High times at Comic-Con today, as screenwriter Damon Lindeloff and Charlize Theron appeared in person at the Fox panel to talk about Prometheus, the Ridley Scott film that has everyone who cares about films just about jigging up and down with excitement. And it got better: Sir Ridley himself appeared with Noomi Rapace via satellite link-up from Iceland to tell us a bit more about the film.

But first there were some clips, which didn't give much away but which looked stunning. Michael Fassbender, looking robotic, examining scientific samples, and wearing a yellow visor standing over a female body under a similar yellow shield. A vast, cavernous space dotted with little shapes on the floor that are about the size of Alien eggs but much more regular. Charlize Theron, hair slicked back, looking cold - but also wielding a flame-thrower later on and doing naked push-ups. Noomi Rapace, whose softer dark hair makes her seem nicer and more likely to survive. Idris Elba, looking unbelievably cool. Incredible sets. BAGS of Scott style.

Scott said, "What I want to do is scare the living shit out of you. It shares one piece of DNA with the original Alien but that's all." It involves a space exploration mission that finds a "civilisation that is home to some very uncivilised behaviour."

So why has he returned to sci-fi? "I was too busy doing other movies and exploring other genres, so frankly I never thought about science fiction until I started to realise that there was something in the first of the Aliens that no one had ever asked the question about, and in the next three there was no exploration of that question, and I thought that could be the centre of what we’ve just completed. That said, that’s the only link to the original Alien. But in the last few minutes of the movie you’ll understand what I’m talking about."

And will that planned PG-13 rating limit Scott? "I have a responsibility to my studio, but I always make sure we have both options. You’re crazy not to. Tom and I will both look at it and decide what the best way of going. I’ve fundamentally covered our ass. But there will still be naked push-ups."

Meanwhile, Theron had a few words on her character. "She’s very different from anything I’ve done. She’s a suit, essentially. She’s kind of the machine that runs the machine that takes this mission into space. At first she comes off very cold and frigid and like it’s about the economics for her – she’s not a scientist, not a believer, and she runs a very tight ship. But you can tell that she’s going to be a problem. What I love about Ridley is that we layered her: you think you know what she is but then you realise that she’s mysterious. Ridley had me lurk in corners all the time so she’d seem suspicious. But the really exciting thing is that in the third act you strip her to her skin and see what that’s really about."

Rapace, meanwhile, seems to carry some of the brunt of the stunts. From Iceland, where she and Scott are finishing off the last few shots of production (but filming one of the first scenes in the film), she said, "But I’m bruised, I have cuts and scrapes all over. I’m so ugly today! I just came back from space like two days ago, so it feels really weird to come back to Earth again.

Update: A second picture was added to the stockpile on the Sunday following the panel, so you can check them both out below.

Prometheus will be out next year or, to put it another way, not soon enough by half.