Can you hear me scream now?
When rumors cropped up in April that Ridley Scott was threatening to produce a prequel to his 1979 classic Alien, I ignored them hoping they’d go away. They did for a while, but now they’re back and this time they’re less rumory and more facty. It turns out Jon Spaihts, who has written a bunch of scripts for sci-fi films that haven’t hit theaters yet including Passengers, The Darkest Hour and Children of Mars, has been hired to write the screenplay and Mr. Scott himself is planning to direct.
The studio instinct toward endless repetition of a successful idea makes sense because it’s a studio’s job to make money, but it’s a little more disturbing when the creative types capitulate to the bankruptcy of original thinking and go along happily.
I’ve never wondered where the aliens came from or why they are the way they are or what they did before the Nostromo responded to what its crew thought was a distress signal, but I’ll give Scott the benefit of a doubt. Maybe he’s honestly reinvigorated by the idea of exploring what happened before the events of the original film.
Besides, it could be worse. It could be another Hannibal.
Source: BFDealMemo
Filed under: Development
Tags: Alien Prequel, Jon Spaihts, Ridley Scott
Just make it a reboot. Ripley is sent to stop a star from going white dwarf that could destroy the universe but instead she accidentally destroys the planet all the Predator aliens are from. A renegade group of Predators gets mad, apprehends Ridley, and takes her back in time to before SHE EVER LEFT EARTH where we meet the young Ripley. Not only must she explain the Predators and the Aliens to the young Ripley and guide her on her mission from Antartica (don’t ask), but she meets the young Kyle Reese from the Terminators series along the way (who looks strikingly like Hicks from Aliens, again, don’t ask). She then goes to the Marine Training Center in Los Angeles (don’t ask) to gather together the original Marines from Aliens, who are all fresh recruits now.
FOX: Give me a million dollars right now.
Throw Captain Kirk in there and an incongruously red snow lizard and I think you might be on to something, Joel.
I’m excited to see Scott back in sci-fiville. But I’ve never wanted to know, nor understand why people want a prequel telling what happened to the space jockey..hopefully, Scott will bring Giger back.
If they’re going to do this, there isn’t anyone I’d rather see involved (except maybe Cameron), but I really just don’t need them to do this.
If Scott wants to do sci-fi again, and I’m all for it, I’d rather see him tackle something new.