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Thursday
29Oct2009

Ridley Scott Lays Out Blueprint for 'Alien' Prequel

DateThursday, October 29, 2009 at 1:20PM
The next Alien movie will be a prequel, as we now know. And Sir Ridley Scott, originally targetting the project as a producer only, will take over as the director as well. It's been 30 years since Scott made the first film, a classic that had its legacy solidified by the James Cameron-directed sequel a handful of years later. It's one of the best one-two punches in all of cinema, and unlike a lot of franchises - Star Wars and The Godfather, say - that legacy remains pretty much in tact despite awful subsequent chapters. That's in large part due to Scott not being on board for any of them.

Returning now could close out what for a lot of people would be a Alien trilogy...that just so happens to have some illegitimate children running around. Scott talked to Empire about how he sees the prequel playing out, and as a few Big Picture readers theorized when this movie was announced, it sounds more like the story of LV-246 than the creatures. And that's the smartest way to do it.

“It’s a brand new box of tricks,” said Scott. “We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”

You can't tell everything about a movie from an unofficial synopsis like this, but in almost every similar case, the more emphasis you put on the human characters, the better off you are telling the audience your story. That's why a history of the alien race wouldn't be that consuming for us: There's no natural point of entry, no real character traits to relate to, and so on. You might think this idea lacks the approrpriate level of aliens, but look what happened after the second film, where the format was less about Ripley and more about the creatures.

But the question about why Scott is returning at all still lingers. He doesn't need the money, and he doesn't hurt for work. So why come back?

“I never thought I’d look forward to a sequel,” Scott admitted. “But a prequel is kind of interesting. I’m looking forward to doing that.”

Well, let's hope he cracks it. It sounds like it's pointing the right direction, at least.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

It does have to be about the people and not the aliens. Th less we know the better, and we know enough about the aliens, just let them be evil.

and then we can go shoot the directors of the "illegitimate" children and live happily ever after.

or James Camerson could make a proper sequel to Aliens, I will accept either situation.

Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOrinn

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