Prometheus *SPOILERS FROM POST 1538*

ShaneU

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/07/30/ridley-scott-to-direct-alien-prequel/

Slashfilm wrote:

In May, it was revealed that commercial director Carl Erik Rinsch was attached to direct a remake of Alien. We have since learned that it is more of a prequel than a remake. I was one of the few people actually interested in Rinsch’s involvement. Rinsch’s commercials show an amazing sense of imagination, visual effects artistry and composition (we’ve profiled his amazing commercials on the site). But apparently 20th Century Fox wasn’t happy with the Scott’s choice of director, holding out for the original helmer — Ridley Scott.

At the time I believed that would never happen. Why would Scott return to film a prequel of the most popular sci-fi film franchises of all time? Why compete with yourself? Producing the film seems like a much safer bet. Who knows why, but Ridley Scott has signed on to direct a prequel to Alien.

The film will be a direct prequel to Scott’s original 1979 film. This leads me to believe that the film will tell the story of the crew of the empty ship that is discovered in the first film. In a 2002 interview, Scott wanted to return “to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created.” Chances are this idea would also be incorporated into the reboot. Jon Spaihts will write the screenplay, a job he earned after pitching the studio and production company Scott Free. Spaihts has no produced credits, but has written Shadow 19 and Passengers, both of which are also sci-fi space thrillers.

Strangely, I feel a lot different about this project now that Scott is at the helm. Not only is Scott experienced, but he has done this before. So why is it that I feel less comfortable with Scott at the helm than an experienced commercial director? Maybe it is fear that Scott won’t be able to create something better than the original. Maybe it is fear that the film will be too much like the original, and I would have liked to see a completely different take. And maybe it is that I just don’t understand the idea of a filmmaker returning 30 years later to film a reboot.

And maybe it is that I fear that a Body of Lies-era Ridley Scott won’t produce anything close to the level of the original feature. I don’t think I’d ever want to see Martin Scorsese to film a prequel/reboot of Goodfellas. I expect a lot of the /Film commenters will disagree… so please explain to me why I should be excited about this.

Loved Alien and Blade Runner, should be good unlike the last Aliens movie

pixelburp

That's ... interseting, I wonder what's taking Scott back after the 3 sequels have come and gone. I am officially interested in this project now; it couldn't be any worse than the god-awful AvP films & it'll be interesting to compare / contrast early Ridley Scott vs. the latter day one

faceman

I got really excited when I read it this morning but then i felt a little part of me die. Bare with me on this.

Do you remember the first time you watched Alien? The mystery of it all. The terror. The 18's rated cut. It was something else. I remember watching it over and over when I was young to see if any hints as to the crashed alien ship was revealed.

I also felt that it remained one of cinema's "holy grails". The crashed alien ship with the huge alien with his chest open. I dont want Hollywood to explain it, not even Scott. It is the one last mystery of the Alien films. It doesnt need to be explained.

Regarding another Alien film anyway, there isnt really much I can see Scott can do with it at this stage.

Draupnir

I thought Predators made Aliens?..........

This could be great or it could suck. Agree with Faceman, I remember seeing that huge alien in the seat at the start of Alien and being completely overwhelmed by curiosity as to what happened to him etc.

Years later the internet let me discover that there is no backstory for that character and he is just known as "Space Jockey" but that tiny piece of information was enough, I like the mystery of it all.

Exploring it in depth will just ruin the whole thing I fear.

uncleoswald

I agree with most of the above. Unless there is a damn good idea behind it all and Scott feels there is a story that he is compelled to tell then I see no reason for a prequel.

But fingers crossed and all that.

I thought Predators made Aliens?..........

Think they just hunted them. But regardless I don't think Predators have any place in the "real" Alien universe.

Nerin

I've always been interested in the unsaid unexplained things in aliens.

Having a quick look at wiki,the spin off books have interesting ideas on the different breeds. I'd be really excited to see this,but as faceman said,sometimes not knowing is better. Hopefully scott will be able to pull this off.

Slow Motion

pixelburp wrote: »

That's ... interseting, I wonder what's taking Scott back after the 3 sequels have come and gone. I am officially interested in this project now; it couldn't be any worse than the god-awful AvP films & it'll be interesting to compare / contrast early Ridley Scott vs. the latter day one

Maybe he was so pissed off with them and AvPs that he decided to show them how it should be done (I am determined to be optimistic on this one and no one will change my mind but the film itself:D)

faceman wrote: »

I got really excited when I read it this morning but then i felt a little part of me die. Bare with me on this.

Do you remember the first time you watched Alien? The mystery of it all. The terror. The 18's rated cut. It was something else. I remember watching it over and over when I was young to see if any hints as to the crashed alien ship was revealed.

I also felt that it remained one of cinema's "holy grails". The crashed alien ship with the huge alien with his chest open. I dont want Hollywood to explain it, not even Scott. It is the one last mystery of the Alien films. It doesnt need to be explained.

Regarding another Alien film anyway, there isnt really much I can see Scott can do with it at this stage.

I'm the opposite, I would love for the film to explore this, I have always wondered about the ship and it's pilot and would love to learn more about it!

Galvasean

I'd rather they didn't include Predators or new breeds of Alien. Yes, there is some pretty cool stuff in the expanded universe, but every time they've tried to put Alien and Predator in the same film they have failed miserably.
As far as new breeds are concerned, I don't want to see a bunch of CGI 'gimickomorphs' cluttering the screen.

Draupnir

Predators do not belong in this movie, they should not be in it and if they are it will be a bad movie. I believe Ridley Scott is smart enough to know that though.

Alien breeds, absolutely there should be different breeds of alien in a prequel but rather than being gimmicky I think they'd need to be a lesser form of alien than the ones who first hatched within humans. That is of course, assuming that they alien from the first movie was the first to hatch within a human and adopt human traits.

Nerin

Its not a gimmick,its a constant in the series.

We see mostly warrior caste aliens because thats what pops out of humans. Alien 3 had the runner because it gestated in the Ox.

mike65

If he reassembles the Alien talent and makes the film using the same techniques and style then I wouldn't have too much worry. If he using modern CGI type **** and bad "Yoof appeal" casting with a 12A cert then it'll be a total waste.

Bubs101

Don't see the problem with modern CGI. The best the Alien has ever looked is in AVP 1 where he smiles at the guy trapped in the vent before gobsmacking him. Anyway I'm very much looking forward to this. Hope Scott sees it as a chance to avenge Cameron stealing the series from him with Aliens

Draupnir

Nerin wrote: »

Its not a gimmick,its a constant in the series.

We see mostly warrior caste aliens because thats what pops out of humans. Alien 3 had the runner because it gestated in the Ox.

Fair enough, it got gimmicky with Predaliens etc. though

purple_hatstand

Bubs101 wrote: »

Don't see the problem with modern CGI. The best the Alien has ever looked is in AVP 1 where he smiles at the guy trapped in the vent before gobsmacking him. Anyway I'm very much looking forward to this. Hope Scott sees it as a chance to avenge Cameron stealing the series from him with Aliens

Did this really happen? I've watched both recently enough and IMO, Cameron's 80's gung-ho military take on it has dated quite badly whereas Scott's use of suspense, mystery and silence create a terrifying atmoshere which has yet to bettered (and it is unlikely that it will be).

The relationship between Scott and HR Giger was fundamental to the look and feel of the first film and securing Giger's involvement for this new project could, again, be key.

Scott has a lot on his plate at the moment, though, so this can't be happening anytime soon...?

Sad Professor

Bah. This would have been nice 15 years ago before the franchise was run into the ground. Today I'd much rather see Scott do a new sci-fi film (Brave New World, Forever War, etc) then return to the Alien franchise. But I guess this is the only sci-fi project they are willing to give him a decent budget for.

Boston

What are you betting the aliens will have super fast maturation times?

pixelburp

In fairness about the mythology, if a certain scene from Alien wasn't left on the cutting room floor, our theories on the xenomorph's lifecycle would be radically different. So it was never cut and dry to begin with.

The scene I mean of course is ... (and is visible on the special edition DVD):

While Ripley is escaping the self-destructing ship, she stumbles upon the still-slightly-alive bodies of Dallas et al, who are all slowly mutating into eggs.

uncleoswald

purple_hatstand wrote: »

Scott has a lot on his plate at the moment, though, so this can't be happening anytime soon...?

He really does. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000631/

The amount of stuff in development or pre-production is ridiculous although I'm sure a lot of it is just rumoured bull.

Also he's 71 so he better get a move on!

Nerin

Draupnir wrote: »

Fair enough, it got gimmicky with Predaliens etc. though

Pants movie,but made sense.

Futurism

Sounds like it could be decent enough. Although I'd rather an original idea as opposed to another film of a franchise.

I wonder how he's going to fit it in with all he's doing.

Sad Professor

IMDB is a bit too keen to add and very slow to remove "in development" projects that clearly aren't happening. It's all a scam to get you to sign up to IMDBPro. Unless there's been some very recent movement on a particular project it's best to just ignore all of them.

Spiritoftheseventies

Yes should be interesting. Have the Aliens box set and on Alien they had a whole thing about the making of the whole Alien Ship and all. Definitely worth a look. Just hope they do a better job than what happened with the Star Wars prequels. Last one was not bad but overall i think its better do everything in sequence.

Galvasean

Nerin wrote: »

Its not a gimmick,its a constant in the series.

We see mostly warrior caste aliens because thats what pops out of humans. Alien 3 had the runner because it gestated in the Ox.

Dunno if I can agree that it is a constant of the series. The first two films featured the standard Alien (plus huggers and Queen in #2 - but the idea of castes isn't touched on). Only in number three did they change the design slightly due to the ox (or dog, depending on which cut you prefer).
I'm not sure the Alien in #3 is a whole lot different from the standard one. Yeah he moves on four legs, but then again the standard ones also do that when it suits them.
In fact, the caste system is hardly noticable in five films (if you include AVP). Its not until AVP2 that they actually use it.

Despite my skepticism re: the caste system, I always wondered how it could be used had say, a bunch of huggers gotten lose at the zoo...

While I'm excited about this I really wish that they would go back to the proposed Alien 5 which both Cameron and Scott were interested in doing together. Cameron has stated that for his next film he would like to do something less effects based and the Battle Angel may still be a few years off. Perfect opportunity then to go back to basics and make an old school Alien film.

Slow Motion

Galvasean wrote: »

Dunno if I can agree that it is a constant of the series. The first two films featured the standard Alien (plus huggers and Queen in #2 - but the idea of castes isn't touched on). Only in number three did they change the design slightly due to the ox (or dog, depending on which cut you prefer).
I'm not sure the Alien in #3 is a whole lot different from the standard one. Yeah he moves on four legs, but then again the standard ones also do that when it suits them.
In fact, the caste system is hardly noticable in five films (if you include AVP). Its not until AVP2 that they actually use it.

Despite my skepticism re: the caste system, I always wondered how it could be used had say, a bunch of huggers gotten lose at the zoo...

Now there's an idea!

Duggy747

I always knew Ridley woudl return to the franchise in one form or another. But, hey, this is good news. Better than Fox churning out another embarrasing sequel with a useless director.

Still...

There was that time when James Cameron and Ridley Scott talked about how they would both work on this Alien film. 1 produced and the other directed. Hell, even Cameron had started drafting up a script when he heard Fox were going ahead with the 1st AVP. He told them not to go ahead with it and said "To me, that was Frankenstein Meets Werewolf. It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other...Milking it"

*sigh* Now THAT would have been a hell of a movie to see. But then I suppose we'd have to wait even longer to see Avatar. Boo!

nyarlothothep

meh, has hollywood got any new ideas?

I hear they're re-making BTTF in 2010.

senordingdong

faceman wrote: »

It is the one last mystery of the Alien films. It doesnt need to be explained.

Yeah, I find alot of stories get ruined with over-explanation.

Galvasean

Duggy747 wrote: »

Better than Fox churning out another embarrasing sequel with a useless director.

Ah ah ah... TWO useless directors

BlitzKrieg

Nerin wrote: »

Its not a gimmick,its a constant in the series.

We see mostly warrior caste aliens because thats what pops out of humans. Alien 3 had the runner because it gestated in the Ox.

funnily enough for the most part thats been assumption by filmmakers. It was never confirmed where the runner alien came from (the facehugger we are talking about) because in the film only one facehugger was seen and originally it was meant to be a special kind of facehugger (much larger) which laid two eggs one for the queen and one for a protector alien. But that all ended up on the cutting floor

It was then pretty much accepted that its a runner alien because it came from a dog/cow (again depends which version) and the industry has run with it since. But some designs of the new alien (from Giger) had it designed like a panther etc.

its an interesting topic left over from the nightmare that was the alien 3 production.

the best the Alien has ever looked is in AVP 1

God no, the avp alien design was awful, they shrunk them down to the size of large dogs and had the design completely wrong, it was awful.

The film will be a direct prequel to Scott’s original 1979 film. This leads me to believe that the film will tell the story of the crew of the empty ship that is discovered in the first film. In a 2002 interview, Scott wanted to return “to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created.” Chances are this idea would also be incorporated into the reboot. Jon Spaihts will write the screenplay, a job he earned after pitching the studio and production company Scott Free. Spaihts has no produced credits, but has written Shadow 19 and Passengers, both of which are also sci-fi space thrillers.

In other words I have nothing and am making an educated guess on a pitch that Scott and Cameron were rumoured to have made about going to the alien homeworld.


I know towards the end alot of people disliked Weaver and the Ripley character, but she's a strong character which it has shown that without her the franchise suffers (both AVP films had woeful leads) and doing a prequel with a new lead character will really make or break it if they cant find a decent substitute.

ashman007

either way i am looking forward to it whenever it comes out

Been a big fan of this franchise and even love the recent additions allthough not as class as the first two but hey....

bring it on

The Black Oil

Not something I'm really interested in, but it might keep him away from Monopoly. Plus, at least he's not a hack or self-proclaimed 'fan' and can actually direct.

Unless of course we end up with Alien vs Monopoly.

"Go to jail, you bitch!"

OfflerCrocGod

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I hear they're re-making BTTF in 2010.

I believe that was an April's fool Back To The Future IV doesn't seem likely, thank god!

Nerin

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

funnily enough for the most part thats been assumption by filmmakers. It was never confirmed where the runner alien came from (the facehugger we are talking about) because in the film only one facehugger was seen and originally it was meant to be a special kind of facehugger (much larger) which laid two eggs one for the queen and one for a protector alien. But that all ended up on the cutting floor

It was then pretty much accepted that its a runner alien because it came from a dog/cow (again depends which version) and the industry has run with it since. But some designs of the new alien (from Giger) had it designed like a panther etc.

its an interesting topic left over from the nightmare that was the alien 3 production.



God no, the avp alien design was awful, they shrunk them down to the size of large dogs and had the design completely wrong, it was awful.



In other words I have nothing and am making an educated guess on a pitch that Scott and Cameron were rumoured to have made about going to the alien homeworld.


I know towards the end alot of people disliked Weaver and the Ripley character, but she's a strong character which it has shown that without her the franchise suffers (both AVP films had woeful leads) and doing a prequel with a new lead character will really make or break it if they cant find a decent substitute.

What i wanna see is that whale alien they spoke of in some marine book. Whalian.

molloyjh

I'm really looking forward to this movie. The idea of a prequel is interesting for one reason, the fact that humans have to be involved in some way.

The story would have to tell the story of how the Company found out about the Aliens without actually managing to get their hands on them. It is through this that Scott could give the Aliens a more detailed back-story.

I personally think the original alien design is still by far the best one and hope they keep it to that as much as possible. CGI has, in many ways, ruined them as terrifying monsters. There was just something so raw and natural about the original design.

Trail_Blazer

I'm a huge fan of the Aliens, Predator and AVP films. With Scott directing, this should be a fantastic flick I think. I look forward to seeing it.

Galvasean

Nerin wrote: »

What i wanna see is that whale alien they spoke of in some marine book. Whalian.

I want (in my hypothetical Aliens at the Zoo film) an elephant alien. Imagine the killing tongue on teh end of a trunk! :eek:

senordingdong

Teaser poster is up...

Sad Professor

At least Brave New World is still on the table:

http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/08/brave-new-world-ridley-scott-dicaprio.html

PirateShampoo

The new Alien movie - Alien Harvest, as it is known in its script form - has seen its script, by writer Jon Spaihts, leaked on the internet. The script - a character-driven film set a few years before the original Alien film - is currently in pre-production with Ridley Scott is the director's chair. To read the script follow this link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4083772/24549638-Alien-Harvest.pdf



Havent read it myself yet, but will probably give it a shot tomorrow.

Sorry in advance if this breaks any forum rules.

Duggy747

Meh, these "leaked" scripts are usually balony and rarely represent the film itself.

It's still very early for Scott to do any work with the new Alien film as he's still working (probably done now) on the new Robin Hood movie and he'll be spending a few months promoting the film too.

Still, can't wait to see what he does with the Alien franchise. More than likely it won't be a brain-dead actioner............or could it? :eek:

PirateShampoo

Half way through the script now, i dont think it would be the film. Theres even a gay sex scene in here lol.

Duggy747

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Half way through the script now, i dont think it would be the film. Theres even a gay sex scene in here lol.

I know, I'm looking through it too. This is well fake, just some fanboy's script renamed to get it some coverage / throw scent off / attract interest in the film, etc.

Interesting to see how Scott handles this "prequel". After Aliens there wasn't too much more you could do with the franchise but after the brutal past few films it's nice to see the original guy return to the helm.

scudzilla

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Half way through the script now, i dont think it would be the film. Theres even a gay sex scene in here lol.

Duggy747 wrote: »

I know, I'm looking through it too. This is well fake, just some fanboy's script renamed to get it some coverage / throw scent off / attract interest in the film, etc.

Interesting to see how Scott handles this "prequel". After Aliens there wasn't too much more you could do with the franchise but after the brutal past few films it's nice to see the original guy return to the helm.

Ah bollox, i printed it off, put it into a binder and stuck it on Ebay for $199.99 :rolleyes::rolleyes::P

fonecrusher1

Who cares.
The whole Aliens thing used to mean something to me up until that abomination alien resurrection was unleashed in 97. I went to see it in the cinema & unfortunately my worst fears came true. Utter utter tripe followed by more & more detached & just plain silly sequels.

Whats next? Aliens vs KingKong?.....the aliens inexplicably travel to skull island to take on a huge 50ft rampaging gorilla....for some reason.

The 3rd Aliens film should have been an end to the whole thing.

PirateShampoo

Well he has confirmed the next film will explain the origins of the "Space Jockey" from the first film.

Personnaly i cant wait.

Duggy747

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Who cares.
The whole Aliens thing used to mean something to me up until that abomination alien resurrection was unleashed in 97.

The 3rd Aliens film should have been an end to the whole thing.

Amen to that, one of my favourite characters / high-cailber movies degraded to such tripe.

Still, until I heard Scott was officaly confirmed to helm this (and not just produce) my interest and hopes have raised a bit.

Until then, we'll have to make to with the new Predators movie..................however that will turn out. If it's better than Predator 2 then I'm happy.........but it's just another film you can't have without Arnie

PirateShampoo wrote:

Well he has confirmed the next film will explain the origins of the "Space Jockey" from the first film.

He also mentioned that it'll be somewhere set 30 years before the 1st movie, which this script isn't.

fonecrusher1

Duggy747 wrote: »

Still, until I heard Scott was officaly confirmed to helm this (and not just produce) my interest and hopes have raised a bit.

Well ok because he's apparently going to be involved in the whole thing then i suppose i am a little curious to see what it'll be like.

To be honest im shocked that he would have anything to do with it. Look at some of the rubbish that has been spawned from his 1979 masterpiece.

Ridley

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Whats next? Aliens vs KingKong?.....the aliens inexplicably travel to skull island to take on a huge 50ft rampaging gorilla....for some reason.

Although I haven't read them. They could be brilliant explorations of the characters for all I know. Apparently the second Batman volume is a great gothic Batman story.

pixelburp

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Well he has confirmed the next film will explain the origins of the "Space Jockey" from the first film.

Personnaly i cant wait.

Oh god, I'm so conflicted about this movie, and the above post is part of the conflict. On the one hand, the idea of a past director revisiting the franchise to re-attach its spirit (and balls) has me excited - even if its Ridley Scott on autopilot, it couldn't be any worse than the gory, snuff movie that was AvP:Requim (where the age cert was the maximum, not the minimum recommended age).

On the other hand though, I don't like it when directors, or a franchise in general, decides to strip away all the remaining mystery with prequels or back story. The ghost ship on LV-426 for me is a mystery box that should never be opened. Who cares what or who the Space Jockey was; will any revelation by Scott really match up to the ones concocted in our minds eye when we first saw that nightmarish ship? Having seen the mystery explained in glorious techicolour, will we still have goosebumps when we see that hoseshoe-shaped derelict loom out of the fog?

Let me summarise it differently with one word; midichlorians.

In fairness & on balance, it could be a good opporunity to reboot the franchise, and Scott's potentially the right man to do it. If nothing else he doesn't have the mental age of a deranged teenager; the funny thing about the AvP movies is that they made me reassess Ressurection. I suddenly looked past all its flaws - and the fact that the Aliens didn't make the right squeeling noise damnit - and decided that it still wasn't as bad as AvP:Requim.

Ridley

pixelburp wrote: »

On the other hand though, I don't like it when directors, or a franchise in general, decides to strip away all the remaining mystery with prequels or back story. The ghost ship on LV-426 for me is a mystery box that should never be opened. Who cares what or who the Space Jockey was; will any revelation by Scott really match up to the ones concocted in our minds eye when we first saw that nightmarish ship? Having seen the mystery explained in glorious techicolour, will we still have goosebumps when we see that hoseshoe-shaped derelict loom out of the fog?

I don't even have any backstory in my head for the Space Jockey. It doesn't need one, it's just a prop for getting the xenomorph on the Nostromo. A good skeleton prop. I don't want to see a space elephant walking around since I don't think it can be done without looking like a space elephant.

Don't care to see the xenomorph homeworld either. Planet of the termites is irrelevant to the monster in my view. Though worse would be that the xenomorph was created artificially.