Scott not hot

The excitement around Prometheus compared to, say, Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, can largely be explained in two words: Ridley Scott. But if you'd told producers in the late seventies that come 2012, Scott would be directing an Alien prequel with a budget in the region of $125 million, you'd have been swiftly seconded to a nice little room with comfy walls. An arty director, fresh from his success at the lah-di-dah Cannes film festival with period piece The Duellists, Scott was, at that time, not quite who producers imagined might successfully helm a monster movie script the studio were not particularly fond of anyway. As Scott puts it: "Alien was always regarded as a C-minus movie, for which I was the fifth choice […] They were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel."

• Rent: Watch the entire Alien collection online now