Ridley Scott’s sequel to Prometheus but the prequel to Alien, Alien: Covenant may only be set to hit the cinemas this week, but Ridley Scott has confirmed that the film’s sequel is currently being written with a view to start filming within the next 14 months.

Related: Alien: Covenant news

Currently doing the press round for the release of the gorefest where the crew are stupid enough not to wear their protective space suits, Scott confirmed to IGN that his schedule for the next film is more or less done and dusted and has also confirmed that Alien: Covenant’s sequel will not be called “Alien: Awakening” as the rumours have tried to suggest.

Ridley Scott Alien Covenant

In the interview, he also went on to confirm that Neill Blomkamp’s Alien, which has previously been reported, is definitely a no go.

“They wanted to do Alien, er, Awakening – Neill Blomkamp. I said fine. I was going to be the producer. If I could have, I would have. Except I do question – why have both [Blomkamp’s Alien and Scott’s Alien] out there? It seems like shooting your big toe off – it doesn’t make sense.

“But they didn’t go forward with it, Fox, so I just kind of kept out of it. I mean, I’d literally ignited this thing to bring it off the ground again, because it was lying there dormant on a shelf. I had this thing to bring it back up – but here we are.”

Related: Alien: Covenant World Premiere Interviews

With Scott resurrecting life back into the formally defunct franchise with a nod and a wink to the earlier films, he is on the right path to getting audiences excited to see where the future lies for these helmet-headed, fanged toothed abomination of a creature. Oh and if he could see a way of keeping Michael Fassbender tied in after stealing the show in Covenant he is sure to be onto a winner.