Legendary director Ridley Scott turned 79 today, but he is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. He is currently in post-production on his latest movie, Alien: Covenant, which is due out next summer. 20th Century Fox decided to wish him a happy birthday by giving us all the gift of a new behind-the-scenes photo from the set of Alien: Covenant.

20th Century Fox released the photo on Twitter today, showing Ridley Scott standing on the set of Alien: Covenant during production. Fans of the franchise will be quick to recognize the "Jockey" in the background, which was teased in the original Alien when Dallas, Lambert and Kane discover a derelict ship with a fossilized Engineer inside, who had clearly been the victim of a chestburster. We never got to see the resulting Xenomorph in the movie, but perhaps that is something we can look forward to in Alien: Covenant. Before everything went haywire in Alien, Dallas, played by Tom Skerritt, discovered the Engineer's body and alluded to the horrors awaiting the crew later in the movie.

"Alien life form. Looks like it's been dead a long time. Fossilized. Looks like it's growing out of the chair. Bones are bent outward, like he exploded from inside."

Ridley Scott was directing for several years before the first Alien, but it was his work on the original movie in 1979 that really put him on the map. The movie is still considered among the best ever made in the sci-fi genre and the franchise is still pushing ahead in a seemingly more proper form with Alien: Covenant. Ridley Scott returned to the world of Alien in 2012 with the prequel movie Prometheus, but it didn't quite deliver on the promise of being a true prequel to Alien and didn't have quite as much connective tissue as many fans would have liked. Alien: Covenant will serve as a sequel to Prometheus as well as a prequel to Alien. Fox recently put to bed any concern that Alien: Covenant will be a Prometheus repeat, though.

The studio recently released the first poster for Alien: Covenant, which boasted the very simple tagline "run," and featured a Xenomorph cloaked in shadow, but just visible enough to inspire a few nightmares, along with equal amounts of excitement. That poster was met with a very warm response from fans and it made some very simple promises that will make long-time fans of the franchise happy. Not only that, but Fox bumped up the release date for the movie by nearly three months, which means they have an awful lot of confidence in it.

Most of the crew didn't make it out of Prometheus alive, so the only returning characters for this next entry will be Michael Fassbender as David (as well as another android named Walter) and Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth, but she isn't expected to have a huge role in the movie. The rest of the new cast includes Demian Bichir, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride and Billy Crudup. Alien: Covenant is set for release on May 19, 2017. Be sure to check out the new set photo featuring Ridley Scott for yourself below.