An update and title for Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel reboot thing?

UPDATES: Fox twitterer Chris Petrikin tweets that the project is only one movie and isn’t called PARADISE (but doesn’t say it’s not a working title or codename), and says there will be “answers soon.” This appears to be a legit Fox twitter account, and not the hilarious (and accurate) fake one that unfortunately got pulled a while back. Meanwhile, The Playlist claims that any casting rumors are “just plain wrong.” Stay tuned for further rumors to make their way around and then be refuted.

December 8, 2010: There have been varying rumors recently that Ridley Scott’s ALIEN prequel(s) was either gearing up or getting delayed, but let’s face it, the project has been the subject of considerable speculation since it was announced over a year ago.

Now Vulture is claiming the movie has a title: PARADISE. I don’t know if that’s meant to be a codename or if it’s actually ALIEN: PARADISE, but whatever the case, that name will probably change before release. The plan is reportedly still to shoot two movies back-to-back starting in 2011.

As we’ve heard, the movie would somehow involve the “Space Jockey” seen mummified in the 1979 original, or at least other members of his alien race. Well, that was the plan before “Lost” guy Damon Lindelof put his spin on the script — now Vulture says that Scott’s movie “reboots the original ALIEN franchise, in that the story follows a group of space travelers who encounter a monstrous alien creature that picks them off, one by one.”

Noomi Rapace (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, et al.) is apparently still the leading contender for our new heroine (although Olivia Wilde’s name has been in the mix), but Vulture says the production is also looking for someone to play David, “an android, an earlier version of the Bishop 341-B character that Lance Henriksen famously played in ALIENS.” They wanted INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS’ Michael Fassbender for the role, but that deal may not happen.

They are, however, after after Michelle Yeoh, who previously ventured through the void in SUNSHINE. She’d play Vickers, a tough-but-sexy gal. And the movie will feature a Gollum-style CGI character called Engineer 1 (a Space Jockey?) to be performance-captured by a large actor.

Oh, and the vicious Giger-designed xenomorph will be making an appearance. Let’s hope…