Prometheus Writers Audio Commentary Preview

Started by ikarop, Sep 23, 2012, 04:33:02 PM

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Prometheus Writers Audio Commentary Preview (Read 71,348 times)

ikarop

The Prometheus audio commentary by Damon Lindelof & Jon Spaihts has found its way online via an early copy of the film. In this extra feature, the Prometheus writers talk about pre-production, deleted scenes, Ridley Scott and more. Below you can find our quick summarisation of some of the things revealed in their commentary of the film:

  • The Primordial ship was originally meant to be the Alien Derelict/Juggernaut ship in Lindelof’s draft, but Ridley Scott thought it would be cooler to show something else.
  • The opening sequence was meant to be longer, showing a group of Engineers talking to each other in a proto-language.

  • In most of Spaihts’ drafts, the black material that consumed the Sacrifice Engineer transmuted, flew away and bit a primitive woman/man. Their pupils dilated and you could see something change inside them. Another version included a salamander-like hand reach out of the water.
  • There was a scene cut for financial reasons in which a submarine expedition are looking at a sunken city in the Mediterranean where they find a giant tablet with a star map on it. A different version of the script included an archaeological dig on Mars where they found ruins sharing similarities with ancient ruins on Earth.
  • In some of Spaihts drafts, Holloway and Shaw went to visit Weyland in his private residence, a space station orbiting around Earth. Another one included the couple travelling to Mars and visiting Weyland in his home which had a view of the terraforming work taking place on the planet.
  • Jon Spaihts imagined Holloway as an older person, perhaps inappropriately old for Shaw as a mate. Additionally Shaw was Holloway’s student at university.
  • There was a scene were Milburn discovers a little worm and talks about how important this discovery is. Lindelof mentions that this would have kinda explained why he was so excited about his later encounter with the Hammerpede.
  • Spaihts experimented with the idea that the Engineers saw in a whiter spectrum than human beings did. To David’s eyes, the ruins and catacombs showed interfaces that only he could see. Picking up clues that nobody else was picking up.
  • In the script, when David breaks the Ampule open, they cut to David’s POV and showed the black goo at a microscopic level.
  • In Spaihts version of the story, Holloway awakens a Facehugger while he is exploring the pyramid. He is implanted with an Alien, the “classic model”. The “Alien” burst out of Holloway during the love scene between Shaw and Holloway.
  • Spaihts’ draft included a cargo hold filled up with Alien eggs, David discovers this area. This scene revealed the purpose of the Juggernaut ship which was on its way to Earth to undo the human experiment. When Shaw follows David into the vaults of the ship, he deliberately infected her with a Facehugger. He also took her helmet so she couldn’t run back to the ship and save her life by using the med pod. She still makes it back there by holding her breath and using compressed air.
  • In the earlier draft by Jon Spaihts, a kind of classic chestburster is extracted from Shaw’s body during the med pod scene. The chestburster is then expelled from the pod and Shaw stays in there while it heals her. As she wakes up, she can see the monster grow up. Eight hours later the monster is full size and she’s watching it kill people through the glass.
  • Lindelof mentions that there was a two page dialogue exchange between David and the Engineer.
  • In Spaihts’ draft, the last Engineer died in the pilot’s chair. He had been infected and was carrying a Chestburster. It emerged from him while the Juggernaut was flying which caused the Juggernaut to falter on its path, allowing the Magellan ship to ram it. Shaw manages to eject from the ship just before the ramming took place. Then the Alien that just emerged from the Engineer comes out of the Juggernaut and the final action scene is Shaw being hunted by this creature.
  • Towards the end of the film, Lindeof talks about a deleted scene in which Shaw asks David what it is that the Engineer said to him during their earlier conversation. David tells Shaw that the Engineer told him that they did not come from there [LV-223] but a place called “Paradise”.

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Darkness

Very interesting stuff to say the least. It makes me want to read Spaihts draft even more. Sounds like it would have been a far more entertaining movie if they'd have just done the proper alien life cycle stuff.

Berserker Pred

I wish they had gone with Spaihts' draft! :(

Predalien39

Wow, that sounds incredible.  Everything they talk about that was deleted or changed would have been the way to go.  It sounds like Spaihts actually knew how to please the fans.  The medpod sequence would have been amazing, forcing Shaw to witness her crews death.  The chestburst coming out of holloway during sex...THis would have all made for a more thrilling movie.  Also, Milburn being excited about the worms....
The Derelect ship in the beginning, the Engineer dying in the chair...
Everything makes more sense!  Its all so maddening.

Nightmare Asylum

Interesting...but shouldn't there have been two Aliens in the finale? The Holloway spawned Alien and the Shaw spawned Alien? Or is Holloway's offed as a chestburster?

This script should certainly make for an interesting read.

MrSpaceJockey

Very interesting stuff - don't know if it would have been better (Even if Milbs was excited to find the worm, he should have been excited to find the dead engineers too, ya know...they're extraterrestrials as well. Not to mention the derelict timeframe issue on how long its been there), but its interesting to know theres a version of Prometheus whose roots were much more closely binded with that of Alien.

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 23, 2012, 05:05:25 PM
Interesting...but shouldn't there have been two Aliens in the finale? The Holloway spawned Alien and the Shaw spawned Alien? Or is Holloway's offed as a chestburster?

This script should certainly make for an interesting read.

And the engineer/space jockey chestburster.

Snowdog

a lot of things would be really really awesome to see but i still like the idea of the derelict in alien being millions of years old and so make the alien pretty old. also i'm scared the final act with shaw being hunted by the xeno would look to much like the last act from alien.

ikarop

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 23, 2012, 05:05:25 PM
Interesting...but shouldn't there have been two Aliens in the finale? The Holloway spawned Alien and the Shaw spawned Alien? Or is Holloway's offed as a chestburster?

This script should certainly make for an interesting read.

There were multiple drafts by Jon Spaihts. He didn't specify whether those two scenes were in the same draft on the commentary so anything is possible I guess. He said "the Alien came out of him and infected the exploratory ship" but he probably means chestburster anyway.

Gash

I dunno. Put in that context chestbursters and facehuggers do seem a bit jaded. It's very much a rehash and I can see why Ridley wanted to broaden it out. Engineers, hammerpedes, mutant Fifield and trilobite etc does make it feel like a far more expanded universe of possibilities due to the nature of a genetic weapon gone haywire. I think the classic monsters might have got in the way of that a bit. I'd love to have seen a cameo from something akin to Kane's son at the end, but if this is to be a trilogy there's plenty of time for that should it go in that direction.

Seeing these possibilities has actually made me appreciate Prometheus more. Still want an expanded cut, but wouldn't trade the story as is for more aliens.

Nightmare Asylum

Quote from: ikarop on Sep 23, 2012, 05:13:49 PM
Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Sep 23, 2012, 05:05:25 PM
Interesting...but shouldn't there have been two Aliens in the finale? The Holloway spawned Alien and the Shaw spawned Alien? Or is Holloway's offed as a chestburster?

This script should certainly make for an interesting read.

There were multiple drafts by Jon Spaihts. He didn't specify whether those two scenes were in the same draft on the commentary so anything is possible I guess. He said "the Alien came out of him and infected the exploratory ship" but he probably means chestburster anyway.

Very true. Though I have to admit I think it was kind of interesting giving birth to the pseudo-facehugger in the film in a similar manner to how the average chestburster is birthed.

Would have been interesting if, rather than an actual chestburster, it was something more akin to a facehugger or trilobite that came out of him. Makes sense, given the infecting the ship quote. And it could have made for an interesting twist on the chestburster concept.

SuicideDoors

SuicideDoors

#10
Now all is said and done, I just wish it stayed as a true Alien prequel and didn't deviate Into what became Prometheus. Fox shouldn't have pursued Scott so hard for director, I remember when it was speculated he'd only produce with his protege directing (I know Rinsch is getting bad press atm blah blah), But Scott's influence on the whole thing seems to have squandered what could have been a fanboy wet dream. f**kin' urns for Alien eggs man. God I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it on blu ray it's just one poor imitation with tenuous links


And I say this because Prometheus simply didn't thrill, my strings of adrenaline were barely strummed.

Ash 937

The Spaihts script sounds infinitely more superior than the final story that we got.  What a shame.

Wonderbrick

It appears that alot of really great scenes cut/changed.  :(

"There was a scene were Milburn discovers a little worm and talks about how important this discovery is."

^ This right here would have made a big difference in the film for me.  It annoyed me like crazy that the source of the worms was never mentioned, and that new lifeforms were taken so casually instead of being the great new discoveries that they were.

Salt The Fries

Quote from: Ash 937 on Sep 23, 2012, 05:34:49 PM
The Spaihts script sounds infinitely more superior than the final story that we got.  What a shame.
^ I don't agree, it's just fan-service and rehash, that's all. I wish Lindelof and Scott executed their ideas more thoroughly, meticulously and more consistently.

DaddyYautja

DaddyYautja

#14
QuoteIn some of Spaihts drafts, Holloway and Shaw went to visit Weyland in his private residence, a space station orbiting around Earth. Another one included the couple travelling to Mars and visiting Weyland in his home which had a view of the terraforming work taking place on the planet.

This would have been cool, and they have done some weird thing like Weyland talking to them through a hologram which would've been young Guy Pearce.
Quote
Jon Spaihts imagined Holloway as an older person, perhaps inappropriately old for Shaw as a mate. Additionally Shaw was Holloway's student at university.

This would have worked better with the character the way the film presented him. You could have said that he was near the end of his career or something and not finding his gods would actually drive his older man to drink and behave in that way.

QuoteThere was a scene were Milburn discovers a little worm and talks about how important this discovery is. Lindelof mentions that this would have kinda explained why he was so excited about his later encounter with the Hammerpede.

Anything to build up Milburn, the worst scientist in the universe, was really needed.

QuoteSpaihts experimented with the idea that the Engineers saw in a whiter spectrum than human beings did. To David's eyes, the ruins and catacombs showed interfaces that only he could see. Picking up clues that nobody else was picking up.

Great idea that would have been awesome with the movie being in 3d. Imagine seeing through Dave's eyes and seeing stuff through Jock vision popping out.

QuoteIn Spaihts version of the story, Holloway awakens a Facehugger while he is exploring the pyramid. He is implanted with an Alien, the "classic model". The "Alien" burst out of Holloway during the love scene between Shaw and Holloway.
EEEWWW that would have been good to see. Your husband with another penis coming out of his chest while have sex.

QuoteSpaihts' draft included a cargo hold filled up with Alien eggs, David discovers this area. This scene revealed the purpose of the Juggernaut ship which was on its way to Earth to undo the human experiment. When Shaw follows David into the vaults of the ship, he deliberately infected her with a Facehugger. He also took her helmet so she couldn't run back to the ship and save her life by using the med pod. She still makes it back there by holding her breath and using compressed air.

I guess that would have been ok back when the movie was a straight Alien Prequel.

QuoteLindelof mentions that there was a two page dialogue exchange between David and the Engineer.

I can see what he thought of the scene when he first read  it, "NOT VAGUE ENOUGH!"


Quote from: Salt The Fries on Sep 23, 2012, 05:50:19 PM

^ I don't agree, it's just fan-service and rehash, that's all. I wish Lindelof and Scott executed their ideas more thoroughly, meticulously and more consistently.

wait... a similar story to what he got would be considered "fan-service rehash" just because the inclusion of the Alien creature?

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