Ridley Scott is overseeing the next Alien film, and a writer has been hired as the franchise lurches back in Alien: Covenant’s direction. It looks, if reports over the weekend are correct, that director Ridley Scott has got his way. Earlier this year, the bearded director declared that he’d got back involved in the Alien ... Alien | Romulus abandoned, as screenwriter hired for Alien: Covenant follow-on
Ridley Scott is overseeing the next Alien film, and a writer has been hired as the franchise lurches back in Alien: Covenant’s direction.
It looks, if reports over the weekend are correct, that director Ridley Scott has got his way. Earlier this year, the bearded director declared that he’d got back involved in the Alien saga that, of course, he started, and more recently had been on the big screen in the generally well received Alien: Romulus.
Alien: Romulus was a box office hit, and director Fede Alvarez was expected to be moving ahead with a sequel to that. But, mysteriously, the sequel seemed to hit the buffers, and Alvarez has long moved onto other projects.
The problem it seems was Scott. In much the same way that his influenced reportedly ended Neill Blomkamp’s once-mooted Alien 5, so Scott reckoned that Alien: Romulus was basically okay, but wanted to get back involved with the saga. Not just that, but to steer it back towards the storyline he’d directed with both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Disney and 20th Century Studios appear to be Team Ridley on this too, and as such, writer Aaron Guzikowski has now been hired to pen a brand new Alien movie. He previously worked with Scott on the TV show Raised By Wolves (which in turn is unrelated to the Caitlin and Caroline Moran Midlands-based sitcom of the same name.)
See also: could a new Alien film tie Romulus and Covenant together?
While the new film isn’t being called a direct sequel to Alien: Covenant, even though that movie left things ready for a pretty direct pick up, it’s said to be in that world. Michael Fassbender’s involvement is unclear though, and at the moment he’s not said to be attached to the movie.
From the outside looking in, it sounds for the second time that Ridley Scott’s involvement here has killed off a potentially interesting fracture in the Alien saga. Given how moderately received at best Alien: Covenant was too, I’ve not got much sense that audiences are clamouring to find out what happened next there.
Still, you never know. Scott isn’t expected to direct the next film, not least because he’s now in the midst of Treasure Island. But it sounds like his pawprints are all over it…
