We might finally be able to stop referring to Ridley Scott’s planned Alien prequel by that working title. According to Vulture, the film is called Paradise.
And that’s not all that the blog’s sources have told them, as part of what can only be described as a dizzying info-dump. Despite earlier reports, the prequel has not been shoved back, though there had at one point been talk of re-scheduling production so as to accommodate chosen star Leonardo DiCaprio’s commitments to Clint Eastwood’s J Edgar Hoover biopic. DiCaprio is no longer involved and, as of right now, production for the new Alien adventure is pencilled in for March, assuming all the details can be worked out.
Talking of details, what of the plot? Well, the rough beats apparently constitute something of a return to the original Alien’s themes, with a monstrous creature killing off a group of space travellers. Many elements are still in flux since there’s no formal agreed budget yet, but Scott has been circling a few actors he wants beyond trying to cast the lead role of Elizabeth Shaw (which is the one both Olivia Wilde and Noomi Rapace have been considered frontrunners for).
Alongside Elizabeth, there’s a character named David, who appears to be a forerunner of Lance Henriksen’s Bishop character from Aliens, which Scott was after Michael Fassbender to play, but early talks are said to have broken down over money. And then there’s Vickers, described as “a tough, sexy forty-something woman” who may well end up looking very much like Michelle Yeoh, if Scott has his way. Oh, and one other character called Engineer 1 who will be created via performance capture and CGI.
But above all of that, the most shocking element is the big reveal of the Space Jockey's name: Theobald Worsely Mountebank Bagshawe III.*
There’s been no official confirmation of the info just yet (everyone looked really shocked in unison!), and all of this could be shoved into space via explosive decompression. Especially since Fox's senior vice president of communications, Chris Petrikin, who tweeted the following after the Vulture story broke: "I don't know where to begin to correct what is being written about a certain Ridley Scott project..." At the beginning, mayhap?
*But if you buy that joke even for a second, we've got some lovely real estate on LV-426 we can sell you.