As a Screenwriter, Spaihts became known in the film industry as a "go-to guy for space thrillers", when his science fiction romance Passengers was included on the 2007 Black List of unproduced high-value screenplays. Keanu Reeves and Stephen Hamel had hired Spaihts to write the film after originally becoming attached to Spaihts' abandoned science fiction script Shadow 19. After Reeves agreed to produce with Hamel and star in Passengers, Spaihts was commissioned by Scott Free to write the next installments in the Alien saga, two prequel films to be directed by Ridley Scott, which eventually turned into the more autonomous story Prometheus, ultimately revised by Damon Lindelof. For New Regency Spaihts also wrote the screenplay to the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour, based on a story by Leslie Bohem and M.T. Ahern.