H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

After months of speculation and rumblings of discontent between studio and director over lead actresses, budget and sheer degree of proposed repulsiveness, Ridley Scott's Alien prequel has finally been announced. Except, it isn't the long-gestating Alien prequel anymore. Not quite.

"While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project," ran the grand proclamation, "out of creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place the keen fan will recognize strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative."

And Swedish actress Noomi Rapace – thought to be major sticking point between Fox and Scott, with the studio hungry for a bigger name – was confirmed to star in one film’s five major roles, A "scientist" named Elizabeth Shaw.

Lost's Damon Lindelof has written this original film – there was a lot of emphasis on "original" in the announcement. "It's daring, visceral and, hopefully, the last thing anyone expects," the writer added to the press release.

Now we analyze the life circle of this new, grand mythology.

At first, the project certainly sounded like an Alien prequel. "It's set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney (Weaver's character Ellen Ripley)," claimed Scott in an interview last year, clearly re-enthused about returning to the dark universe that made his name. "It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?" The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle – there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair. Remember that?"

H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

By September, Scott was still following a similar line: "The film will be really tough, really nasty. It's dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. Were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would actually go in and clean up a planet? It will take place in the years before that, when they first come across this thing on a planet called Zeta Reticulli..."

Given the title turned out to be Prometheus, the Titan who gave mankind fire, this would suggest all of this remains thematically true. So it could be the story of the Space Jockey species rather than their Alien creations, but a prequel nonetheless.

Which makes a degree of sense out of the "leaked" script doing the circles in June 2010. It was called Alien Harvest – although other sources had it as Alien Paradise – and was described as being "strange".

Alien Harvest is made up of two distinct storylines. The first set on a world outside of human exploration (Zeta Reticuli?), involving two human men living among the Space Jockeys, referred to as "Growers".

H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

The men are named Karik and Fin. The Growers, with possible references to James Cameron's Aliens, are terraformers. They bioengineer the Aliens as weapons to clear a planet before they settle it.

The planet features a laboratory or hive,

H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

where we find the Aliens we know. Only they are three iches long, with six legs – ant-versions of that future xenomorph. So crazy it might be true.

The other storyline follows the human spaceship Arrowhead – under the command of The Complex (a rival to The Company), which patrols the Outer Rim for unknown life forms. Upon intercepting a strange signal (Alien calling), it gives chase to an alien vessel. This craft ends up the "derelict", the stranded craft on the forlorn planetoid in Alien. This, we presume, is where Elizabeth Shaw fits in.

H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

Most provocative of all was the claim that the script featured enforced male rape between Karik and Fin, as a result of the Growers' misguided attempts to farm humans.

According to the so-called leak, these two stories never intersect. Which suggests, if anything, this was a work-in-progress. And while suspicions remain, it does adhere to Scott's continuing descriptions of the film, and fits the claims made for Prometheus.

There is an oblivious thematic continuity with Alien in having a strong female lead – such that certain quarters were duped into believing that Scott was casting for a young Ripley (forgetting that she was young in Alien), or contriving some element of incongruous time travel. Scott was spotted having luch with Gemma Arterton, while the gossips had Fox pushing for Natalie Portman or Charlize Theron instead of the director's preferred Noomi Rapace.

The whole Ripley thing has been helpfully quashed by the revelation that the character is named Elizabeth Shaw, which conveys an American or Brit. In Alien's universe (our own?) dominated by The Company (Weyland-Yutani), ships crews are clearly multicultural.

Why drop the Alien tag? One reason for Scott's determination to distance himself from the original franchise is the regrettable dalliance with the two Alien Vs. Predator movies. "I know it's commerce, but what a pity..." sighed a diplomatic Scott (they were still Fox movies). "I think, therefore, I have to design – or redesign – earlier versions of what these elements are that led to the thing you finally see in Alien, which is the thing that catapults out of the egg, the facehugger. I don't want to repeat it. The Alien is a sense, as a shape, is worn out."

Enticingly, in December 2010, H.R. Giger's wife let slip that the Swiss artist had been invited back to help design the film. After all, the Space Jockey, ort Pilot, or Grower, is entirely the product of his biomechanical art. Surely, he is the ideal man to envisage an entire culture for the creatures.

H.R. Giger, Ridley Scott, Gordon Carroll (producer)
H.R. Giger, "Giger's Alien", Morpheus International

Given Scott reputedly wanted something between $150 million to $250 million to make his hard-R-rated film (18), Fox might also be wary of aligning the new film with ever-weakening Alien sequels.

Indeed, Predators hardly reinvigorated that particular monster franchise. Here now was a rare chance for a studio to seek out new worlds, a potential new franchise.

It would appear to be a single stand-alone film despite rumors that Scott was plotting to shoot two prequels back-to-back.

We should also note that nothing in the press release confirms the film is set before Alien, only that it shares those mysterious strands of DNA.

While there were no statements of intent as to how adult the film will be, Scott has constantly said he intended for the film to be hard-R. Let's not forget, this was the man who shot the chestbursting sequence, so how could it be otherwise? Male rape? Human farming? Let us pray it is still something "really tough, really nasty".