The Xenomorph. Arguably one of the most terrifyingly putrid, haunting and downright eerie creations in cinema history first slithered into our nightmares back in ’79 with Ridley Scott’s seminal Alien. Dreamed up in horrifying fashion by late Swish surrealist artist H.R. Giger, the acid-spewing creature quickly became a staple of Scott’s franchise, and the director hinted recently that we’ll finally discover who or what created “such a dreadful thing” with 2017’s Alien: Paradise Lost.
It was a plot seeded in 2012’s Prometheus, and the involvement of the all-powerful Engineers (AKA Space Jockeys) is surely a story strand that will weave its way back into Scott’s sequel. One thing’s for sure, the director has a grand vision about aligning the two universes over the next few years.
[zerg]Speaking with IGN upon doing press rounds for The Martian, the reputable filmmaker once again teased plans of building Prometheus into an adjacent franchise – one which will eventually dovetail back into the 1979 original. It is here that the director plans to reveal the creation of the serpentine beast.
“Prometheus 2 will start getting shot in February and I’ve already begun now so I know what the script is. Then there will be another one after that and then maybe we’ll back into Alien 1, as to why? Who would make such a dreadful thing?”
While it’s heartening to hear of Scott’s progress with Alien: Paradise Lost, such advancements have had a crippling effect on Neill Blomkamp’s impassioned pitch for Alien 5. Planning to bring back Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn, the South African director had previously stated his desires to not “tread on the toes” of the then-untitled Prometheus 2, though considering that Blomkamp will now helm The Gone World for Fox, it would appear that Ridley Scott’s vision has took precedent.
Indeed, that’s a framework that is echoed in Scott’s own comments to IGN, who admits that he’s “trying to keep this for myself” in regards to the entire Alien franchise.
“I’m trying to keep this for myself. I let the other one [Alien] get away from me – I shouldn’t have… I’m trying to re-resurrect the beast and let if off the hook for a while because I’m coming back into the back-end of Alien 1. I’m gradually getting to Alien 1.”
After recently welcoming Skyfall and Gladiator scribe John Logan on board, 20th Century Fox is primed to fire up production on the sci-fi sequel in February of next year, while Alien: Paradise Lost will reportedly slither into theaters in 2017.