Doing the press rounds for his forthcoming “Robin Hood” has given Ridley Scott plenty of opportunities to elaborate the details on the gestating 3D prequels (yep, there’s going to be two) to his seminal sci-fi horror flick “Alien.”
Last week, the director revealed that the film will pull the curtain back on the mystery of the “Alien” (bad idea) by exploring the Space Jockeys of the original film and reveal why they were on the planet in the first place terraforming. Scott revealed more over the weekend saying, “it will take place in the years before that when they first come across this thing on a planet called Zeta Reticuli and it will ask who was that guy in the first film lying in a chair with his chest blown outwards when they first go into the giant spacecraft.” He went on to say that, “The film will be really tough, really nasty. It’s the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would actually go in and clean up a planet?” In other words, all the ambiguity that made “Alien” so frightening is going to be washed out.
And rather than the minimal power of that film, Scott is trying to top James Cameron’s flashier sequel “Aliens.” “Jim raised the bar and I’ve got to jump to it,” he said with a smile. “It’s that simple. He’s not going to get away with it.” And we suppose with 3D in his arsenal of tools, we can forget about anything approaching restraint. It will also be interesting to see how the film is shot considering that 3D requires brightly lit scenes. Maybe these aliens will frolic in a lush rainforest before some humans come along to destroy their world? Might as well top Cameron at his own game.
But of course, this isn’t the only project on Scott’s ever growing plate (the guy is like Brad Pitt, attached to about a dozen different films at any one time). There is of course, “Monopoly,” which has one of the worst concepts we’ve come across in a while. Essentially, it’s about a real life Monopoly enthusiast who tumbles into the world of the game somehow. So yeah, it’s Jumanji with thimbles. Anyway, Scott says that he wants to “make a movie about the idea of greed. I told them [Hasbro] you know your game can turn your sweetest, dearest aunt into a demon – a nightmare of greed. So that’s what we’re going to do.” He has that the film will be a comedy (ugh) that will reflect the recent, real life real estate woes that will be “a blood bath.” Whatever, dude. Hasbro is going to want to move board games, so whatever ideas you have will have to appeal to eight year olds.
Scott hopes the “Alien” prequels are next up, but that could change at any moment.