Skyfall Scribe Drafted In To Revise Script For Ridley Scott’s Alien: Paradise Lost

With production poised to begin in February of next year, Variety has learned that 20th Century Fox has recruited Skyfall scribe John Logan in order to revise the script for Alien: Paradise Lost, Ridley Scott’s follow-up to 2012’s Prometheus. It’ll mark a reunion for the esteemed director, who first collaborated with Logan on swords and sandals epic Gladiator more than a decade ago.

Part and parcel of Paradise Lost‘s prolonged pre-production window is the script being subject to numerous revisions. Prior to Logan coming aboard – fresh from co-writing Sam Mendes’ Spectre – Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Michael Green (Blade Runner 2) penned early drafts of Scott’s sci-fi sequel, and it’s understood that Logan’s addition to the project will help piece that vision together.

Per Variety (via ComicBook):

“He and scribe John Logan are revising the script for an as-yet-untitled Prometheus sequel — inspired, he says, by Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost — set to start rolling in February.”

One of the more vocal criticisms levelled at Prometheus three years ago was that, for all of its ambition and promise of world-building, Scott’s extension of his beloved Alien universe was riddled with plot holes. As such, news of the script for Alien: Paradise Lost getting multiple treatments ought to be good news, so long as Logan is iterating on Paglen and Green’s core framework as opposed to dramatically altering the sequel’s arc.

After all, we’re now only a few months away from the beginning of principal photography Down Under, and though plot details remain shrouded in mystery for now, early reports suggest that Paradise Lost will feature an entirely new group of explorers. Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace will still return, however, and Alien: Paradise Lost is expected to arrive in theaters at some point in 2017.