A year ago at this time the internet was abuzz with their collective disappointment over Ridley Scott‘s return to the Alien franchise with Prometheus. Despite a muddled script, the sci-fi film starring Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace brought in over $400 million at the worldwide box office, so a sequel remains on 20th Century Fox’s mind and we’ve got a new update on its progress today.
According to Variety, the studio and Scott have selected newcomer Jack Palgen to script the project, who is coming off Wally Pfister‘s directorial debut Transcendence. There’s no details yet on where the series may head but with Rapace and Fassbender expected to return we can expect it to pick up pretty close after the conclusion of last year’s film. Fox still hasn’t given the sci-fi sequel a greenlight, but if Palgen returns a solid draft, expect it to arrive sooner than later.
The trade also notes that while he’s producing, it’s “unknown” if Scott will return as director. We recently got word that he’ll be consumed by his Moses epic Exodus for the next year and his Blade Runner sequel just hired a writer as well, so he can certainly keep himself busy. While I can concede that the script for Prometheus wasn’t all there, Scott brought a stellar visual touch to the proceedings, so if he doesn’t take the gig, hopefully a worthy replacement is in store.
What do you think of Palgen writing Prometheus 2? Who should direct?