A legendary screenwriter of science fiction and horror, Dan O’Bannon, best known for writing Alien, passed away today at the age of 63.  Bannon broke out back in 1974 with the lo-budget sci-fi flick Dark Star, which was director John Carpenter’s first major film.  O’Bannon not only wrote the script for Dark Star, he also edited, art designed, acted in, and handled the special effects on the film.

Then he wrote Alien, which would be his biggest film both critically and commercially.  But oddly enough, O’Bannon’s most ardent fans, while they unabashedly love Alien, seem to support the guy more for his smaller cult movies like Dark Star, Dead & Buried, Blue Thunder, his segment “B-17″ in Heavy Metal, and for The Return of the Living Dead, a film he also directed.

Thanks to Harry at Ain’t It Cool for breaking the bad news and writing a nice little obit.  Our condolences to Mr. O’Bannon’s family and friends.

The saga of Carl Rinsch is an interesting one.  Last May, it was reported that Rinsch, a director with no feature films to his name, would be helming the fifth Alien movie, which would be a prequel.  There was some skepticism due to Rinsch’s lack of experience and the responsibility involved in handling such a major franchise, but original director Ridley Scott and brother Tony had Rinsch’s back.  Then Fox played hardball and got Ridley to return to directing the series he launched in 1979.  With that, Mr. Rinsch dropped out of sight…until now.

Rinsch has resurfaced to direct 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves possibly set to star.  Hit the jump for details and to work with former samurai rather than former chest embryos.

Ever since the announcement that Ridley Scott would be returning to the “Alien” franchise to direct a prequel to the series, fans assumed that the film would explore how the xenomorphs arrived on LV-426, the planet where the Nostromo first encountered the creatures and the setting of “Aliens” where the Weyland-Yutani corporation set up a terraforming colony that was mostly over-run with xenomorphs…mostly.

But in a recent interview, Scott says that he may be going further back and that “It’s a brand new box of tricks” which is good because it’s not like the stealth, strength, acid blood, and “generally unpleasant” demeanor were enough to destroy just about everything.  Hit the jump for how Sir Ridley plans to shove an embryo down your throat this time.

A few months back, we reported that Ridley and Tony Scott were attempting to resurrect (if you’ll excuse the term and forget your enmity towards the fourth film in the series) the “Alien” franchise by bring Carl Rinsch on board to direct a new installment in the franchise. While Tony Scott confirmed that the fifth film would be a prequel, he offered no details on the story.

Hit the jump to find out how it fell apart and how Fox is trying to put it all back together.

A couple weeks ago, we reported that Tony Scott confirmed Carl Rinsch as the director for a new “Alien” movie and that said “Alien” movie would be a prequel as opposed to a full-on reboot.  And there was much rejoicing and chest-bursting.

But today Entertainment Weekly is reporting that according to their sources, Fox will only go ahead with an “Alien” prequel if original director Ridley Scott comes on board.  It’s actually the smart move on Fox’s part because while they could easily bully a freshman director like Rinsch, the “Alien” property has lost so much clout over the years that the only way to re-ignite interest is to put the man who launched the franchise back in charge.  However, if this is a deal-breaker for Fox, it looks like this deal will be broken because Scott already has eighty-bajillion projects on his plate, including an adaptation of the board game, “Monopoly”.

A few days ago, Bloody-Disgusting reported that 20^th century Fox was going to remake “Alien” and director Carl Rinsch would be helming the movie. Immediately fandom exploded with venom. I think one of the main reasons is that the original is a classic, and 20^th Century Fox hasn’t been making films of that caliber recently.

So at today’s junket for Tony Scott’s new film “The Taking of Pelham 123″, I went up Tony after the press conference ended to ask him what was up with the remake.

The big news is he confirmed Carl Rinsch would be directing it and that it’s a prequel to his brother Ridley’s classic!

What Tony told me is after the jump:

Since they’re rebooting “Predator”, it’s not a surprise that a reboot of “Alien” couldn’t be far behind.  Even though I think it’s an over-hated film, “Alien Resurrection” along with the justly-hated “Alien vs. Predator” movies have killed the franchise but with the lovely Xenomorph so iconic (and potentially profitable), Fox is giving it another go, according to Bloody-Disgusting.

Original director Ridley Scott is on board to produce along with brother Tony Scott and Michael Costigan.  They’ve tapped music video director Carl Rinsch to direct and I’m always interested to see fresh talent behind the camera rather than someone whose an established failure (at least artistically; hi, Shawn Levy, Brian Robbins, Tim Story, and Adam Shankman!)  BD also mentions that they’re looking for a new Ripley and I understand that.  Even though she looks good for her age, Sigourney Weaver is almost sixty and while I wouldn’t be opposed to her having a cameo or even a full supporting role, it’s time to let a new young actress take on one of the strongest and well-written female leads in cinema history.

Finally, BD notes that it will just be the one alien stalking the ship as in the original.  I’m not opposed to this but if you’re going to relaunch the series, take us someplace new, namely: the Xenomorph planet.  But perhaps they’re saving that in the event that this relaunch is successful.

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