Sir. Ridley Scott screened his two greatest cinematic accomplishments at the L.A. Times' Hero Complex Festival yesterday, showing Alien and Blade Runner back-to-back in a rare double bill. During the intermission, Scott spoke to the crowd and revealed a few details on his Alien prequel, and his future work in general. You can read Collider for a full blow-by-blow transcript, but I have stolen the real interesting parts below. The most interesting tidbit of the Q & A is Scott's revelation that Jon Spaihts' screenplay for the Alien prequel is now complete and the movie is gearing up to begin pre-production... Now things often change very quickly in Scott's psyche, and what looked certain to be his next movie can often end up being on the backburner for years but right now - on June 14th, 2010 - it's looking likely that this one will cast and shoot this year. Especially as we know Scott likes to move quickly from one project to the next and having answered the question of a Robin Hood sequel simply with "I'd like it. I really enjoyed myself" (which I think WILL happen, but not for another two movies at least), announcing that they were on a fourth draft of adapting Joe Haldmans 1974 sci-fi novel The Forever Warbut that it was a few years off yet, and that Larry McMurty (Brokeback Mountain) was writing a Western for him which sounds extremely early in it's development; it just feels like he is only really talking about Alien right now because that's where his focus is. Onto Alien then, and Scott once again confirms that the prequel will explore 'The Space Jockey's', first glimpsed at in the original when John Hurt see's the skeleton of a giant being sitting in a chair just before he gets planted with the face hugger. The story will be set YEARS before the events of Alien with the idea that they could fit a sequel in, if need be;
"Scott explained that once you learn the history of how the jockey encountered the aliens, youll also want to learn about how he got there."
He also revealed that a lot of underwater research had been conducted for the film (which potentially hints at an Alien Resurrection style sequence) and that it will explore the reality of how humans managed to leave Earth in the first place, the technology, theory and practise of it. And that was all in what was a very encouraging discussion I guess for Alien fans, though with Scott so keen to explain everything in a George Lucas kind of way, we at Obsessed With Film are slightly concerned that he may reveal too much and ruin the mystery of what made Alien so frightening in the first place. Still, it's going to be the most interesting Alien movie in YEARS and so much more interesting than any tom, dick and harry making a prequel/reboot which would have been our gift if Scott hadn't wanted to make this at Fox. Better the devil we know, and all that. By the way... Chris Nolan also screened Insomnia and The Dark Knight at the same festival on Saturday, and gave a great Q & A to the crowd. I highly recommend you reading AICN's write-up on the event, although he doesn't reveal anything new on his future Batman/Superman intentions.