Script in the works for PROM Seq

[Alien³]

The sequel just doesn't have the same feeling of something forbidden and ominous.

I got those feelings as soon as I saw this shot...



I thought, holy shit, that's Giger's dome, this is ominous.

[Highland]

Somebody mention a film that's truly scared them in the last 5 years though. I know I can't think of one and certainly not within the genre. I don't think not being scary was one of the films flaws.

I really liked Prometheus, my only criticism are similar to Gash. I thought it would have a few more twists, turns and "aha!" moments but ultimately it all kind of rolled along rather smoothly. The questions it produced really never lead anywhere and as of now if a sequel was never made, I think prometheus would do just fine as a stand alone film.

I welcome a sequel though that's more in the direction of Empire Strikes Back - a true open ender as opposed to another "lets see if this gets popular and we can make a sequel" 

It's almost like they never went full ball on Prometheus even though it was supposedly their main hit movie for the summer. It felt like they were holding back on it.

[Alien³]

If a sequel is never made then I pray for a directors cut...wait, I still think we should have a directors cut.

[ChrisPachi]

I'm firmly of the opinion that if it split Alien fandom then it did its job.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I don't see why being divisive should be considered a good thing, and it didn't just split the fans, it split the general audience as well. To my mind, setting out to deliberately make a divisive film is a cynical move, not a clever one, and I guess that is what I meant by 'watered down', and why Scott should pack his bags.

[Gash]

If Scott goes, I'd be a lot less interested in Prometheus 2. The quality of visuals and direction is very important as is the handling of the more graphic moments and those were the stand out strengths of Prometheus. I'm sure criticisms will have been noted and given that I'd hate to see another director throwing all the visual effects to the fore and churning out a generic sequel. If the Engineers are Ridley's vision then he needs to validate them with the uncivilised behaviour he mentioned. At the moment their degree of ambiguity doesn't scupper how alien they are, but another director might well just make them into Doctor Manhattan rather than the living embodiment of a living renaissance sculpture.

I'm sticking with Ridley because I think only he can justify the back story of the Jockey now that the Engineers have been established.

[OpenMaw]

Somebody mention a film that's truly scared them in the last 5 years though. I know I can't think of one and certainly not within the genre. I don't think not being scary was one of the films flaws.

Are we going to have some arbitrary limitation on this like "mainstream Hollywood" ? Because I can think of a few.

Paranormal Activity gave a lot of people I know a good scare.

The slenderman Mytho's by and large has scared the crap out of a bunch of people. Including myself, it left me a little sleep deprived after a marathon run. Shadows became something I didn't much care for.

The early encounters with the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who were pretty scary.

[Xenomorphine]

Bah! Slender Man! Hijacking meme! Never ceases to amaze me how it's managed to become it's own mini-culture, when it's an invention based on different, real encounters of other things!

In regards to the fear factor of the original 'Alien' films, I've said before that I showed the first two to a friend who had never seen them, but was extremely desensitised to horror films, by virtue of having watched just about every one of them under the sun. Was in readiness for 'Prometheus', as it happened.

He not only jumped at all the right parts (yelped when Dallas was abducted), but became an instant fan and bought his own copies.

[Darth Vile]

I'm firmly of the opinion that if it split Alien fandom then it did its job.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I don't see why being divisive should be considered a good thing, and it didn't just split the fans, it split the general audience as well. To my mind, setting out to deliberately make a divisive film is a cynical move, not a clever one, and I guess that is what I meant by 'watered down', and why Scott should pack his bags.

It's not about setting out to make a divisive film, it's about going back to a franchise that's been around for circa 30 years and shaking it up. If you shake it up, some won't like the result. I wanted to see a film that played with the format and took risks with the iconography. Prometheus did that. As I said, for me it could have been much more scary/shocking, but I really appreciated what they were trying to do with it. That of course doesn't mean you have to like the results....

There's a minimalism in those scenes from Alien that really help that entire sequence linger long after. Prometheus is much more drawn out and I personally think we spend too much time in those same interiors... It's also worth noting that what we were seeing in Alien was entirely new... Prometheus is obviously re-treading old ground...

I don't think it's to do with time. Nor about how fresh it was - I can still get the same kind of emotional sensation and level of engagement when I watch the original, no matter how many times I've seen it.

The sequel just doesn't have the same feeling of something forbidden and ominous.

But that's partly because you have an emotional conection to the film. Alien is still a very atmospheric film, and the jump scenes (particularly the egg hatcher) still work well because they have good technical application - however my kids wouldnt be scared by Alien in the least. They have the same view of Alien as I did to Hammer horror films when I was a kid i.e they think it's passé and slightly boring. Saying that - yes I'd agree... The derelict section of Alien is still very effective in terms of creating an ominous tone, something I think Prometheus does well, but not nearly as effectively as the original (primarily because of the change in tone).

[ChrisPachi]

It's not about setting out to make a divisive film, it's about going back to a franchise that's been around for circa 30 years and shaking it up.

The impression that I get from all of the talking heads on the BR was that it was their intention to make an ambiguous 'could be but probably isn't, you decide, we don't know' prequel to Alien. That is the core of Lindelof's self-proclaimed 'brand' (which I personally loath) and Scott was all for it. IMO this discussion we all continue having was the goal, and while it works from a marketing perspective, and is ingenuous in its own way, it is ultimately cynical and dishonest.

My thoughts on it at least. I would like to see the sequel buckle up the silliness and shoe-horn Prometheus back into the Alien universe, rather than the other way around.

I'm sticking with Ridley because I think only he can justify the back story of the Jockey now that the Engineers have been established.

His decisions on Prometheus cause me to doubt it, but let's hope so.

[OpenMaw]

My thoughts on it at least.

We're just morons, I guess.

[Darth Vile]

It's not about setting out to make a divisive film, it's about going back to a franchise that's been around for circa 30 years and shaking it up.

The impression that I get from all of the talking heads on the BR was that it was their intention to make an ambiguous 'could be but probably isn't, you decide, we don't know' prequel to Alien. That is the core of Lindelof's self-proclaimed 'brand' (which I personally loath) and Scott was all for it. IMO this discussion we all continue having was the goal, and while it works from a marketing perspective, and is ingenuous in its own way, it is ultimately cynical and dishonest.

My thoughts on it at least. I would like to see the sequel buckle up the silliness and shoe-horn Prometheus back into the Alien universe, rather than the other way around.

I'm sticking with Ridley because I think only he can justify the back story of the Jockey now that the Engineers have been established.

His decisions on Prometheus cause me to doubt it, but let's hope so.

There's nothing wrong with ambiguity or unresolved questions in a sci-fi movie... seemed to work for 2001 ASO and Bladerunner (to name a couple). I'd agree that the ambiguity is somewhat contrived... but "cynical and dishonest"? It's only a film for Frank's sake - these aren't politicians, bankers or organised religious leaders... 
I'd like to see another Prometheus movie going in more or less the same direction as the first, but I think the xenos are best left to a straight out Alien/xeno film. That way the demarkation is clear for us fans... 

[Alien³]

Exactly!

The alien series needed a sister film to take us in new directions. Refresh the universe in a way, Prometheus has done that. 2 should be very interesting.

[whiterabbit]

I still believe that the hardest thing for people to wrap their heads around was that Prometheus was a science-fiction movie and not a horror/action-suspense movie. This was the reason I was so let down by Prometheus at first. I was expecting an aliens style of movie. However Prometheus decided to go towards 2001 instead. This movie is much darker however, keeping in tradition with alien movies.

[StrangeShape]

It would have been phenomenal if Giler and Hill would write it. They co-wrote and embelished the first, came up with a premise for second, and wrote the third.

[ChrisPachi]

It's only a film for Frank's sake - these aren't politicians, bankers or organised religious leaders...

Come on, Scott is a businessman - his words - and movies are big business. You know this.

Maybe we will see Scott in Parliament one day, he certainly has a knack for the empty promise.