Well, now it's official—after being rumored for a while, it looks like Alien will, in fact, be getting a prequel, and yes, said prequel will be helmed by the director of the original Alien, Ridley Scott.
As much as I love the first two Alien films—and goddamn, I love them a lot—Alien 3, Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, and the soul-scarring last 20 minutes or so of Alien Resurrection all did a pretty thorough job of killing my desire to see another Alien movie. (But maybe they haven't totally murdered it: I'm really digging what I've read so far of the Aliens comic book miniseries that John Arcudi, Zach Howard, and Mark Irwin are currently doing, and it's definitely good news that Scott is on board.) Anyway, details about the prequel, scant as they are, are at Variety. Via io9.
ALSO RELATED TO ALIENS, BOTH IN A GENERAL SENSE AND ALSO DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE FILM ALIENS: Granted, this news is a few days old, but I want to make sure people know about it: If you weren't one of the people who got to see the Avatar footage that Aliens (and Terminator, and The Abyss, and Titanic, and etc.) director James Cameron showed off last week at Comic-Con International, never fear. Twentieth Century Fox is renting out a ton of theaters across the country on August 21st to show off the first trailer for, and some footage from, Cameron's upcoming live-action/CG/3D sci-fi epic. Admission will be free.
As one of those who was at Comic-Con and did get to see that Avatar footage, trust me when I say you'll definitely want to check this shit out—and you'll want to do so in a movie theater, on as big of a screen as possible, and in 3D. Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic about how big of a deal I think Avatar could be—I'm not convinced it's going to be the next Star Wars or anything, but then, I wouldn't bet against that happening, either—but regardless, I think Avatar might be the sort of film that not only demands to be seen in 3D on a huge screen, but also the sort of film that could change peoples' way of thinking about how they watch film. If the entirety of Avatar is as impressive, weird, and game-changing as the 30 minutes shown at Comic-Con, this film could be exactly the thing that's needed to convince people that watching movies on an iPod or a computer screen... well, doesn't really count.
Or, you know, it could be a colossal failure and the world's most expensive pet project. A chunk of the hyperbolic press release about Fox's grandiosely titled "Avatar Day" is after the jump.
On August 21, the world will get its first look at director James Cameron’s motion picture epic Avatar, when Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron debut the film’s trailer everywhere—while select cinemas and IMAX theaters will screen extended footage prepared by the renowned filmmaker for this global “Avatar Day” event.
The worldwide trailer launch will be presented in all formats, including IMAX 3-D, IMAX 2-D, digital 3-D, digital 2-D, and 35mm 2-D. The trailer will also be available online.
The extended look at Avatar will unspool only on August 21—and only in 3-D—in select theaters and IMAX. Details on locations and reserving tickets for this extraordinary and unprecedented experience will be announced soon.
In addition on the 21st, Ubisoft will unveil the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, and Mattel will reveal the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters.
Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, Avatar delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.
Avatar opens in theaters everywhere December 18, 2009.
