What If Prometheus 2 Needs a Different Director Than Ridley Scott?

[TimmyTurnersDad]

As a lover of great films, I greatly admire Ridley Scott's best works. ALIEN is still probably my personal favorite horror film of all time and Blade Runner is one of my personal favorite sci-fi films ever as well. Hell, I even enjoyed Prometheus, though I felt it could have been much, much better. That being said, I was personally glad to hear that Damon Lindelof wasn't going to be involved in the screenwriting process for Prometheus 2 (for obvious reasons) and have been cautiously optimistic for how the next film might turn out whenever it gets made.

But as I've spent the past hour or so catching myself up to speed on the matter and speculation from the fellow members here at the forum, I've started to wonder if it's in the film's best interest for Ridley to be its director? From the sound of things, it appears that he tends to be very controlling on the screenwriters and design teams so that the final product looks exactly how he personally envisioned it.

What if Ridley were to step down from directing the film himself and only act as a producer or creative consultant for the making of Prometheus 2? Who would you personally hope to direct the film in Ridley's place? Or do you think that it could only be done successfully with Ridley?

While he doesn't have too many credentials to his name, I'd personally want Gareth Edwards to direct the film. He's the director for the upcoming Godzilla remake that will be coming out in May and also made the indie monster film, Monsters, a few years back. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders for storytelling and even has a really good eye for beautiful/haunting cinematic shots. Take a look at the trailer for Godzilla if you want an example of what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKO10hKtYw#ws

I could see Edwards making a film that properly satisfied Ridley's thirst for a 'thought-provoking' film while also being legitimately terrifying to please the fans.

But again, what do you all think on the matter?

[SM]

From the sound of things, it appears that he tends to be very controlling on the screenwriters and design teams so that the final product looks exactly how he personally envisioned it.

That's the same for a lot of directors.

I'm fine with Riddles to do the sequel.

[SiL]

... that's, like, his job. That's ... that's what directors do.

[TimmyTurnersDad]

From the sound of things, it appears that he tends to be very controlling on the screenwriters and design teams so that the final product looks exactly how he personally envisioned it.

That's the same for a lot of directors.

I'm fine with Riddles to do the sequel.

... that's, like, his job. That's ... that's what directors do.

True, but I get the impression that Ridley is going about that in a way where he faces little to no opposition. It's that sort of situation that enabled George Lucas to make the Star Wars prequels the way he did and how he has continually tampered with the original trilogy as well to better fit his personal vision.

Mind you, I'm not against Ridley directing the film either, I'm just taking a gander at speculating the possibilities.

[Gash]

Ridley is still the main selling point for me. Not just the design and visual style, or the framing and the fact that he's one of the best directors to meld his vistas or practical effects with CGI (without the excess of many if not most director's), it's a more immersive experience in his hands and I see no reason to trawl around for other directors when you've got one of the best. Prometheus is his take on the civilisation that brought about the alien, so I'd rather see how he develops his own idea.

[SM]

Sometimes it's good to have someone who says 'Maybe you should think about this a bit more' - but by the same token, these are guys who are used to getting their own way and more often than not their judgment has produced favourable results so they just get on with it.

Especially in the case of Lucas, who still made squillions of dollars fulfilling his own personal vision - on his own dime no less - in spite of some people screaming at him to stop.

[Aspie]

ooooooooooooooooo, Gareth Edwards is an interesting choice.




I like this new guy.

[TimmyTurnersDad]

ooooooooooooooooo, Gareth Edwards is an interesting choice.

I like this new guy.

Thanks! I actually was here on and off back in early 2012, but haven't been here in awhile.

Mind you, I'm completely fine with Ridley directing the film. But I do think that having someone else direct the film could actually work well too. I'm not saying that Ridley should be completely done away with, by all means this is his series after all. But maybe if he were to step back into the Producer role and allow another director take a shot at it, things could really 'click' for the Prometheus storyline.

Edwards stands out for me personally, but I'm sure that there are other directors out there that could work well too. Does anyone else here have suggestions?

Sometimes it's good to have someone who says 'Maybe you should think about this a bit more' - but by the same token, these are guys who are used to getting their own way and more often than not their judgment has produced favourable results so they just get on with it.

Especially in the case of Lucas, who still made squillions of dollars fulfilling his own personal vision - on his own dime no less - in spite of some people screaming at him to stop.

In the case of Lucas, he actually had a lot of opposition against him through out the original trilogy. He wrote and directed the first film on his own, but I have heard that there was apparently plenty of studio control involved to help keep things in check. If you go back and watch the audition videos for the first film, you can notice the type of political dialogue that was present throughout the prequel trilogy. And then with Empire, Lucas only acted as an "idea man" and just gave the basic plot idea for another screenwriter to write and another director to direct. With Jedi, Lucas takes a bit more control in the making of the film than in Empire by co-writing the script... which I suspect is why the Ewoks happened.

[Aspie]

It would have to be between Duncan Jones and Gareth Edwards for me.

[Kimarhi]

I didn't really have a problem with the directing of Prometheus.  The story needs tightening up. 

[Xenomorphine]

The director's job is simply to interpret the script. That's where the main problems had been and we know he had a great deal of input in it. One could say there's an argument for lessening his impact on the script, but he's producing it.

What it requires is a good writer.

And much better creature designs wouldn't hurt, either...

[ChrisPachi]

So much what Xenomorphine said.

I personally want to see Scott complete his 'grand idea' no matter what the outcome. Prometheus is kind of the Alien sequel Scott never made and I want to see him finished, out of interest if nothing else.

[whiterabbit]

Riddles. He's our man. If he can't do it; we're boned! 

The creature designs were fine. I mean they were going for plausible aliens... what ever that means. They could use a writer who actually has an original idea though.

[Eva]

There was nothing wrong with Ridley's directing skills in Prometheus, nor his superb eye for visuals. Where Ridley imo to some extent didn't meet expectations during the making of the film, was in the script/story phase and in the editing phase.

In hindsight, he probably gave Lindelof too much creative control of putting together the final script (at Spaiths' expense). It would also have benefitted the film greatly, if more emphasis had been put on character and story development while editing the final cut, instead of getting the pace right before everything else. A lot of the deleted scenes did exactly that at the expense of the pace Ridley wanted and that's probably why he left them on the cutting room floor.

[Valaquen]

Ridley at his best or worst always at least delivers something that looks great.

I personally think that he should have been tougher regarding Prometheus' story, but maybe he was truly happy with it. His writers just weren't up to snuff on that project. Spaihts laid a good framework but he didn't seem particularly knowledgeable about the series. There are continuity errors galore throughout his script that would have annoyed the die-hards. Lindelof... we all know the story.

I wouldn't mind Ridley coming back so long as the script was good. Other directors I'd like to see would be Neill Blomkamp (despite the disappointing Elysium) or Duncan Jones... There are a ton of great directors out there I'd like to see do it.