Ridley Scott to remake 'Alien'?

Ridley Scott is rumoured to be planning a remake or prequel to his own ‘Alien’. We don’t think it’s ever going to happen...

Franchise fever is rife in Hollywood: it seems the entire post- ‘Star Wars’ movie-brat blockbuster canon is up for remake or sequelisation. With a new ‘Highlander’, a third ‘Predator’ and even a movie version of ‘The A-Team’ in the works, it’s perhaps no surprise that 20th Century Fox are mooting a return to the ‘Alien’ series.

But there is confusion as to exactly what form this revisit will take. At first the rumours, sparked by a piece on bloodydisgusting.com, were of a straight remake, pitting another crew of luckless intergalactic truckers against the toothy machinations of an unstoppable space beast. A pointless exercise, to say the least, as improving on Ridley Scott’s original seems nigh-on impossible.

But then a second wave of rumours hit, inflamed by an interview with brother Tony Scott on the website Collider, alleging that the movie would be a prequel that focused on the unhappy exploits of the crew of the downed, semicircular alien craft which Tom Skerrit and his team find downed on the alien planet at the start of the first movie.

Which sounds highly intriguing, and oddly plausible… until you start thinking about it. Weren’t the crew of that ship 25-foot elephant creatures (see picture)? Weren’t they fossilised, leading one to assume that the ship crashed in some far-off, prehistoric era? Are we, in fact, looking at a movie about a gang of gangling Neanderthal John Merrick cosmonauts, all of whom, we must assume, are destined to die at the end? That movie sounds like a lot of fun, but there’s no way a major Hollywood studio would ever finance it.

And now there’s a whole new set of controversies. Originally attached to direct was commercials wiz Carl Erik Rinsch, a little-known youngster who had received a personal blessing from Ridley himself (let’s not forget, Scott made his name with that classic ee-bah-gum Hovis ad). Interestingly, as Entertainment Weekly reported this week, Rinsch is dating Scott’s daughter, and was described by Tony as ‘one of the family’.

Added to which, EW is reporting that Fox wants Ridley as director. Which, let’s face it, is unlikely to happen. Not only has he a full slate of projects, with ‘Robin Hood’ nearing completion and a whole slew of other projects (including producing duties on the aforementioned ‘A-Team’) on the go, but this is a man who recently proclaimed science fiction ‘dead’ and has historically seemed unenthusiastic in helming sequels to his own works (endless ‘director’s cuts’ are a different matter).

It seems certain that Fox will head back into the ‘Alien’ fray: the series has always been a moneyspinner. Whether as a prequel, a remake or even a sequel to ‘Resurrection’, the bitch will, someday, be back. Just don’t hold your breath for Ridley Scott to be involved.

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