Remember that ALIEN remake Bloody-Disgusting reported on last week? Well, thanks to some pointed questioning by Collider's Steve "Frosty" Weintraub (who probably just attended his last Fox junket until Tom Rothman is tossed out on his tuchus) at today's THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1, 2, 3 press junket, we know now that it's a prequel. 'Cuz that's what hot.
Weintraub got this scoop from Tony Scott, who's producing the prequel with his brother Ridley at Fox. He also confirmed Bloody-Disgusting's report that the Scott brothers' protege, Carl Rinsch, will helm the project. There are no plot details yet, but my good friend and former colleague Drew McWeeny is probably not far off the mark with his fervent enthusiasm for a Space Jockey origin tale on Twitter. I hope this bittersweet scene makes it into Rinsch's film:
"'One day, Mommy Space Jockey, I'll go to the stars and I'll meet someone from another planet!' Sad, foreshadowy music."
I've got nothing but apathy for this movie. Maybe Ridley and Tony will hire a talented young screenwriter to knock out a sequel that doesn't trash the memory of the first and second films (I really like the third, too, but the first two are indisputable classics). I wish I could be optimistic, but they'll be working under the aegis of Fox aka The Prequel Factory. Here's hoping they've got a significant degree of autonomy over there.
