He's swearing up and down that his new film Prometheus is not in fact a prequel to Alien, just a separate movie that shares the same DNA as the sci-fi classic. But Ridley Scott will apparently be making no such claims for what Deadline reports will be another Blade Runner film. Scott has signed on to direct and produce the film for Alcon Entertainment, though it's unclear at this point if the movie will be a prequel or a sequel, or if Harrison Ford will be dragged out of his carpentry workshop to star in it. There's also no script yet in place, and given how Damon Lindelof managed to alter the direction of Prometheus when he signed on to it, there's probably room for change here.

Alcon bought the rights to Blade Runner earlier this year, at the time planning a reboot and "long-term goals for the franchise," which included "exploring multi-platform concepts." Getting Scott on board is clearly a huge coup for them, especially since he previously seemed to have no interest in a sequel. That four-year-old quote from Scott may not mean anything now, but if I were to guess, I'd say there's not a sequel starring Harrison Ford's Deckard in the works, but something a lot less specific to the storyline of the first film.

We'll bring you more details on this as they emerge, but in the meantime, feel free to panic and curse Scott's name in the comments. If you think this is a good idea, though, please speak up-- we could use a little optimism around here.