Exclusive: Prey Director Eyed For Alien Movie
According to our trusted and proven sources, Prey director Dan Trachtenberg may soon be crossing over to the world of Alien.
The Predator franchise has long had a connection to the Alien franchise. Once some fans realized there was potential in having the neon-blooded extraterrestrial hunters come into conflict with the acid-blooded extraterrestrial star beasts, it was practically inevitable. According to our trusted and proven sources, there is a new kind of crossover potentially in the works, with Prey director Dan Trachtenberg being courted for a new Alien movie. After the success of Hulu’s Predator prequel Prey, it makes sense that Disney would be looking to transfer that success over to the currently dormant Alien series.
Prey was Dan Trachtenberg’s second movie and seems to have impressively revitalized the franchise after the disappointing Shane Black-directed The Predator. The idea of a Predator prequel film was somehow previously unexplored prior to Prey but resulted in one of the most acclaimed installments in the series; as such, it is practically unavoidable that Disney would try to move over one of the elements to the Alien franchise. There has not been an Alien movie since the comparatively lukewarm Alien: Covenant in 2017, and while there are near-constant rumors of different projects being developed, nothing has yet come to fruition.
Recruiting Prey’s Dan Trachtenberg for an Alien movie would be a logical move, especially considering the director’s love of science fiction films. His previous film was the unexpectedly high-grossing 10 Cloverfield Lane, a Twilight Zone-like spec script by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken that got folded into JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield franchise. It seems pretty obvious that Dan Trachtenberg feels comfortable working within franchises, so transitioning from Prey to Alien should be a snap for him.
It does seem that Disney is perpetually unsure of what exactly to do with its rights to the Alien franchise. We have confidence in our reports of an Aliens prequel series set on LV-426, following the doomed battle between space colonists and the swam of xenomorphs prior to the arrival of Ellen Ripley in badass mode, but it has been a long time since there seems to have been a concrete idea for a feature film. There were longtime rumors that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp helming a new film for the franchise that seem to have come to nothing. While Disney has said that new sequels are in development, the fact that they cannot even seem to decide whether they will continue the storyline established by Prometheus and Alien: Covenant is telling.
That does not mean that any film by the director of Prey would be a hard Alien reboot. With all the mythos built up around the xenomorphs, Dan Trachtenberg could go the Prey route and make an Alien prequel. Granted, Alien Vs. Predator (whoever wins, we lose) already did a bit of the prequel thing, revealing that Earth had once been seeded with xenomorph eggs to act as a hunting ground. Hopefully, Disney will be able to woo Dan Trachtenberg over to the Alien side for a future film and maybe get the whole franchise finally get on track.
