At this past weekend's Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival, Ridley Scott revealed that his forthcoming Alien prequel will actually cover two separate films about the Space Jockey, the mysterious carcass discovered by Kane (John Hurt) moments before his fateful encounter with a facehugger in the first Alien film.

"I sat thinking about the franchise, which now has died on the road somewhere way back and lying in the dust, and thought what I should do is go back," Scott said. "In the first Alien, when John Hurt climbed up and over the top of the rise… there was a massive giant lying in a chair. The chair was either a form of engine or some piece of technology and I always thought no one has ever asked who was the Space Jockey?”

Scott revealed that the Space Jockey carcass isn't a carcass at all, saying: "It's not a carcass, it's a suit. Inside the suit is a being."

The two prequel films will delve into the history of this particular Space Jockey and the people he comes from. Additionally, the movies are planned to focus on "what it takes to leave for another planet" and the possibilities of near faster-than-light travel.

"What we're allowed to do by movies is to cheat like hell," said Scott. "But I think the closer it is to the truth, the closer it is to the technological feasibility then it becomes that much more interesting. And if it's a film like the one I'm going to do, then it becomes that much more frightening.”

Source: Ain't It Cool News