When Disney completed their takeover of Fox, the Mouse House acquired the rights to some iconic franchises, albeit ones that don’t fit their staunchly family-friendly remit. While the rebranded 20th Century Studios provides an outlet for the company to take more creative risks and produce movies that aren’t their usual fare, the idea of Disney being involved in potential reboots for the likes of Alien, Predator and Die Hard is more than enough to cause some skepticism among longtime fans.
Still, Ridley Scott recently confirmed that he was in the early stages of developing a new Alien pic, which came as a surprise after the middling box office performance of Covenant appeared to have put the prequel series on hold. However, insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that the latest entry isn’t going to be connected to the storyline that kicked off in Prometheus, and is being designed to launch an all-new trilogy instead.
“Ridley Scott is working on new Alien film not related to the prequels but this one is seems is also a prequel and will start a new trilogy,” he says.
Every big budget movie that enters development is inevitably positioned as being the first in a series, but the Alien prequels had already started to run out of gas, with Covenant scoring weaker reviews and earning over $160 million less than its predecessor. Starting a new offshoot of the mythology from scratch, though, would give Scott the unique distinction of directing the first installment of three separate branches within the same franchise, provided development moves forward at a decent pace.
After all, the Gladiator and Blade Runner director is 82 years old and likes to keep himself busy, and the four years between his last movie All the Money in the World and his next effort The Last Duel is the longest gap between new Ridley Scott projects in almost 30 years, meaning that this upcoming Alien film would have to gain some serious traction in the very near future if the filmmaker hopes to helm it along with any possible follow-ups.
