He jumped at the chance because Alien was such a seminal influence on him, apparently
“In a development as vexing as a Lost plotline, studio insiders said that while Lindelof indeed met with Scott and the studio for that rewrite job, the exchange of ideas between them sparked a take that could well turn out to be a free-standing science fiction film. The studio will decide when Lindelof turns it in.”
Quite what that means is unclear. Is he writing an Alien prequel? Or a standalone Alien movie? Or a space horror that has nothing to do with the Alien franchise (but is just really, really similar)? What does, “The studio will decide” mean? That the plot is so loose it could be easily tweaked marketed as any of the above? It all sounds a bit to us.
Whatever the truth, it seems that Lindelof jumped at the opportunity because he’s such a huge Alien fan. It’s his first solo movie writing project since Lost, but he has been working with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on the scripts for Star Trek II and Cowboys And Aliens .
