Back to Basics: Ridley Scott will direct an as-yet-untitled Alien prequel, the first time he’ll helm one of the extensions of the franchise he kicked off in 1979. We’re assuming the aliens won’t be facing off against characters from less-respected sci-fi franchises in this one. Jon Spaihts, who is apparently the writer behind every upcoming space movie (including The Darkest Hour, Children of Mars, and Shadow 19), will pen the screenplay. Okay, you know how the first one was just called Alien, and then the second one was Aliens? How about Alie for this one? [Variety]
Apatow Re-ups: Surprise! The studio that released Judd Apatow’s first three movies wants him to make more movies for them! Universal has signed Apatow to write and direct three more flicks. Okay, yeah, it is a bit surprising, with Funny People about to open and no one really knowing if it’s going to make any money, considering it’s about cancer and everything. We guess Universal figures they can take the hit on this one as long as his next three go back to revolving around jokes about balls? [HR]
Killer Robots From Space: Jerry Bruckheimer has optioned the graphic novel World War Robot, about a small band of humans facing off against killer robots on Earth, the moon, and Mars. We were going to make a joke about Bruckheimer just looking for excuses to make Transformers again, but then we actually looked it up, and dude totally had nothing to do with Transformers! How the hell did that happen?! [Variety]
Crud-umped: Billy Crudup will join the cast of Eat, Pray, Love alongside Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, and Richard Jenkins. He’ll play Roberts’s character’s husband, Steven. It’s his push to have children, which makes her realize she’s not living the life she wants, that leads Roberts on a quest around the world. So we assume he can’t be in the movie for very long, right? Or maybe every once in a while, between long scenes of Roberts traipsing around with Bardem and Jenkins, the movie will cut back to a depressed Crudup at home, eating ice cream in his boxers while listening to Hoobastank? [Variety]
Michael and Michael: Michael C. Hall will star in Michael Knowles’s indie film East Fifth Bliss as a 35-year-old man whose life “comically unravels†when he starts dating the 18-year-old daughter of a former classmate. [HR]