Ridley Scott once said he would never shoot a sequel. Fortunately for fans of the renowned director’s 1979 sci-fi classic Alien, he never said a thing about prequels.

Scott, fresh off his Robin Hood reboot, assured MTV that the Alien prequel he is directing for Twentieth Century Fox is a go, noting that he has a story and lead character set in place.

He says:

We know what the story is. We’re now actually trying to improve the three acts and make the characters better, build it up to something [we can shoot]. It’s a work in progress, but we’re actually making the film. There’s no question about it, we’re going to make the film.

It’s set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley]. 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 and our man [Tom Skerritt as Captain Dallas] climbs up and says “There’s been an explosion in his chest from the inside out — what was that?” I’m basically explaining who that Space Jockey — we call him the Space Jockey — I’m explaining who the space jockeys were.

The main character [in the prequel] will be a woman, yeah. We’re thinking it could go down that route, yeah.

Perhaps, most exciting is Scott’s plans to collaborate with original Alien creature designer H.R. Giger on creating new creatures.

Yeah, he’s [Giger] still around. Once I get more serious and get going, and the big wheels start turning, we’ll certainly talk. And maybe we’ll come up with something completely different. The alien in a sense, as a shape, is worn out.

According to Scott, the Alien prequel will most likely be out in 2011 or 2012.