Even before Prometheus rode a wave of anticipation into theaters, director Ridley Scott was hoping that the film would perform well enough that his next movie could be a sequel following Elizabeth Shaw and David the button-bot on an intergalactic trip to a sort of family reunion.  The producers of the Blade Runner sequel are doubtless a bit annoyed that the $302.8 million (so far) global gross for the R rated Prometheus is apparently enough for 20th Century Fox to continue working on a follow-up.

A rundown of this summer's would-be franchises at The Hollywood Reporter contains the news that the director and studio are indeed working on another Prometheus, with a release possible in 2014 or 2015.  The former might be a little too soon and the latter seems more likely, especially since the studio seems eager to get it right rather than rush it. 

Fox's president of production Emma Watts made that clear, saying, "Ridley is incredibly excited about the movie, but we have to get it right. We can't rush it."

Both Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are set to return as Shaw and David, continuing their journey to figure out just what the hell is up with the Engineers who seeded life on Earth and yet sought to destroy it after meeting up again on the barren planet seen in the prequel.

But Damon Lindelof won't be joining them in all likelihood.  The Lost executive producer was brought aboard Prometheus to work from previous drafts by Spaihts, and in the process, he intentionally put some distance between the film and its forebears, looking to create a less direct prequel.  Apprently, Fox is currently looking at candidates to write the next installment, since Lindelof's plate is quite full at the moment.  He's working on 1952, a mysterious but high profile sci-fi tentpole project directed by Brad Bird for Disney, while also developing an adaptation of Tom Perrotta's real-life Rapture novel The Leftovers as an HBO series. He was recently involved in the substantial rewrites on World War Z for Paramount, but his schedule permitted him from actually writing much.  Instead, he came up with an idea for the climax of the film to be executed during hefty reshoots, and Drew Goddard ended up doing most of the script work.

So, another round of Alien prequel action.  I wonder what H.R. Giger, who designed the alien and the derelict for the first film, feels about this development?