Alien: Antar bringing James Cameron back.

IRaptus, Synth trying to help and the crew doesn't know who/what to trust...would work!

I'd have a scene where the captain(speaking in Russian)tells the crew how he will flay them and remove their hands, eyes and he use them to set a platter...a feast for the gods. (....He's eating grapes and cutting his steak while he tells them this....)

The crew will be puzzled(unable to understand Russian)...the audience will read the subtitles. they will ask the synth for translation and he/she/it will tell them: the captain is just 'wishing them well and advising them to work as a team'.  Is the synth protecting the crew or complicit?   ?

I have to say while a Alien movie is more better to stay in Space....  i think this applies to the Franchise of past, i feel with the Prequels and the very back ground to the Engineers i think the Expanded Alien Franchise could well take part on Planets rather than Baron Moons etc.

The Engineers back ground appears to suggest they have visited much more than Earth, LV-223 and Planet 4, i think a Underwater Based Movie would be interesting, and could be explored in context of either this was ONE a World that had land and had interaction with Engineers, or it was always a Water World where the Engineers ship crashed at some point. 

We really need to Understand and Discover and ask WHY do the Engineers Create/Seed Worlds, Ridley Scott calls them Genetic Space Gardeners and so we have to ask is their ONLY purpose to Create Humanoids? Are other Creatures just a Side Effect/Creation from the Sacrificial Seeding and only selected Organism are chosen to be Evolved, or are they also Engineered or needed for Food Sources for the kinds of Organism their Agenda of Creation is involved with.

If the Engineers go around Creating Life in General and so not to create Intelligent Species, then for them discovering or manipulating a Ocean World could be something they would be looking to do, so they could come across a Water World  and maybe want to Seed/Evolve Aquatic Life?  Maybe they would see this World as Potential and look to Manipulate it to Reduce the Water and Allow for Land Masses to Form so it would then become a Viable World to Seed Life on.   Either way would be a good enough reasons to find our Engineers visiting this World.

Another option is a OUTPOST If the Engineers Ships can be made to go underwater, then setting up a Underwater Outpost like LV-223 certainly would be a very good route to take as far as Safety Precautions and to keep this place hidden and less accessible than building a Outpost on open Land.

So again either of these, or a Ancient Calamity/War or Punishment could also put any Ancient Engineer Settlement/Outpost under water too.

I agree BigDave, Space and dead planets/moons are much better for the Alien series....But I'm not sure Cameron would settle for space...

I'd start the movie aboard a Russian starship called 'Pushkin':

The vessel is orbiting a giant water world. The world has 3 moons that tug and create giant waves/tides. Hostile environment to say the least. The Pushkin has been supporting the Antar.

The captain and crew of scientists have been to the derelict and have returned with canisters and large green crystals. They have strict orders to return the artifacts to Earth, for study.

Aboard the ship, the captain is saying farewell to his sister, she is in an airlock with her new husband, they are going on their honeymoon. The captain promises the newlyweds the artifacts will not be studied until they return.

The captain watches them leave....Then grabs a ax and heads toward the crew quarters.....

Why not? The chances that it would be worse than Prometheus and Alien Covenant is small. Aliens had good characters in it.

I like the idea that it would be a movie that us under water, they had a scene like that in AR which is my favorite scene in it.

By now I would rather have Cameron direct an alien movie than Scott for kind of obvious reasons.