ALIEN Prequel NOT Called “Paradise”; Casting Reports False; Will Only Be One Movie

Yesterday, it looked as if we were getting a huge amount of info on Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel.  Vulture reported that the film was called “Paradise”, and that Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) were being offered roles.  But last night, Chris Petrikin, 20th Century Fox’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, took to the Twitter machine to make some clarifications.  He first stated that the title is not “Paradise”.  Presumably, “Paradise” could just be an alias for the production.  It did seem odd that Fox would make an Alien movie and not put the word “Alien” in the title.

In other clarification news, The Playlist reports that according to a source who’s close to the production, the casting rumors regarding Fassbender and Yeoh are “just plain wrong.”  Hit the jump for more rumor control on the Alien prequel.

Petrikin also dispatched the long-held rumor that Scott was actually making two prequels back-to-back.  The notion that Scott would be directing two Alien movies came from the director himself while he was doing press for Robin Hood.  Here’s the transcript of what he said:

You’re developing the Alien prequel, are you developing it as a series of films or a longer storyline?

RIDLEY SCOTT: It’ll be two.  It’ll be prequel one and two.  Then Alien 1.

Are you going to shoot the prequels together or shoot them separately?

SCOTT: At the moment I’m just trying to get the first one out.

However, Petrikin tweets:

“It’s not two films…can you hear me now?”

So there you have it: The Alien prequel (singular) is not called “Paradise” and there’s no casting to report.  Carry on folks. No xenomorphs to see here.