Ridley Scott Directing Alien Prequel

brumgrunt writes "After three decades of speculation, original Alien director Ridley Scott has signed on to the new Fox sequel. 'Nothing is known about the set-up of the new movie, except that chronologically it precedes the plight of the Nostromo. Since it's obviously going to involve the human race [...] Writer Jon Spaihts successfully pitched to Fox and Scott Free Productions, and is working on the script.'"

Comments

Who cares about the humans

[stox]

I want the story of the ship the Nostromo found.

Re:Who cares about the humans

[TheRaven64]

The Nostromo was diverted to the planet where they found the Xenomorph because someone in the company knew it was there. How they knew has not been explained in the films, to date. Presumably there was some prior contact that was covered up. The AvP series showed how the company could know that the aliens existed, but no reason to know where they could be found.

Re:Who cares about the humans

[vux984]

The Nostromo was diverted to the planet where they found the Xenomorph because someone in the company knew it was there. How they knew has not been explained in the films, to date. Presumably there was some prior contact that was covered up. The AvP series showed how the company could know that the aliens existed, but no reason to know where they could be found.

There are few options:

One: the company didn't know about the alien beacon in advance, and the whole android with recovery orders and crew expendable stuff was just standing standard procedure, in case they got lucky. Its plausible I think, but means there can be no prequel.

Two: The company knew the aliens existed by previously merely detecting/analyzing the beacon, then they might divert the Nostromo with the intention of picking whatever they find up. It would make sense, even to the subterfuge of planting Ash with extra orders to recover it, and diverting the ship so it picks up the beacon forcing the crew to respond (per their contract to respond to distress calls) allowing the company to get a 'free expedition' out the crew.

That all works, but would make a boring prequel movie. Some remote station or passing ship detect an alien beacon, and don't investigate it.

Three: The company knew the aliens existed, previously investigated, and had already lost an expedition trying to recover it, perhaps they got some reports and know something about the aliens, perhaps they got nothing at all... the expedition just vanished without a trace. Either way it doesn't follow that they'd divert a fully loaded and ridiculously expensive refinery ship to the planet for a 2nd attempt.

That would be like Spain deliberately diverting a fully loaded treasure ship to investigate a new island where a previous expedition had already been lost. I just don't see it happening. The Nostromo was ridiculously valuable; they might gamble it on it on an expedition where no real exceptional risks could be assessed, but it just doesn't make sense to gamble an expensive treasure ship, with an unqualified crew -- if they already knew that they'd lost an expedition.

Pilot / Space Jockey

[mugnyte]

I sure hope they throw a bit at the Pilot/Space Jockey subplot.

There's lots already proposed for that item's existence in the story, and I'd be happy with almost any of them.