Ridley Scott will direct the Alien prequel film |

John Hurt is taken over by an Alien in the original 1979 film

Variety confirmed a story by Collider.com, that Ridley Scott’s production company is indeed developing a prequel to his classic sci-fi horror film Alien. However according to the trade, Scott himself will direct, not his protege, Carl Rinsch, and Jon Spaihts, who got the job after pitching the studio and Scott Free, will write the screenplay.

The new film will precede the original Alien, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid, only to discover too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

Writer Jon Spaihts’ script for Warner Brothers’ sci-fi movie Shadow 19 has Keanu Reeves attached to star. He’s also penning the space journey epic Passengers for that studio, writing a screenplay for Children of Mars for Disney, and rewriting St. George and the Dragon for Sony.