As I recall, the murmurs were that this
was going to be a remake of '
Alien'. Then it got changed to a direct prequel, then changed (again) to what ended up being '
Prometheus.
And, after having just rewatched '
District 9' for the first time in ages, there was something
awfully familiar about seeing an alien race of insectoid-looking creatures who had something to do with an urn-like container with black fluid in it, which caused a human being to begin painfully mutating...
Interestingly, the stuff on there was being used as a fuel, not a weapon, even though it had extremely similar properties to what was shown on '
Prometheus'. That it caused genetic mutations was clarified as being incidental.
Good to see the theory I've been favouring for a while has ended up on the big screen somehow.
The similarities were very obvious, though. In retrospect, I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of it. Cross '
Alien Versus Predator' with '
District 9' and you basically get the story of '
Prometheus'.