Hug Your Face Hugger Close

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I caught a preview for Ridley Scott's Robin Hood during Fringe last night and for a brief moment, when Cate Blanchett is shown flipping down the mask of her armor, I felt an ever-so-slight twinge of maybe that's something to see. I mean, Cate Blanchett kicking ass is always something I want to see, right? But then I remembered that Ridley Scott hasn't made a movie I've enjoyed since Thelma & Louise, and I decided no, I'll be skipping it, but thanks.

But then this morning I see Ridley's making the chat-rounds for the film and he's talking up his probable next project, a prequel to his own masterpiece Alien, and woe is me I feel a deep down bubbling brew of enthusiasm in spite of all the shit he's put out since then. BD has a slew of quotes (spoilery I guess) about the prequel's plot and specifics that defeat my better senses...

"It's set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver's character Ellen Ripley]. It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?' The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle — there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair. Remember that?"

He continues, "And our man [Tom Skerritt as Captain Dallas] climbs up and says "There's been an explosion in his chest from the inside out — what was that?" I'm basically explaining who that Space Jockey — we call him the Space Jockey — I'm explaining who the space jockeys were.

"It's Weyland. Weyland hasn't joined Yutani yet, so they go and see Weyland. [The film] is about the discussion of terraforming — taking planets and planetoids and balls of earth and trying to terraform, seed them with the possibilities of future life.

... The main character [in the prequel] will be a woman, yeah. We're thinking it could go down that route, yeah. When I started the original "Alien," Ripley wasn't a woman, it was a guy. During casting, we thought, "Why don't we make it a woman?

... Yeah, the thing about "Alien vs. Predator" is, I know it's commerce, but what a pity. I think, therefore, I have to design — or redesign — earlier versions of what these elements are that led to the thing you finally see in "Alien," which is the thing that catapults out of the egg, the face-hugger.

Yeah, he's (Giger) still around. Once I get more serious and get going, and the big wheels start turning, we'll certainly talk. And maybe we'll come up with something completely different.

... We're hoping to have it in theaters in late 2011, or maybe the best date in 2012."

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