Ridley Scott's production-designer of choice starts up an art department at Pinewood Studios...

A little bird prowling the corridors of Pinewood Studios has whispered into Shadowlocked's ear that Ridley Scott's regular production designer Arthur Max has moved into Pinewood studios to set up a new art department. Max, who was also PD on Se7en, has been production designer on nearly all of Scott's prolific output since G.I. Jane (in which he had a minor acting role), including Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom Of Heaven and Robin Hood. Max skipped lighter Scott titles such as Matchstick Men and A Good Year.

Though slated to work on another Scott project The Kind One, associated with Casey Affleck - among others - back in 2008, it seems unlikely that Scott intends to multitask whilst working on the much-vaunted Alien prequel that is likely to prove his most technically ambitious work since Blade Runner in 1982.

Setting up the prequel's art department at this point, if that's what Max's residence signifies, generally means that pre-production has gone well beyond initial sketches and is nearing the fabrication stage and the construction of sets. Based on the historical set-up of major sci-fi productions, that would indicate principal studio photography beginning shortly after the new year.

It may seem odd that Scott is apparently to shoot in Pinewood when he and director brother Tony own Shepperton studios, but both studios are part of The Pinewood Group.

Interviews and disc extras of the last ten years show that Scott remains an avowed fan of H.R. Giger, who designed the original xenomorph, but was eschewed for James Cameron's Aliens and for Jean Pierre Jeunet's Alien: Resurrection, where he didn't even get a credit. It will be interesting to see if the reclusive genius will be contributing to the new movie...

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EXCLUSIVE: Alien prequel WILL be 3D

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