In describing the film, Variety offers that it "is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.
"The deal gives Fox another chance to keep the Alien franchise alive. There were three sequels to Scott's original, but it is the first time the director has set his mind on directing one. Spaihts has become a go-to-guy for space thrillers. After Keanu Reeves became attached to his Warner Bros. sci-fi script Shadow 19, Reeves hired Spaihts to write the space journey epic Passengers, which is berthed at Morgan Creek. That script got Spaihts the meeting with Fox and Scott Free, and he won the job with an Alien reboot take that the studio and Scott loved."
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