Better to reign in Development Hell than serve in Unwanted Sequel Heaven, is what some movie-goers might be thinking this week as news of Ridley Scott’s plan for Prometheus 2 gets more and more complicated (but also simpler.) Earlier on this week I reported that Scott is planning to make three sequels to his Alien prequel, and that by the time we get to Prometheus 4 we would see a connection between the Prometheus films and the Alien franchise – a series already getting another sequel (I know, it’s confusing, and we won’t even talk about Alien vs. Predator.)
Well, don’t count your eggs until they’ve burst and face-hugged you, because Scott now says the link to the universe of Alien will come much sooner. Prometheus 2 will now be titled Alien: Paradise Lost, and will take its story, presumably, from Milton’s epic poem. If literature professors are plagued with term papers on Milton that confuse Lucifer with Ash, you’ll know who to blame. “We’re heading back to why and how and when the Beast was invented. We’ll go back in to the backdoor of the very first Alien that I did 30 years ago,” Scott commented at a premiere of his latest film The Martian. Just to be clear, The Martian is a space film that has nothing to do with aliens.
