It’s difficult to keep track of the Alien prequels. Ridley Scott keeps saying various things all over the place, but little of it seem particularly firm. Most recently there have been reports that the whole thing has stalled due to budget and script differences between Scott and 20th Century Fox, largely down to the director planning a massive scale, $200 million space opera, which Fox is reluctant to greenlight if he won’t agree to make it PG-13 rated.
It unclear whether these issues have been resolved, but it appears Ridley is going ahead with trying to find his female lead anyway (while there’ll be no Ripley, the prequels will still revolve around a female protagonist). There have been rumours about Gemma Arterton and Carey Mulligan, but Deadline suggests the woman Scott is currently most interested in is Girl With The Dragon Tattoo actress, Noomi Rapace. Both her and Abbie Cornish have taken meetings with the director, and while it appears no firm decisions have been made yet, Rapace could be in with a very good shot.
Noomi has already booked in her first big Hollywood gig though, as it was recently announced she’ll be playing a gypsy character in Sherlock Holmes 2, which starts shooting later this year.