Alien prequel officially announced

The blogosphere has reacted enthusiastically to the news yesterday that Ridley Scott will direct a prequel to his landmark movie Alien. And while I certainly share that enthusiasm, I'm even more intrigued by the writer on the project, a chap by the name of Jon Spaihts. I must admit, I'd never of Spaihts before, but reading Michael Fleming's Variety story, it seems like I'm going to be watching films written by him for years to come.

"Spaihts has become a go-to-guy for space thrillers, writes Fleming. "After Keanu Reeves became attached to his Warner Bros. sci-fi script Shadow 19, Reeves hired Spaihts to write the space journey epic Passengers which is berthed at Morgan Creek. That script got Spaihts the meeting with Fox and Scott Free and he won the job with an Alien reboot take that the studio and Scott loved. Fox has separately hired him to rewrite The Darkest Hour, with Timur Bekamambetov to produce with Tom Jacobson. Spaihts is writing Children Of Mars for Disney and Scott Rudin and he will follow by rewriting St. George And The Dragon for Sony and Red Wagon."

Busy bloke.