The Alien franchise is revving up again after a half-decade of lying dormant. (Those darn facehugger eggs have a really long shelf life.) If the project happens, this will be the seventh film in the franchise, or technically the ninth if you include the two Alien vs. Predator spinoffs. And the guy who started it all by directing the first Alien, Ridley Scott, is returning to produce it.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie was conceived by Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez. The origin of the project sounds pretty unique…
According to sources, Alvarez is a rabid fan of the franchise and casually pitched a take to Scott many years ago. The idea remained implanted in Scott’s brain until late last year when he called Alvarez out of the blue and asked him if the younger filmmaker was still up for it. Alvarez didn’t have to be asked twice.
The film is intended for the Hulu streaming service, which is ramping up its production of original movies and already has a new Predator movie — a prequel set in the 1700s and titled Prey — that’s scheduled for release some time in 2022. That film was shot mostly in secret by director Dan Trachtenberg.
The last Alien to get released was 2017’s Alien: Covenant, a prequel to that franchise that was directed by Scott himself. It showed the second part of the origin of the xenomorph aliens that Scott began with his earlier film, Prometheus. There have also been a couple other proposed Alien projects in recent years, including a high-profile one that would have been a direct sequel to Alien and Aliens directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn. That one never came together and seems totally dead at this point.
THR’s report doesn’t mention Weaver’s involvement in Alvarez’s Alien and has no details about the plot beyond saying that it is “unconnected to the previous movies.” That sounds like a new cast and potentially a new setting. But one thing remains certain: On streaming, no one can hear you scream.
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