Should you ever go back, is it ever a wise thing to do? From the track record of
George Lucas and
Steven Spielberg, you would have to say probably not. Lucas'
Star Wars prequels and Spielberg's
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were shocking examples of what happens when you try and reignite the fire of a time in your career when you made absolute perfection. In the case of
Sly Stallone, you would say he did a decent enough job with
Rocky Balboa and
Rambo, better than expected, and he clearly still had a chapter to tell from his life that resulted in two good movies. But returning to a franchise after a THIRTY YEAR gap is whole new ballgame, not one I think we've ever had to deal with before.
Variety have confirmed friday morning that
Sir. Ridley Scott will direct a prequel to the
Alien franchise he himself started in 1979, with
Jon Spaihts handling the screenplay. From the sounds of things, Spaihts pitched an idea to Scott who liked it so much he decided to return to the franchise he has always held interest in the back of his mind to revisit someday. This won't be Spaihts first screenplay as he's had a couple of science fiction drafts bought out by studio's, it's just to date none of them have been put into firm development and a final film produced. My guess would be that the prequel will focus on whoever it was that left the empty ship to warn the crew of the original film of the alien creature, and we will probably delve into the origins of them. Too much backstory, too much information, could be disastrous and potentially harmful to what Scott originally created (
Lucas and the midi-chlorians syndrome). But then again Scott's 1979 film is the best in the series and surely one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. If he still has a passion for it and a story to tell, then who better?