Damon Lindelof Rewriting Alien Prequel?
Depending on how you felt about the final season ofLost, this news will either excite or infuriate you. Word is thatLostco-creatorDamon Lindelofmet withRidley Scottand studio reps from 20th Century Fox, and is now set to do a rewrite on the script for Ridley Scott’sAlienprequel. Learn more about this (possible) development after the break.
The announcement comes fromDeadline, who claim “studio insiders” as their source. Let’s wait until official confirmation before assuming this as truth.
One quote stands out in the report: “…the exchange of ideas between them sparked a take that could well turn out to be a free-standing science fiction film.” Free-standing? Does this mean the secondAlienprequel Ridley Scott hasin the pipelinewill be unrelated to the first? Or could it suggest that Scott may stick with only one prequel after all?
I’m sure I’m about to incur the wrath of /Film commenters with my next assertion, but my biggest concern with this news is that theAlienprequel hasbeen describedas being somewhat of an origin story to the first film, and if there’s one thing that Lindelof has proven himself incapable of executing, it’s a satisfying origin. TheAlieninfluence has been present in his work since the first season ofLost, but his abilities extend strictly to the build-up, not the payoff. It’s possible that this won’t be the case here, given that the film structure will allow him to properly plan out everything ahead of time, but after the frustrationI went through, I’m not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Lindelof has two other sci-fi projects in the works, working alongsideKurtzmanandOrcion writing both the untitledStar Treksequel andJon Favreau’sCowboys and Aliensadaptation.Cowboys and Alienswill probably hit first with a projected release date of July 15, 2025, so I’ll wait until then before assuming the worst about his non-TV efforts.
