Alien prequel confirmed

It's confirmed - a prequel to Alien is happening. But not with Ridley Scott...

There have been rumours, counter-rumours and outright dreams floating about concerning a fifth film in the Alien franchise, but it's now been confirmed. Producer Tony Scott told Collider.com that shooting will start at the end of the year, and that Carl Rinsch will helm the film.

Carl's previous experience is with making commercials. Oh dear...

We've looked at the idea of going back to aliens before, but this confirmation really doesn't fill us with glee. For one, it's going to be hard to work in any familiar characters, and without the emotional center of Ripley to pull us along through the story, this new film may end up feeling more akin to the woeful Aliens Vs Predator films. Even Lance Henriksen couldn't save those.

And if it is a prequel, what will it cover exactly? Will we see the Space Jockey from the first film's crashed ship make its first encounter with the xenomorphs? If so, that would mean a film without any human characters at all. Actually, that would be pretty neat, come to think of it. Finding out just what that ship was doing with a hold full of eggs would make for a good tale.

So, for now, fingers crossed.