Update: The Playlist has been sent an official synopsis from Fox. It says pretty much nothing, but you can see it below, followed by the rumored expanded one.

Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.

Being a massive project that’s both connected to a famous franchise and from an established director, Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus has (naturally) been keeping things quiet on the plot side of things. You hear the occasional snippet here or there, but even then, you’re not sure if it’s true or false.

However, a potentially major leak may have been sent to i09, one that apparently comes from someone who’s close to the production. This isn’t a picture of the creatures or secret videos of the set; it’s an outline of what’s close to (again, potentially) the entire plot.

Spoilers are obviously in effect here, so if you don’t want to know anything, skip this entire article. Otherwise, read below:

Earth. Year 2058.

Archaeological digs in Africa reveal alien artifacts that humans were genetically engineered by a advanced alien race (space jockeys). These “Alien Gods” also terraformed Earth in order to make it habitable for their human creations. Amongst finds are coordinates to the Alien God’s home-world, to Paradise. Months later the Weyland Corp launch the spaceship PROMETHEUS and his crew, into deep space to make first contact. Thanks to faster than light travel a few years later the PROMETHEUS enters the Zeta Riticuli star system. Humans are greeted by their makers, then transported further into space to a scary yet fascinating world. The Alien Gods are proud of their “children”, their first creation to reach such levels of intelligence.

As a reward they share bits of their astonishing bio-based technologies with the humans. But for one crew member of the Prometheus it’s not enough. In a treacherous act he steals the “bio-source code” to Terraforming, a technology at the origin of all Gods’ power, that could make humans equal to the gods. The Alien Gods may be scientists but are also ruthless conquerors, destroyers of worlds who will not accept humans as equals. They unleash on the escaping human crew their favorite bio-weapon, a creature used to “clean up” worlds before colonization. But something goes wrong in the process and humans manage to turn the bio-weapon against their makers. Giving birth to a smarter, nastier, bigger breed of gut eating creatures. Creatures that will be the demise of Paradise. What’s left of the Prometheus crew manages to escape the doomed planet.

On their trail a survivor Alien God in very familiar ship with one ultimate mission.

Bring the wrath of the Gods to Earth.

We know that the Space Jockey will be present in the film, and he ties into the above synopsis very heavily. We’ve also heard that the creatures would drop alien eggs on planets in order to conquer the citizens of the planet, and that’s here, too. In fact, Ridley Scott has talked about doing that for over a year. There was even the mention of terraforming from the tipster, and it’s a pretty specific concept to use in a piece of fiction. The title of Prometheus itself is alluded to here, as he was the one who stole fire from the Gods, which is exactly described above; in fact, it sounds pretty on the nose. There’s also the very real possibility that someone who’s been closely following the tiny details leaked on the movie — and happens to have a creative mind that can fill in a lot of blanks — just assembled this on their own. So don’t immediately take it as being real, even if it sounds authentic.

Damon Lindelof gave a lengthy explanation as to how this would work as both a standalone story and a prequel to the perennial sci-fi classic, and, if true, this almost sounds like it would pull that off. The problem is that the third act stuff feels, at least to me, too much like an attempt to tie it all together, and reports have indicated that this third act of the movie will basically be another Alien film. But I at least like the (possible) outline of the first two-thirds, and I really want to know how they’ll manage to pull off something that sounds that visually ambitious. I think you can count me as a little more excited after this piece of news, and I hope that some upcoming previews will give us a better idea of what to expect.

Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Logan Marshall-Green, Prometheus opens on June 8th, 2012.

Does this plot sound credible to you? How do you think it lines up with other rumors we’ve heard before? If true, does it make you more or less excited about the film?