Nimrod Antal spoke to Ridley Scott about PROMETHEUS: HELL ON EARTH?

[OpenMaw]

I think Ridley would have been more than happy to have an Alien in Prometheus had a design truly pleased him, and had Damon's script had anything resembling it. The Deacon itself is a testament to the idea that they wanted to keep some of the Alien element but branch off. Much of the conceptual work for the film based on Spaight's(sp?) take also indicates that Ridley didn't mind having the Alien in some form within the film.

[Lemonade]

Actually, I'd wager a guess it was Damon's idea to have the deacon at the end. Remember, he says its the "punchline" to the movie. And remember in the commentary, he says something to the effect of "as a fan, I would be fundamentally disappointed going into this movie and not get to see one alien."

[OpenMaw]

I have not listened to the Prometheus commentary as yet. I've been meaning to check it out at some point.

Though I feel it raises a potential danger for the film, because that was a tease. The audience was shown a birth, and it's going to want some kind of payoff for that birth in the second film. That's just my take on what everyone i've spoken to has echoed regarding that ending. I think the best parallel would be the 'calling card' at the end of Batman Begins. Even if it takes a very different form from either Giger's beast, any of the subsequent films, or the Deacon itself...



"The joker is a comin'." 

[Lemonade]

Where is that picture from? It's really cool.

[OpenMaw]

I'm fairly certain it's concept art for the ultramorph. The creature that would have been featured in Spaights script.

[Lemonade]

Shame. It would've looked gorgeous in Prometheus.

[CainsSon]

Shame. It would've looked gorgeous in Prometheus.

I think that UltraMorph design looks cool as hell but isn't far enough removed from what we've already seen. Ive always agreed that we shouldn't have seen the Xenos in Prometheus, because TO ME, a Prequel should be watchable BEFORE the original, and you cannot feature the Alien life-cycle in a Prequel without ruining the dramatic tension of Alien. The final scene where the Deacon is birthed, remains my biggest problem with Prometheus because new generations will never be surprised by the Chestburster scene in ALIEN after having seen PROMETHEUS, because they have seen it all already and will know what to expect. They should have at least left out the image of the Trilobite facehugging the Engineer. If that would have somehow not been seen, ALIEN would remain, in tact dramatically.

[OpenMaw]

I think i'd go the other way and keep the proto-facehugging. For those who know what it is, it's an ominous foreshadowing. For those who don't, it looks like the Engineer is getting smothered to death with a disturbing oral violation.

[Lemonade]

Eh, that's not how movies work CainsSon. You can't be beholden to one movie when making another. You can't say "Oh, we can't have this in our movie because it takes away the surprise in another movie" especially in regards to Prometheus, which is basically what Scott wanted Alien to be anyway. So in essence, it's a remake. Seven movies deep, I think we all know what happens when someone gets that spider-looking alien thing affixed to their face.

Prometheus is about different things anyway. It has new ideas and could easily work without any bursting. But luckily, that wasn't the case, because as an Alien fan I want to see that stuff.

[CainsSon]

Eh, that's not how movies work CainsSon. You can't be beholden to one movie when making another. You can't say "Oh, we can't have this in our movie because it takes away the surprise in another movie" especially in regards to Prometheus, which is basically what Scott wanted Alien to be anyway. So in essence, it's a remake. Seven movies deep, I think we all know what happens when someone gets that spider-looking alien thing affixed to their face.

Prometheus is about different things anyway. It has new ideas and could easily work without any bursting. But luckily, that wasn't the case, because as an Alien fan I want to see that stuff.

Well, people have different ideas of how a movie should be.

If I were Scott, I wouldn't want to ruin the context of my own Highly Regarded Masterpiece of film making (ALIEN is protected by the AFI for having Historic Significance), and that movie's entire plot pivots on screenwriting plot-points surrounding the Alien's life cycle.

So yes, maybe that's not how a person should THINK about movies but in this particular case, you look pretty dumb for ignoring it. PROMETHEUS wasn't made with the anticipation of only attracting viewers who already know the Alien's life cycle. In fact, I'd wager that this had a lot to do with the decision-making process, and good for them because not everyone who goes to see PROMETHEUS has ALREADY seen ALIEN and if I'd seen PROMETHEUS first, I might now even care for the Chestburster scene in ALIEN and we are talking about the most infamous death scene in a horror film, aide from maybe the Shower scene in PSYCHO. Would it be smart to make a Prequel to PSYCHO that involved a different woman in another shower, getting stabbed with a bbq fork by a dude dressed as his dead mother? See what I mean?

[OpenMaw]

Pretty much square on, CainsSon.

Though I would say there are ways to get an adult alien(Or a variation on that theme) into a movie like this and sidestep the life cycle all together. Which is what I personally would have done if I had written Prometheus. There would have been something in stasis within the pyramid that was awoken when the crew started bumbling around. A sentinel/guardian. 

[Xenomorphine]

What's Scott said about 'Prometheus'? That the version we saw was the movie he wanted us to see. It isn't ambiguous. We need look no deeper than that.

[OpenMaw]

Scott has said a lot of things over the years. Of Alien he's said the version he released is his preferred version, but he's also said he would have loved to do a "3 hour version." The man, like most great artists, changes his mind a lot.

[SiL]

When? The original workprint was three hours and they cut it down to the theatrical version. When Fox decided to re-release the movie in theaters their plan was to just make a longer cut, and he took the opportunity to supervise a new edit shorter than the original. He still said in the introduction to it on the Quadrilogy that the original remained his preferred edit.

[OpenMaw]

When? The original workprint was three hours and they cut it down to the theatrical version. When Fox decided to re-release the movie in theaters their plan was to just make a longer cut, and he took the opportunity to supervise a new edit shorter than the original. He still said in the introduction to it on the Quadrilogy that the original remained his preferred edit.

He has said it on many occasions that he wanted to do a three hour version, and no, i'm not talking about the workprint of the film. He was more than interested in exploring all of the ideas present O'bannon's original film. He talked about this back in 79 and the early 80s. He also talked about it when asked about doing a future Alien installment post Aliens/A3/AR. Budget necessitated the cut downs more than anything. Yes, he has said it.