Guy Pearce would be open to returning as Weyland

[Mustangjeff]

I'll never understand casting Pierce as Weyland. Did they really cast a young guy, then encase him in old-man prosthetic makeup (which always looks fake, no matter how good it is), just so he could appear as himself in some promo scene that isn't even in the actual film? Why the hell didn't they just cast an older actor?

I'm of the opinion that Prometheus went through some pretty significant story changes during filming and production.  I remember seeing some images floating around in 2012 that contained images of the other three Engineer sleep containers in the Juggernaut.  They all had holes burst through the top cover.  In one shot they had a cover off, and inside was the corpse of an engineer that looked like he got "bursted".  This wasn't the last Engineer, but one of the other three.

The guy Pierce as Weyland is just another example of these changes that took place.  I'm guessing that by the time they figured it was too expensive to do the yacht scene, it was too late to look for a different actor to play the part.

[SM]

The other three hypersleep pods have holes in them in the final film.

[Mustangjeff]

The other three hypersleep pods have holes in them in the final film.

Yes.. 

Sorry this is a bit off topic.

My point is that it seems like they were going to do MUCH more with them. They even created a full size dead bursted engineer in a juggernaut pod.  Why go through the expense and trouble of creating that level of detail if it was never meant to be seen?  IMO, the only logical explanation is that they intended David or some Prometheus crew members to actually inspect the other three sleep pods in the Juggernaut.  I would have really liked to seen this in the film.  We know there are four pods from some of the zoomed out Juggernaut cockpit shots in the film, but none of the other three are shown up close or mentioned in the final film.

Same goes for Guy Pierce as Weyland.   It seems as though Ridley was doing some major fiddling with the story pretty late in the process.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

It seems as though Ridley was doing some major fiddling with the story pretty late in the process.

That's pretty much standard operating procedure for Riddles. Not sure if you have ever seen all the deleted footage and alternate takes for Blade Runner? There were entire sets that weren't used in the final film nevermind a sleep pod or two.

With regards to fiddling with his films, Tom Southwell (Blade Runner Art Dept.) said it best:

The film was constantly changing, developing, improving. Ridley is never satisfied. Constantly improving, layering, enriching.

David Peoples, screenplay writer, describes in Dangerous Days, coming to the set with new pages Ridley has required, only to find that the idea has changed again. "that kind of thing can make you crazy", he said.

Every time they brought the Spinner to Ridley he would ask for an addition, another sticker, another complexity. I was trying to complete something, because I had a ton more things to draw, but nothing was ever finished. Keep adding something on top, to the texture, to the complexity. "This kind of thing can make you crazy".

Now picture Vangelis knitting a score around an ever changing temporary edit of BR and his yarn stretching and shrinking with daily changes. I find it amazing he was even able to do the film, much less make the masterpiece he created that finishes the film so perfectly.

So now look to Ridley Scott, who pushed EVERYBODY to improve, add this, add that, more layers, skuff that up, wet that down, glaze that wall, more texture, more smoke, put more neon, swing that light beam, reflect the neon in the broken glass...it just never stopped, and he pushed people to the breaking point. This is why BR looks and sounds the way it does.

Ridley.

Ridley.

Ridley.

So two words I'll never believe: final cut.

[SM]

It's pretty standard for a lot of films.  Material is constantly added and deleted then added again during the cutting.

And then changed again years later.