Ridley Scott unveiled details over the weekend of his Alien prequel which will be his next project as a director for 20th Century Fox.

Ridley Scott unveiled details over the weekend of his Alien prequel which will be his next project as a director for 20th Century Fox.

The movie will be produced in 3D and be set in the year 2085.

“If the first Alien took place in 2090, it will take place in the years before that when they first come across this thing on a planet called Zeta Reticuli and it will ask who was that guy in the first film lying in a chair with his chest blown outwards when they first go into the giant spacecraft,” Scott said.

“The film will be really tough, really nasty. It’s the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would actually go in and clean up a planet?”

He said that he was a fan of James Cameron’s Avatar and that he will take on new technological challenges in the Alien prequel.

“Jim raised the bar and I’ve got to jump to it,” he said with a smile. “It’s that simple. He’s not going to get away with it.”

Scott directed Alien in 1979 for Fox and his latest epic Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett for Universal will be the opening night film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 12.