AvPGalaxy Forums

According to a comment in a new article from Variety, John Logan is currently working with Ridley Scott to revise the script for the Prometheus sequel, Alien: Paradise Lost:

“Following that double-whammy, it was 30 years before Scott tried his hand at sci-fi again, though he now seems firmly re-entrenched in the zone. "Prometheus," 2012's oblique prequel to "Alien," returned him to the extraterrestrial territory he revisits in "The Martian," while he and scribe John Logan are revising the script for an as-yet-untitled "Prometheus" sequel — inspired, he says, by Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" — set to start rolling in February.”

This comes from an article about Ridley Scott getting his much deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week so the comment about Prometheus 2 being unnamed in a recent article (the news of Prometheus 2 being titled Alien: Paradise Lost came back in September) is a little off.

John Logan has been writing for screen since the 1990s. He is responsible for the recent James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre. John Logan has previously worked with Ridley Scott on Gladiator in 2000, one of several films he has been nominated writing awards for.

What do you think of John Logan working with Ridley Scott for Alien: Paradise Lost? Let us know in the comments below!

Link To Post

we'll see in the theaters

Still working on the script three months before production begins. Sounds familiar. Alien3 would be a good example as to why a script should be ready before production starts. Prometheus had how many screenwriters and how many alterations just before filming? I know films have their scripts tweaked all the time, but we've heard this story before.

Hopefully this is just a polish and not a re-write, as I was encouraged by Ridley's recent comments that this film would steer back into the Alien mythology as we know it. Though it's interesting how a couple of trade sites (Variety, Deadline) have been referring to the film as "untitled Prometheus sequel" again, as did the Australian government when it was announced it would be filming there.

Quote from: Kenneth Nation on Nov 10, 2015, 12:17:09 PM
Still working on the script three months before production begins. Sounds familiar. Alien3 would be a good example as to why a script should be ready before production starts. Prometheus had how many screenwriters and how many alterations just before filming? I know films have their scripts tweaked all the time, but we've heard this story before.

The parallels to Alien 3 are worrying. From the sounds of it, I don't think Ridley really knew what direction he wanted to take the sequel in but I think he figured it all out. Remember they were taking pitches from just about anyone.

From what we know Logan would be the 3rd writer mentioned in conjunction with the script but whether the other 2 named writers actually did work, I'm not sure. It was said Jack Palgen was "in talks" and numerous articles list Michael Green as rewriting the Palgen script.

That said, I do feel positive about Logan. He seems to have a nice battery of work and accolades behind him.

Yea that is odd; how it is referred as the "untitled prometheus sequel". Then again one guy makes a mistake and everyone copy pastas the text everywhere. I don't know who the guy writing is but I sure hope he knows how to write movies. :P

Nah this isn't going to be another alien³, if Ridley f**ks it up it'll be his fault. :P

3 script writers and at least 16 dafts ?? At least he is heeding advice it seems but it doesn't bode well.

It worries me that they are still working on the script 3 or so moths before filming is meant to start. But I trust john Logan's writing ad hopefully, its not a complete rewrite, just a polish and sorting out a couple of bits

Logan's probably been revising the script with Ridley for a while now, and this is pretty shoddy journalism; the whole article seems rushed, not to mention the fact that the reporter is ignorant of the sequel's title. 

Quote from: oduodu on Nov 10, 2015, 12:37:35 PM
3 script writers and at least 16 dafts ?? At least he is heeding advice it seems but it doesn't bode well.

Terrible news for us  :-\, Spectre had four writers and one of them was John Logan, the result is pure worthless trash. Skyfall looked great yet the script was so shallow. Haven't seen Rango, but none from his filmography are known for their good script, some are really poor.

I just want Alien 5!!!!

Only positive vibe of this news to me is, that I respect and recognize him as a good writer since I love "Penny Dreadful" and he did good work on the last Bond movies as well. Let´s see.

I doubt they're still working on the script. Sounds like that article on Variety was written a while ago... but then again, he mentions the Paradise Lost poem in the same paragraph. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know the title by now. Could just be a mistake listing Logan instead of the other chap who was doing rewrites.

I'm all for this. It's certainly just a polish, for one... And honestly, I think the biggest mistake they made with PROMETHEUS is that the best version of those two scripts was a combination of both. So a 3rd writer to polish the thing, and a good one, like John Logan, is hopefully, just what this needs.
I also don't think Ridley was totally at a loss for what to do with this sequel. Both writers of Prometheus mentioned having very frank discussions about where the series was headed,.. I just think that after that film was released Ridley saw the errors he made, and decided to correct them, so he knew he had to add stuff to the mix, and that's what all this has been about.
The script is the most important thing.

John Logan has quite a few very good credits to his name, this is good news.  If this is true, I highly doubt its a full re-write and mostly a polish.

Quote from: CainsSon on Nov 10, 2015, 11:01:20 PM
I'm all for this. It's certainly just a polish, for one... And honestly, I think the biggest mistake they made with PROMETHEUS is that the best version of those two scripts was a combination of both. So a 3rd writer to polish the thing, and a good one, like John Logan, is hopefully, just what this needs.
I also don't think Ridley was totally at a loss for what to do with this sequel. Both writers of Prometheus mentioned having very frank discussions about where the series was headed,.. I just think that after that film was released Ridley saw the errors he made, and decided to correct them, so he knew he had to add stuff to the mix, and that's what all this has been about.
The script is the most important thing.

That's true but I just wonder how well the back story for Prometheus was thought out and to what DEPTH the sequels were discussed. In other words the overall story.

---

Like with the martian. The story was there before the script was written.

Lindelof and Scott always made it sound like they had a plan for Promtheus sequels but considering how well thought out I found Prometheus to be that doesn't really please me.

I discussed a few weeks ago with Sir Ridley Scott for the promotion of his latest film in France. I think the article Variety is late, the final script was finished early September and Scott was very enthusiastic about it. He said Green was an excellent writer. He did not talk about Logan but it will surely be a small contribution, it's probably a way to reassure people, 'oh it's a logan's script the guy who wrote Gladiator, Skyfall ... it will be epic "

Scott said something exciting, there will be carnage in Paradise planet, many characters will die in the first part of the film. Elizabeth Shaw is still the main character, Scott wants to talk about the conflict science / religion, for him the two are not incompatible, he knows many scientists who believe in God and it will be even approaching A: PL. He also says that a scene will be even more intense than the cesarean section.

The guy is really passionate, I am eager for his film, I loved Prometheus too.

Are you a journalist?

Journalist is a very big word  ;D
I work occasionally for the cinema section of my local newspaper.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 11, 2015, 09:21:38 AM
Lindelof and Scott always made it sound like they had a plan for Promtheus sequels but considering how well thought out I found Prometheus to be that doesn't really please me.

Correct. I am not sure that the DEPTH of thinking behind it was to the level it should have been.

Quote from: oduodu on Nov 11, 2015, 10:25:11 AM

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 11, 2015, 09:21:38 AM
Lindelof and Scott always made it sound like they had a plan for Promtheus sequels but considering how well thought out I found Prometheus to be that doesn't really please me.

Correct. I am not sure that the DEPTH of thinking behind it was to the level it should have been.

Then again, with Lindelof's departure it sounded like Fox didn't know what to do with the story. I'm hopeful that's sorted now.

Quote from: Stolen on Nov 11, 2015, 10:23:00 AM
Journalist is a very big word  ;D
I work occasionally for the cinema section of my local newspaper.

Ah! Fair enough! Where did you get speak to him?

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 11, 2015, 10:33:43 AMAh! Fair enough! Where did you get speak to him?

Hotel in Paris, it was October 16!
We mostly talked about The Martian. Do you know that the rover of the movie was offered to the king of Jordan, I am jealous!

I hope that new vehicles will be built for the prometheus sequel!

Quote from: Stolen on Nov 11, 2015, 10:43:56 AM
Hotel in Paris, it was October 16

We mostly talked about The Martian. Do you know that the rover of the movie was offered to the king of Jordan, I am jealous!

I hope that new vehicles will be built for the prometheus sequel!

That's pretty cool! Did you publish what he talked about with Paradise Lost?

I think some of the old Prometheus vehicles are in a museum somewhere?

Quote from: CainsSon on Nov 10, 2015, 11:01:20 PM
I also don't think Ridley was totally at a loss for what to do with this sequel. Both writers of Prometheus mentioned having very frank discussions about where the series was headed,.. I just think that after that film was released Ridley saw the errors he made, and decided to correct them, so he knew he had to add stuff to the mix, and that's what all this has been about.

Scott also called Lindelof back for a chat with regards to a sequel after Prometheus was released.

Of course Lindelof suddenly had all kinds of other engagements and excuses but thankfully it turned out that Scott wasn't going to ask him to write a sequel anyway.

Quote from: Collider interview with LindelofCollider: I know from people at Fox that they were really happy with the worldwide box office  of Prometheus and that they are moving forward on a sequel.  Are you involved at all?
Damon Lindelof:  I am not.  Ridley [Scott] and I talked at great length during the story process of the first movie about what subsequent movies would be if Prometheus were to be successful.  And I think that the movie ended in a very specific way that hinted at, or strongly implied that there were going to be continuing adventures worthy of writing stories.  What those stories would be would not necessarily usurp or transcend the Alien franchise as we saw it because we know that the Nostromo hasn't come along yet.  So the idea was to set up a universe that... Is it a prequel?  Okay.  If that's what we want to call it, sure.  But the sequel to this movie is not Alien.  The sequel to this movie is this other thing.
So Ridley and I talked about what that other thing might be, and he was excited about doing it.  But then I think what ended up happening was that the movie came out, and there was a reaction to the movie.  And I got really wrapped up in Trek, and really wrapped up in this movie that I'm producing and writing with Brad Bird.  And I have a TV project that I was really passionate about. Ridley and I had a meeting after Prometheus came out where we started talking again about where this journey would go.  And in that meeting I said to him, unfortunately, before he could ask me and go through the discomfort of whether he was going to ask me or not... It's sort of like having a date where you're letting the other person know, "I'm in another relationship."  So I can't tell you that he asked me and I said no.  But I did communicate to him that I was working on these other things.

The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite.  Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it.  And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus, kind of all in.  The idea of building a sequel to it—from the ground up this time—with Ridley is tremendously exciting.  But at the same time, I was like, "Well that's probably going to be two years of my life."  I can't do what J.J. [Abrams] does.   I don't have the capability.  I'm usually very single-minded creatively.  I can only be working on one thing at a time.  So I said to him, "I really don't think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff.  And I don't know when the other stuff is going to be done." And he was like, "Well, okay, it's not like I asked you anyways."  He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him.  But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don't see myself being involved in Prometheus-er.

Quote from: Whiskeybrewer on Nov 10, 2015, 01:25:16 PMIt worries me that they are still working on the script 3 or so moths before filming is meant to start.

This. Such last-minute revisions are rarely a sign of good things. Not when it's supposedly been through so many drafts already. Really not expecting much from this movie.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 10, 2015, 12:29:13 PMThe parallels to Alien 3 are worrying. From the sounds of it, I don't think Ridley really knew what direction he wanted to take the sequel in but I think he figured it all out. Remember they were taking pitches from just about anyone.

This is what annoys me more than anything about the first film. It came across as though it thought it was some high and mighty philosophical piece that was asking all these big meaningful questions about existence and what have you, but if the development of the sequel is anything to go by, even the people making it had no f*cking clue what the answers were.

Quote from: Stolen on Nov 11, 2015, 09:34:13 AM
He did not talk about Logan but it will surely be a small contribution, it's probably a way to reassure people, 'oh it's a logan's script the guy who wrote Gladiator, Skyfall ... it will be epic "

Isn't that the exact same reason they hired Lindelof.......because Spaights was untested!

In fairness, multiple rewrites are common in Hollywood. It's an old joke that the prevailing mentality is, "Great script! Who can we get to rewrite it?"

And that's scarily closer to the truth than most realise.

The Wizard of Oz was rewritten like 12 times and had 4 different directors. I think people just forget how movies are made and then act surprised.

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Nov 11, 2015, 04:08:13 PM

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 10, 2015, 12:29:13 PMThe parallels to Alien 3 are worrying. From the sounds of it, I don't think Ridley really knew what direction he wanted to take the sequel in but I think he figured it all out. Remember they were taking pitches from just about anyone.

This is what annoys me more than anything about the first film. It came across as though it thought it was some high and mighty philosophical piece that was asking all these big meaningful questions about existence and what have you, but if the development of the sequel is anything to go by, even the people making it had no f*cking clue what the answers were.

Unless they did and Scott actually realized what a hack Lindelof was and threw it out. I can hope.

Supposedly revealed due to the Sony Hacking, Sony expressed frustration at John Logan's early drafts of Spectre.

I am big fan of " John Logan. He has the magic touch, They also call it '' Talent. The very last Trek film "Nemesis"
which my favourite.John Logan wrote the screenplay . It is sad that it flopped..         

Quote from: redalert51 on Nov 15, 2015, 09:59:39 PM
I am big fan of " John Logan. He has the magic touch, They also call it '' Talent. The very last Trek film "Nemesis"
which my favourite.John Logan wrote the screenplay . It is sad that it flopped..       

Loved Nemesis. It was quite good IMHO. What else has he written ??

---

Wow from what I have read about him he is very good. Sounds good.

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv130%2FCorpral_Hicks%2Falien-resurrection-poster-0-1.jpg&hash=315c9db646a34b899ad7afdbb05970e4e79d9953)

Short interview with Logan from Total Film. Image via Bill Robbie of WYB.

(https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv130%2FCorpral_Hicks%2F13233011_10201750157592296_5176305020733076266_n.jpg&hash=30b6fca242215c902e7acca1905bf320fe4e6a85)

As I said some time ago, Logan is a devoted reader of Paradise Lost if that's worth something...  :D
Joking aside, his task on Covenant was to patch all drops in narrative and all illogical character developments. He maybe introduced something new that previous script didn't have... but his major task was to fix overall script written by Jack Paglen and Michael Green. That fact alone clearly suggests that Ridley was and still is aware of Prometheus (minor) mistakes. :)

I belive that Prometheus in fact is not so flawed, there is simply too much mystery and ambiguity in that movie.
Prometheus is grand QUESTION film without any major answer. Just a teaser filled with philosophical/religious implications and with countless symbols, puzzels and dazzling clues. That kind of storytelling is fine in certan amount but only on television shows (Lindelof, Lindelof? Ridley, Ridley?), in movies such thing are very bold move. You risk too much.

Quote from: Enoch on May 16, 2016, 09:18:40 PMI belive that Prometheus in fact is not so flawed, there is simply too much mystery and ambiguity in that movie.

It's not ambiguous. It has no idea what it's doing.

Well it has some ideas... :)
Engineers are not elephant skeletons but humanoids genetically same as human race but apparently technologically more advanced. There is that f**king ampule room (with head) which drove me to insanity during my search for all the clues on relief and murals... (there are many hidden clues that could very well have great impact on Covenant story!!!). We know that Engineers created humans (maybe following someones orders) and we have countless philosophical/mythological traces thrown in that movie. Who is god? Thats a dangerous question. And maybe trying to find answers to dangerous questions (of creation/life/death/...) led to creation of abominations we cant imagine. Also the question of creation (Holloway said that there is nothing special in creation, anyone can create life!!!). And countles repetition of Paradise Lost/Prometheus/Lucifer/Adam and Eve/God motifs succeeded to impose trillions of great questions. I hope that they ll answer 2-3 major ones, and if they do, well, we ll have good movie.

What if Xenos are not mere bioweapons but assets in the story much grander than we can expect. We know that black goo and Xenos could serv as bioweapons, but for what, against who??? I myself would like movie that wants to lif the story to much greater level of storytelling... Such movies tend to be more scarry much creepier than those featuring a monster in a tin can killing numerous people.

Black goo (liquid of creation and destruction) is still a mystery to me.
I think that black goo isn't Engineers technology at all. They stole that like Prometheus stole the fire.

Oh sure, it asked loads of big, existential questions. But then it completely failed to do anything of any value with any of them.

It was only masquerading as a deep and meaningful movie.

Unlike Aliens, which doesn't even try. :P

Aliens was exactly what it wanted to be and it did a great job at doing it.

Whereas by the same measure I'd argue Prometheus seriously failed at what it thought it was.

I wouldn't argue with that assessment at all.

'Prometheus' big problem is it's uncertain what audience it's targeted at. 

It's too stupid to confidently be aimed at any intellectual audience; and yet it's too metaphysical and philosophical to accommodate the casual Saturday night bubblegum rabble.  It's a movie with mixed ambitions in terms of fulfilling its audience expectations and as a results succeeds in neither. 

I'm hoping that 'A:C' finds its footing among the audience with a greater focus on who it wants to please without trying too hard and generally faltering as its predecessor did. 

-Windebieste

Quote from: HuDaFuK on May 17, 2016, 10:07:09 AM
Whereas by the same measure I'd argue Prometheus seriously failed at what it thought it was.

I think the biggest failure in Prometheus is simple: The Engineers aren't interesting. They certainly don't match being as interesting as the alien is. They are pretty interesting in the opening scene. But then for them to decide to make the Engineers hold down the entire film,... And when we finally wake one up and it doesn't do anything of interest except threaten to wipe out humans. It wasn't shocking, and DETRIMENTALLY, it didn't justify explaining what the Space Jockey was. IE: The Space Jockey actually seemed MORE ominous and intriguing in Alien. And that in a nutshell is the failure of PROMETHEUS.

There are some other ideas in there, like the medpod scene and David's relationship with people, and etc that were rivaling some of the stuff in Alien, but nothing involving the Engineers, apart from the opening scene is interesting enough. Not the holograms, the exploding head, the design, and especially not it's desire to kill people. To me - that is what breaks PROMETHEUS. For all of the unanswered questions - I could care less. I just wanted to leave the theatre intrigued by the actions of, and the design of the Engineers. The film started out doing that, and then completely dropped the ball in following that through.

To me, I don't even need the Alien in Covenant as much as I think they NEED to make the Engineers do something more interesting than threaten Earth. It's boring and has been done to death.

I seriously hope they didn't go into thinking the only thing they needed to do to fix it is thrown the Alien in there. The Engineers need to do something interesting. VERY interesting that we do not expect and makes them scary. Experimenting on humans is probably a good place to start.

I'm wondering if we will see them again at all. Maybe we shouldn't if they don't come up with something good.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 17, 2016, 10:00:41 AM
Aliens was exactly what it wanted to be and it did a great job at doing it.

I agree, an excellent film, just not a deep one. :)

Aliens has depth in its character and world-building. I'm not saying it's the deepest film but just because it doesn't dress itself up as some existential, big answer film doesn't mean it doesn't have any depth.

I agree. :)

Once again... Covenant will not be only about Xenos. Xenos are just a part
of greater story and that story certanly inclued humans, Engineers, androids
and God. ;D We had four movies about Xenos, and they were in their core all the same.
Xenos kill all except last two or three characters (what a symbolic), and that cat in firts...  Ridley likes to play
with questions of religion, life, creation, death..So we ll have some mysterious origin story of Xenos, but the answers we are about get will not be so important when new questions emerge.

I don't have any issues with the Aliens not necessarily being the stars. I don't mind films with questions as long as I get the answers.

Aliens has some nice depth to it IMO, the film has some pretty deep themes in the form of mother/daughter relationships and some subtext regarding the Vietnam war.

I'm no film expert but I bet one could dig pretty far into the meanings of that movie.

I completely agree with you when speaking about the the first two movies. But those two never explored grander themes such as creation, life, good, evil, presence of God, etc. Those two focused more on a monster than on those greater questions.They roughly tried to mention such questions but monsters, killing and fear were more important in all Alien movies (Story of monster in tin can is now pretty much worn out). QUESTION OF PURPOSE and MEANING was marginal! Prometheus introduced those questions, but failed to answer any of them... I hope Covenant is about to clarify some of those grand questions. I even don't expect full simple minded answers, I myself want mystery, horror and some big things that can in some way clarify the existence of Xenos. Why Xeno? Why black goo? I dont want Engineers running around and killing I want to know their motifs no mater how strange they could be... Xenos are monsters (bioweapon), but monsters can have larger meaning and purpose other than killing and being monsters. Monsters and bioweapons are made for something and for someone, isnt that true? Why would "GOD" create such organism, and if not God, then who? Why would humans create androids and why would Engineers create humans? Is creation alone enough to someone become God?

I belive that the story of Engineers and their relation with Xeno could be epic. Covenant need right balance of
some answers and mystery, and everything will work. Humans and David as human creation, must play a vital part in whole story of Xeno existance.