Director Ridley Scott recently sat down for an interview and spoke a bit about his upcoming Untitled Alien prequel and revealed a lot about his intentions to tell the earlier story of Alien, in the upcoming prequel to his classic film from 1979.

Scott told MTV,

“As we speak, I’ve got a pile of pages next to me; it’s like the fourth draft. It’s a work in progress, but we’re not dreaming it up anymore. 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 is born]. 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?”

“The main character [in the prequel] will be a woman, yeah. We’re thinking it could go down that route, yeah. When I started the original “Alien,” Ripley wasn’t a woman, it was a guy. During casting, we thought, “Why don’t we make it a woman?” “

“Yeah, the thing about “Alien vs. Predator” is, I know it’s commerce, but what a pity. 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 face-hugger.”

“We’re hoping to have it in theaters in late 2011, or maybe the best date in 2012.”