Engineering Prometheus – From Jon Spaihts to Damon Lindelof

Started by Corporal Hicks, May 06, 2016, 02:31:57 PM

Author
Engineering Prometheus – From Jon Spaihts to Damon Lindelof (Read 11,600 times)

oduodu

oduodu

#15
So clearly form Spaihts perspective (from the posted picture) he originally intended the engineers to be procreationally dysfunctional. So no hierarchy above them themselves only mankind below them. So does mankind in some way help solve the engineers procreation problem? Or did they not have a procreation problem? So what was mankind's purpose?

In Spaihts draft the exact position of the engineer homeworld was locked but David knew that it was somewhere in Sagitarius's arm. But why would it be hidden? Who were they afraid might discover it ? Also there were other planets that were not hidden and I assume that they were also bases like lv 223. Or were they like earth? With people on them ?


Is there perhaps a possibility that they themselves didn't know the coordinates from their home world to protect their home planet from infection?


You should be proud. Its so far the best article on Prometheus and its development I have read because it clears up a lot of the confusion.

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: oduodu on May 08, 2016, 09:17:23 PM
So clearly form Spaihts perspective (from the posted picture) he originally intended the engineers to be procreationally dysfunctional. So no hierarchy above them themselves only mankind below them. So does mankind in some way help solve the engineers procreation problem? Or did they not have a procreation problem? So what was mankind's purpose?

In Spaihts draft the exact position of the engineer homeworld was locked but David knew that it was somewhere in Sagitarius's arm. But why would it be hidden? Who were they afraid might discover it ? Also there were other planets that were not hidden and I assume that they were also bases like lv 223. Or were they like earth? With people on them ?

Who knows? That still wasn't answered. Perhaps its as a legacy. Ridley used to talk of the Aliens as a weapon so perhaps the Engineers are fighting a loosing battle whom the Aliens are a weapon against and mankind was to be their lasting legacy.

QuoteYou should be proud. Its so far the best article on Prometheus and its development I have read because it clears up a lot of the confusion.

Thanks. That was the intent. I see a lot of confusion and mistakes when talking about the development so I wanted to help clear it up. I worked on this one for a few months to make sure I'd got it all down.

oduodu

Observation

The first draft Spaihts write was clearly then a direct prequel with the crew discovering the derelict.

That in itself was such an important bit of info as it clearly shows that there was a very big evolution from that draft to the alien engineers. The specifics of that draft was probably pre ridley and was purest in terms of Spaihts original ideas.

Thanks for sharing that.


Morgoth

Great article as usual. Great job!

HuDaFuK

Good read!

It does upset me that they got Lidelof to spoil what could've been quite a promising movie.

oduodu

http://www.tgdaily.com/entertainment/66733-what-went-wrong-behind-the-scenes-of-prometheus

Corporal this article claims that Ridley was unhappy with the removal of the xenos. True?

Ingwar

Final question remains: Who f*cked up? Spaiths? Lindelof? Scott? Studio? Or was it a collective failure?

HuDaFuK

Lindelof and whoever thoguht it was a good idea to hire him to hack the Aliens out of the script and turn it into a mess.

Ingwar

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 05, 2016, 07:40:09 PM
Lindelof and whoever thoguht it was a good idea to hire him to hack the Aliens out of the script and turn it into a mess.

Studio hires a writer.

Do you think that Scott regrets what he did with Prometheus? He'll never admit that but I think he does regret his decision.

nonentity

It really annoys me when people talk about Prometheus as if it was a complete failure.  It garnered great reviews and did pretty well at the box office.  I do not think it was a perfect movie by any means, but acting like there is a consensus on it being terrible is just ridiculous.  The people that hate the movie are actually in a very small group, but they talk as if they speak for the entire audience.   

I like that they took chances and did not just regurgitate Alien.  My only wish is that there would have been more of a biomechanical look to the technology and creatures. 

oduodu

oduodu

#25
That's why this article is good: it clearly states that LIndelof asked Scott if it was a good idea  to be over ambiguous after he was lambasted for his over ambiguous writing in Lost and Scott clearly told him to do so . The article clearly indicates this. 

There was an online article where Spaihts indicated that he felt very sorry for Lindelof because he was given very hard task. Many have criticised Prometheus for trying to be too many things and as a result not succeeding at any of them. That's the problem Lindelof had. 

And most of those changes came very late very close to production.

I have always wondered if Ridley just pulled up his shoulders and said:

Meh that's all folks and went to the next film project not too bothered.

It feels like no one really cared.

Personally I liked the way Lindelof spoke to his audience in his script. IMHO he is a good writer.

Spaihts had so many mind blowing ideas that hopefully will be used one day.

I know no one sets out to make a bad movie.

It still feels like : I always wanted to do that unused stuff I story?  Uhm ....let's talk about that later. Like there was a bit of unhappiness from Scott with regards to Completely removing the xenos eggs facehuggers etc.

Anyways the  moment of truth is at hand as we will see if a 180 degree turnaround was made about the original direction the series was supposed to take as the first official trailed has been revealed and released to journalists.

I remain cautious ....




Quote from: Ingwar on Dec 05, 2016, 07:27:50 PM
Final question remains: Who f*cked up? Spaiths? Lindelof? Scott? Studio? Or was it a collective failure?

That was the thing that also killed me right from the start: to whom do you lay the blame? Not for the sake of it but to learn not to do so again . But this thread and the article it links to does answer many questions.

For  the most part I think Scott had the most say although I believe there was some studio involvement but as to exact nature of that. - dunno.

oduodu

Thought it worth mentioning that in the screenwriters commentary Spaihts indicates that in one of his drafts they discovered a pictogram on Mars.

Necronomicon II

Don't think Scott had total control here; the decision to hire Lindelof was not his but via "higher ups", the title Prometheus was Tom Rothman's idea, and Seagers told Haag that Ridley wasn't happy with where Prometheus went...

SM

Quote from: Ingwar on Dec 05, 2016, 07:27:50 PM
Final question remains: Who f*cked up? Spaiths? Lindelof? Scott? Studio? Or was it a collective failure?

With a good box office and positive response from audience and critics, it was a collective success.

HuDaFuK

Quote from: SM on Jan 01, 2017, 09:21:40 PM...positive response from audience and critics...

Is this strictly true?

Most people I know didn't thin kit was that great at all (and I don't just mean hardcore Alien fans) and I remember reviews being fairly mixed, praising the visuals but criticising the story.

AvPGalaxy: About | Contact | Cookie Policy | Manage Cookie Settings | Privacy Policy | Legal Info
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Patreon RSS Feed
Contact: General Queries | Submit News