By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The director of the EVIL DEAD remake and producer of the latest TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is now taking on a bigger-scale fright franchise.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fede Alvarez will write and direct a new, stand-alone ALIEN movie for 20th Century Studios, with original director Ridley Scott producing. Like the upcoming PREDATOR franchise entry PREY, the film is being made for airing on Hulu–which is intended to give Alvarez more freedom than if it was produced for theatrical consumption, according to 20th Century’s Steve Asbell. He tells the trade, “It’s not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets. They get to be authentically what they are. And this is closer to its genre roots.”
Asbell also says that 20th grabbed this latest iteration “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch. It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.” Alvarez, who also directed DON’T BREATHE and co-wrote its sequel, first pitched his vision for an ALIEN film to Scott many years ago, with the latter calling the filmmaker late last year to take him up on it. Scott, of course, followed up his 1979 hit himself with 2012’s PROMETHEUS and 2017’s ALIEN: COVENANT.
