Rumor Control: ALIEN Prequel Is Not Called PARADISE, Is One Movie

[blackbirdpie url=“http://twitter.com/#!/20thFoxCC/status/12694157545971712”]

That’s from Chris Petrikin, Senior VP of Communications at Fox. Ie, a guy who would know what’s up with the Alien prequel.

What he’s referring to is a report run on Vulture that was picked up by the Internet without much of a question, despite having a couple of weird things in it that should have raised some red flags. First of which was the fact that Vulture repeats the previously debunked story that the prequel is prequels - Ridley Scott is making one film, not two back to back.

The other thing in Vulture’s report that made me wonder what the heck was going on was the following line:

There’s “David,” who’s actually an android, an earlier version of the Bishop 341-B character that Lance Henriksen famously played in Aliens. We’re told that Scott was interested in Michael Fassbender for the part…

That’s weird because anybody who has seen any of the Alien movies knows that there was Ash long before there was Bishop, and what’s more you wouldn’t have someone else playing a younger version of Bishop, since Alien 3 revealed that Bishop looked like the guy who created him (there’s some confusion over whether or not you want to include Alien vs Predator in the official canon; if so, he looks like Charles Bishop Weyland, who was killed by a Predator).

I also find the idea that the film is a reboot, which Vulture asserts, to be weird; it’s always been a prequel, I’ve talked to people involved who have talked about how it’s a prequel, and every bit of info has been very specific saying this film is a prequel to the original Alien. It would seem weird for Ridley Scott to come along and reboot his own movie.

So take everything else that Vulture reports with a great big grain of not true for the time being, including the title, which Petrikin promises is not Paradise (in Vulture’s defense  this could be some kind of working title or code title, but you see why reporting this stuff so early is useless - now you know Alien Prequel‘s working title. You’re no more informed than you were previously!). Petrikin claims more will be revealed soon. And Chris - you have my email.