Jon recently posted a load of lowdown on the Alien prequels here, care of Ridley Scott’s various conversations on the project.
We learned that the prequel would be set 30 years before the first Alien film and would tell us how the so-called “Space-Jockey”(!) came to be on the planet where the crew of the Nostromo first encountered the acid-blooded xenomorphs.
Now, Scott has sat down for an extended interview with The Independent, discussing his career so far, his production slate with his brother Tony and more tantalising hints about the Alien prequel.
As had been hinted at previously, Scott has now explicitly confirmed that there will be two prequels, the decision to set the first prequel 30 years before the original film having been made in order to give enough time and space to build in two prequels before butting up on the events of Alien.
Lost creator Damon Lindoff is polishing the script for the first prequel, with Ridley Scott threatening to jump the bar that he says James Cameron has now raised, with both prequels being shot in 3D.
Most intriguingly, Scott says of the first prequel,
…the film will be really tough, really nasty. It’s the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?
This certainly fits in with the terraforming ideas that Ridley has shared previously and opens up the possibility of a really detailed explanation of the origin and purpose of the face-huggers, chest-bursters, et al. Whether we are better of as we are now, with them just “existing”, with no back story, is a matter of opinion.
Trying to “explain” Hannibal Lecter with Hannibal Rising didn’t work so well, so maybe the concept for the prequels is a gamble. Having said that, Scott is responsible (with Alien and Blade Runner) for two of the finest sci-fi films of the last 30-odd years and he single-handedly revived the seemingly long-dead “sword and sandals” epic with Gladiator. He must be considered to be the very definition of a safe pair of hands and we are very excited to see what he can do with the Alien franchise back under his wing.
You can catch the article from The Independent right here.
