Sir Ridley Scott was in town the other night, mainly to look on with pride as his daughter, Jordan, debuted her film, Cracks, at the London Film Festival – but we grabbed him for a quick natter about the Alien prequel that he’s aiming to direct soon-ish.
Since the prequel was announced, it’s been assumed that it would tell the story of how those nasty, slavering xenomorphs came to land on LV-426 in the first place. But after listening to Sir Ridley, suddenly we’re not so sure…
“It’s a brand new box of tricks,” said Sir Ridley. “We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”
Interesting. And damned intriguing, to boot. Presumably, rather than make a film about how those massive elephantine aliens (remember the giant pilot with his chest blown outwards in Sir Ridley’s original?) were decimated by the acid-blooded bastards, Sir Ridley and his writer, Jon Spaihts, have decided to reboot the story in an attempt to give it a human focus.
How this will fit in with existing series continuity remains, like much about the new Fox movie, to be seen, but with Sir Ridley on board, we’re sure that the Alien series is on course for a return to genuine quality. Frankly, though, we’re still a little surprised that the man who is arguably Britain’s greatest living director would return to the scene of his greatest triumph. So why do it?
“I never thought I’d look forward to a sequel,” said Sir Ridley. “But a prequel is kind of interesting. I’m looking forward to doing that.”
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