The guys over at
The Wall Street Journal's SpeakEasy Blog have been chatting with Ridley Scott about the recently completed
Prometheus. In the interview he has revealed a little bit more information about the plot of the movie and its relationship with his Sci-Fi classic,
Alien.
On the story of Prometheus
The central metaphor of “Prometheus” is about a “higher being” who challenges the gods, and the gods don’t want to give him fire. “Fire is our first form of technology,” Scott says, and so by taking fire, the higher being is punished “in perpetuity in a horrible fashion.” Much like the story of the mythological god, Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and for his actions was bound to a rock with an eagle eternally devouring his liver. (Let’s hope things turn out differently for our higher being…)
On returning to science fiction
Scott is especially excited about the story of “Prometheus” — you can hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he discusses the film. The screenplay was written by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. “I think the reason why I haven’t attempted science fiction in a number of years is because I haven’t really come across a script that I really liked,” Scott says. “This developed and came out extremely well.”
On the films relationship with Alien
The last eight minutes of the “Prometheus” story evolve into “a pretty good DNA of the ‘Alien’ one.”
On the digital effects and 3D in the movie
Regarding the use of 3-D and CGI, Scott says he has “completely taken off into this cyberworld” and called working on”Prometheus” “the best time I’ve had in a number of years making a movie.”
On the speculated Ripley cameo
We confirmed with 20th Century Fox that Sigourney Weaver, star of the first four “Alien” films, doesn’t make a cameo in “Prometheus.” Too bad, Ripley fans.
We have all been wondering if
Prometheus would sit comfortably within the universe Scott created in
Alien, but with these comments I think we can safely say that the closing scenes will leave us in a position where we will all feel comfortable about it...
Share your thoughts below.
Prometheus stars Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Ben Foster, and Michael Fassbender.
Prometheus will hit theaters on June 8th, 2012!