You know, if the Vulture blog is to be believed, we might as well just start running a regular feature called “Natalie Portman is rumored to be starring in The Next Big Sci-Fi Movie” right now. Fresh off the rumor that Portman – who’ll be seen in next year’s Thor – was the frontrunner for the lead in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, now we’re being told that she’s become the frontrunner for the lead in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel. But that’s not all that Vulture is spilling about that particular project; it’s also claiming that Damon Lindelof’s just-finished rewrite of the screenplay has made 20th Century Fox very happy altogether by staying away from expensive set-pieces, possibly defusing the clash between the studio and Scott over the proposed cost of the movie. In addition, Lindelof’s screenplay may manage to make peace between Scott and Fox by keeping things tense but also PG-13-friendly:
We’re told another reason Fox execs are pleased with Lindelof’s rewrite of original screenwriter Jon Spaihts’ script is that it’s still aimed at a more accessible PG-13 rating. “The thinking,” explains one insider, “is that if the original Alien were released today, minus the F-bombs, you could still get a PG-13. Alien is a very Jaws-ian movie: There’s no sex, and while there’s lots of violence, most of it is off-camera. Maybe you’d have to cut away from certain scenes two seconds earlier, but it could be done.”
Clearly, if Lindelof’s script is this good, we should expect a movie that will being about world peace – even if it does so by terrifying us about the possibility of phallic alien killers.
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