So this is what Ridley Scott meant by "a brand new box of tricks". Art direction guru Roger Christian (Star Wars, Alien, we'll be kind and not mention that he directed Battlefied Earth. Oh bugger...) has revealed to Shadowlocked.com that the upcoming Alien prequel / reboot / whatever we're calling it, will be comin' atcha in 3D.

"Ridley's doing the next Alien in 3D," he says. But there's more: "Ridley told me some of his ideas. He has a very clear understanding of where this should go. They kind of stopped dead one of the greatest horror franchises there's ever been, and it had legs to go on. So I'm hoping he'll revive another three."

Shadowlocked make much of that "another three" business, although it sounds to our ears as if a trilogy is a casual hope on the part of the speaker, and not a plan by Sir Ridders. But whatever, whether or not you still think 3D is a gimmick, the prospect of the technology being put to use on the Alien is an enticing one. For the most part we've had big, bright, colourful 3D so far. We've certainly not yet seen it used on a Giger-ish nightmare.

As a tentpole sci-fi 3D project, Alien 5 has the potential to be a sort of Avatar in negative. The immersive possibilities that come with the perspective depth of the new 3D, as well as the boo! potential of the audience getting a facehugger in the face, has got us very interested indeed.

Christian isn't actually involved in the film (yet), but says "if ever I went back to designing, the only film I would ever want to design is Alien, if Ridley re-did it," which sounds a bit like an application. "3D is brilliant for horror", he concludes. We've only had shallow slasher fare to test that theory so far, but Alien has the potential to really prove him right. Don't you agree?