It's the news that fans of the original Alien film have longed to hear – Variety reports that Ridley Scott is to return to the franchise he launched in 1979, taking the director's chair for a prequel.

Twentieth Century Fox's announcement is unfortunate news for Carl Rinsch, a TV adverts director who was Scott's original choice to take the reins on the new film. Some reports had suggested Fox was unhappy with the idea of an untried film-maker resurrecting the slasher-in-space series, and wanted Scott to step up from his original role as producer. It now looks like Fox has got its man.

The new film will be set before the events of Scott's 1979 film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship respond to a distress signal from the empty ship, only to discover too late that the signal was meant to warn them.

The prequel will be Scott's first science fiction project since Blade Runner in 1982 and will be based on a script by Jon Spaihts, who seems to be Hollywood's sci-fi writer of the moment. Apart from the Alien prequel, Spaihts is also working on Shadow 19, which has Keanu Reeves attached; Reeves in turn has hired him to write "space journey epic" Passengers. Spaihts is also reportedly scripting Children of Mars for Disney.

Scott, 71, is currently filming Robin Hood, which appears to have dropped its original name, Nottingham – it stars Russell Crowe as the outlaw, with Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian.

There have been four films in the Alien series, plus two spin-off Aliens vs Predator films, which brought Scott's xenomorphs together with the extraterrestrial hunters spawned by John McTiernan in 1987. The prequel looks like it will be the first Alien film proper not to feature the iconic figure of Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.

• This article was amended on 3 August 2009. The original gave Ridley Scott's age as 62. This has been corrected.