's chair. Word was the commercial director (and Scott's daughter's current beau) Carl Erik Rinsch might take the reigns, but that Fox refused to greenlight the project without Scott as director. Variety now reports that Scott has agreed to direct his first Alien movie in 30 years, with Jon Spaiht attached to write the script.

Spaiht isn't a household name yet, but his philosophical science fiction romance Passengers made the 2007 Black List of best unproduced scripts. He's also scripting The Darkest Hour, a film described as "Independence Day in Moscow," for 9 producer and Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov, as well as a feature for Disney titled Children of Mars. Reportedly, Spaiht delivered a prequel pitch that wowed Scott and the studio.


So, what is this brilliant idea? The new film will allegedly be a direct prequel to the original Alien, which means we may get to see what occurred on the derelict ship that Ripley and her crew discover in the first film. Or perhaps we'll see shades of William Gibson's idea for Alien 3, and trace the xenomorphs to their origin.

[Variety]