Natalie Portman is said to be the favourite to star in the upcoming "Alien" prequel reports
Vulture.
Portman joins a very short list of contenders which also includes "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace for the lead role in the film which Ridley Scott will direct from a script originally by Jon Spaihts.
"Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof came onboard a while back to re-write it and has apparently turned in a new draft of the screenplay which the studio has loved. Why? It avoids adding any further expensive set pieces and effects-heavy action sequences, and allows the film to be kept at a PG-13 rating but will still "be as violent" as the original 1979 feature.
At present most of the issues over the project are in regards to the budget, Scott apparently wants $150 million but the studio would like it to be less. Story details are being kept top secret, but it is known that events will be set 35 years before Ripley, Dallas and the crew of the Nostromo first came upon the crashed alien ship on LV-426.