Earlier this week filmmaker Ridley Scott made a surprise announcement regarding his follow-up to Prometheus. Instead of the traditional addition of a roman numeral after the title, Scott has opted to rebranded the sequel Alien: Paradise Lost.
Likely a decision on 20th Century Fox’s part to offer cohesion for their new Alien franchise, the updated title gives a clear indication that we will be seeing more Alien DNA in the sequel. Speaking to HeyUGuys, Scott revealed a few teasing details.
“Years ago, I kept mulling over what Alien 2 could be. I was fiddling around with some ideas. I was always fascinated with why this thing [the xenomorph] would be made, by whom, and for what purpose? The planet it was on – and I was looking at the dark side of the moon – would be called Paradise. Paradise is a very ominous word…
In a way it is Prometheus 2. It’s exactly the same story. But it was always in the works to be called that [Alien: Paradise Lost]. Is Prometheus actually taking us off course from where I’m going, which is actually backing into the first Alien… I’ve even got connections with Ripley [in this], but I’m not telling you what.”
Connections to Ripley? The origins of the Xenomorphs! Slow down Ridley you’re making me dizzy. As we all know, Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 will bring Sigourney Weaver back to the fold for what has been described as a direct sequel to Aliens. Ridley Scott is also producing Blomkamp’s movie and briefly spoke about the project.
“The design is for it to go out next, after this. This will go out first. It’s more associated with Ripley, it’s a completely different angle, it’s more of a sequel. I’m coming in from the back end.”
Production on Alien: Paradise Lost is due to start early next year for a summer 2017 release date, no word yet on when Blomkamp’s movie shoots, but fingers crossed it will soon.