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So, do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let's start with the bad news: Its official, the A L I E N reboot has gone beyond rumor and straight into reality. But the good news is that at least it won't be a remake. Just last week, Peter broke the story that Fox was looking to revive the franchise, but at the time, none of the principals involved (original creator Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, or rumored director, Carl Rinsch) had officially commented on the status of the project. Now, though, Collider brings us news that they got the chance to speak with Tony Scott during a press event for The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and he confirmed that Rinsch has indeed been given the nod to direct a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi horror.

Once you get over the fact that a prequel is a particularly goofy idea, it probably wouldn't be that hard to come up with a plausible story. In the original film, the story of the derelict ship that the crew of the Nostromo encountered was never really explained. That element of the unknown was always an integral part of the original film's scare factor, but you have to admit, it wouldn't be all that difficult to fill in the blanks. Scott is looking to get the film into production by the end of the year, but there is still a small matter of a script and a cast before they can think about sticking to a tentative release date of summer, 2011.

After the jump: how do you make an A L I E N prequel? And does it automatically have to star Christina Bale?

The first few lines of dialogue in Alien vs. Predator: Requiem include "take your time" and "slow down," which is pretty ironic considering how impatient the movie comes off in its initial five minutes. Thanks to Yahoo! you can now watch those five minutes and see for yourself. You'll agree that at least in the opening, the sequel is not trying to waste any time. Right away we see an Alien pop out of a Predator's chest, which leads to a quick Alien-Predator battle, which immediately results in the Predator's ship crashing down onto Earth. At this point we meet father and son hunters, the former of which utters those first words.

Oh, and that's when it gets awesome: the hunter shoots one of the baby Aliens, which bleeds acid on his arm, which then falls off. Then another baby Alien jumps onto his face and another baby Alien jumps onto the kid's face. Satisfied yet? Well, you still have the beacon, which is picked up on the Predator home planet, where the last few minutes' events are given an instant replay, which is viewed by another Predator, who abruptly gets into another spaceship and heads to the rescue. And then ... we see the title sequence.

Yeah, in case the red-band trailer hadn't been enough, I have to reiterate that I've never been so excited about a movie I've had such a low expectation for in my entire life. Will Alien vs. Predator: Requiem suck? It's possible, but if it continues with such disregard for pauses, it's going to at least be a quick and painless shot of entertainment.

For those of us hoping that AVP2 is better than AVP1, our prayers seem to have been answered. IGN has the new red band trailer for the spin-off sequel, and it looks pretty damn good. It begins with an appropriate tagline: "In space, no one can hear you scream. On Earth, it won't matter." Then, it's pretty much everything we'd hoped the first Alien vs. Predator movie would be. Well, to be honest, I had wanted a human free, dialogue free movie featuring only the Aliens and the Predators, but this is definitely my second choice.

It isn't even just that the sequel is Rated R, unlike its PG-13 predecessor, and that this uncensored trailer gives us more gore and violence than the anything in the first movie. It's that the Strause Brothers (sibling effects-wizards-turned-directors Colin and Greg) and screenwriter Shane Salerno seem to have the right story for us fans of the original franchises. From the Alien series we have a government/military that doesn't care about civilian life (this is also popular in other horror films of late). From the Predator series we have the thick brush of a forest (almost jungle-like) for more thermal-vision stuff -- which just wasn't as interesting in the cold, arctic setting of the last effort.

Of course, the R-rated stuff is pretty sick, too. As is the seemingly Spielbergian touches: the flashlights in the woods searching for an alien, but it isn't E.T.; a very Jurassic Park-esque scene with Alien young substituted for Velociraptors. Hey, I know it won't possibly be as good as any Spielberg movie nor will it likely be as excellent as the real installments in either franchise. But it still looks awesome. I just hope the trailer hasn't spoiled the best killings -- that Predator knife thrown at the blonde, the double head-shots, the eyes poked out -- or the ending with that final shot with the F-bomb and the Alien kill, which looks climactic. Anyway, one thing is clear: Fox is really going with that Requiem subtitle, and I now realize that I made a mistake with my last AVP2 post; the official title is Aliens vs. Predator -- Requiem (not Alien vs. Predator -- Requiem), as if it really matters.

It seems like lately, every time you turn around, another person working on Alien Vs. Predator 2 is promising that it's going to be better this time around. Having missed the first film, it's probably not likely that I will be lining up opening day for this one either -- plus enough fans of the original comic book series telling me the film was blasphemous isn't helping. AVP2 star Steve Pasquale, who plays Dallas in the film, recently spoke with MTV movie blog and says that‚ "We are trying to get back to the basics [with] the suspense and the gore," and confirmed that the film was going to be "considerably scarier than its predecessor." The sequel has our two villains descending on a small town for another Battle Royale. and Pasquale plays an ex-convict and a part of the band of townsfolk trying to avoid the cross-fire.

According to Pasquale, The Strause Brothers, who are new to the franchise, seem to be ready to bring on the blood. "Directors] Colin and Greg Strause really know what they're doing in terms of a sort of true-blue monster movie," he said. Pasquale also confirms that this time around, there is going to no shortage of screen time for the two aliens, saying‚ "Aliens and predators will be fighting to the death, there's a little secret surprise that I can't tell you about that the sci-fi fans are going to go bananas over. It's going to be awesome." AVP2 is set to open on Christmas Day -- until then I'm sure this won't be the last proclamation from the production that this time they've "gotten it right."