47 Ronin’s no prequel to Alien, but it doesn’t sound so bad, either.

Apparently, Hollywood is gearing up for a samurai picture that stars Keanu Reeves and is written by Chris Morgan, whose other writing credits include Fast & Furious and Wanted. For the director’s chair, the production has already zeroed in on Carl Rinsch, an established commercial director who was once attached to the 'Alien' franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rinsch’s spots for Mercedes and Heineken frequently had futuristic themes, and he was hand-picked by Ridley Scott, who was set to produce the next 'Alien' film, to make his feature directorial debut. Those plans were waylaid, however, when Fox informed Scott they would prefer he helm it.

Now it looks like Rinsch’s first feature will be 47 Ronin instead. Universal is setting up the film with Scott Stuber and Pamela Abdy producing, and is probably hoping for similar success as Edward Zwick’s 2003 The Last Samurai. That film, which starred Tom Cruise, earned a number of award nominations and grossed over $400M internationally.

47 Ronin would center around a group of 18th-century samurai who set out to avenge their master’s death. As previously reported on this site, Reeves will play one of the samurai, and the film will be highly-stylized, mixing Gladiator-style battlefield grit with The Lord of the Rings-ish fantasy elements.