Apparently we no longer need to use the unwieldy “Ridley Scott’s Alien Prequel(s)”, as it has been given the working title, “Paradise”. Is that any way to describe a grimy, vaguely dystopic future where an acid-blooded alien is trying to rip your head off? Maybe it’s ironic.

Along with this title news, Vulture are reporting all manner of interesting morsels. Firstly, earlier rumours of production being pushed back for a 2013/14 release for the two films seem to be untrue, with Fox apparently committed to moving forward with production in March next year. Next, is the slightly confusing news that the films will be a reboot, with the story following “a group of space travelers who encounter a monstrous alien creature that picks them off, one by one”. Sounds a lot like a straight remake, rather than the mythology expanding ideas that Scott expressed in his interview a little while back. Not to sure about that one, maybe mark it “unsubstantiated rumour”. Why would Scott return to the franchise just to reinvent the wheel? It doesn’t ring true.

There are also a lot of casting rumours and suggestions from Vulture. Along with the established news that Noomi Rapace is being courted for a lead role(as Elizabeth Shaw), Scott is also looking to cast David, an android who is a prior model to Bishop from Aliens and has apparently approached Michael Fassbender (currently working on X-Men: First Class as Eric Lensherr/Magneto). Fassbender apparently asked for a bit more money than Scott thought was reasonable, so those talks are on hold for the time being. Michelle Yeoh is in the running for “Vickers”, a (slightly cliché sounding) “tough, but sexy forty-something”, who has already shown she can handle sci-fi/horror on board a space-ship that runs into trouble (Sunshine).

Finally, there are some curious items, like the rumour of an older businessman being on board for the trip, as well as “Engineer 1″, who will be played on set by a 6’5” actor, but presented on-screen as an entirely CGI character. Visual effects designer Henry South tweeted in November that he was starting work on the film, but his Twitter account has since been suspended and no-one has heard anything further from him.

All very curious. As always, as soon as any of this news is confirmed, denied, added to or clarified, we’ll let you know.

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Dave has been writing for HeyUGuys since mid-2010 and has found them to be the most intelligent, friendly, erudite and insightful bunch of film fans you could hope to work with. He's gone from ham-fisted attempts at writing the news to interviewing Lawrence Bender, Renny Harlin and Julian Glover, to writing articles about things he loves that people have actually read. He has fairly broad tastes as far as films are concerned, though given the choice he's likely to go for Con Air over Battleship Potemkin most days. He's pretty sure that 2001: A Space Odyssey is the most overrated mess in cinematic history.