The "Prometheus" trilogy

[cheebacheeba]

Despite Camerons *awesome* effort with ALIENS, Scott made a more atmospheric film, and I greatly look forward to the series to head back into scifi/thriller territory and away from action flick.
Not to mention a different side of things from the original creator...could be a whole new deal that nobody's expecting whatsoever.

[Morbidementia]

3D... geez. Get used to it, I guess. We're going to be hammered with 3D from here on out, or at least until sales drop off because of backlash.

I like the prequel idea, and I like the idea of investigating the xenomorphs interacting with alien species other than Predators. I still think an Aliens movie without any humans at all would be awesome, but I'm sure I'll never get it.

I have faith in Ridley Scott, I'm really excited about this.

[_____V_____]

Those of you looking forward to Ridley Scott's return to space with his currently in development Alien prequel, prepare for some hefty disappointment.

According to Script Flags, Scott is at odds with 20th Century Fox, the major studios behind the project over budgetary and creative differences. 
It would seem Scott wants a budget of around $250m to make it a sci-fi spectacular, and is also pushing for an 18-rated level of violence and horror. Fox, however, don't plan on investing anywhere near that sum, and are keen to get a 13/15 rating to maximize the audience appeal.

Can they hammer out a deal? Keep your fingers crossed.

In other news, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) is a hot commodity in Hollywood these days, reportedly taking meetings around town on projects including McG's This Means War and Mission: Impossible IV. (She was recently cast as the female lead in Sherlock Holmes 2.)

But now comes word that Rapace might be under consideration for the female lead in Fox's Alien prequel.

Scriptflags claims Rapace has met with prequel director Ridley Scott and his Scott Free production company exec Michael Costigan, where the Swedish actress is said to have professed her love for Scott's films growing up. The site speculates that they met with Rapace for the female lead in the Alien prequel, sure to be a tough chick role not unlike the one she's gained international fame for.

But considering the crowded development slate Scott keeps, who knows? It could just as easily have been a meet-and-greet for any of his movies.

[Morbidementia]

Really, Fox? Really? You want to turn Aliens, a solid R rated franchise about aliens who bite holes through peoples heads into a PG-13 property? Really? You don't think one of the most popular horror franchises ever making a return to its famous original award-winning director and mastermind is worth $250m? Really? Really?

Fox, you are F'n idiots. Really.

[_____V_____]

Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof turned in his new draft of the screenplay for Ridley Scott's Alien prequel on Saturday, and 20th Century Fox execs are very pleased with it indeed!

We’re told all involved parties have been made to sign nondisclosure agreements about the plot, but our spies have been able to glean several interesting nuggets about the project, which is set roughly 35 years before Scott’s dystopic classic.

Here's what we know ...

One reason Fox execs are so thrilled with Lindelof’s Alien draft is that not only is it creatively engaging, but it adds no expensive "set pieces" — production-speak for elaborate, effects-heavy action sequences that add millions to the cost of a film — to the movie. 20th Century Fox and Scott have been wrangling over the director’s proposed budget. One insider familiar with the situation puts Scott’s suggested budget at between $150 million and $160 million; Fox obviously, would like that number to shrink. Still, this is some good news for Fox, which has almost nothing resembling a blockbuster in the hopper for the summer of 2012, and could certainly stand to reinvigorate a wildly popular multi-part sci-fi franchise.

A parade of actresses have met with Scott to discuss the lead role — that of a female Colonial Marine general — but only two have engendered substantial enthusiasm from both Fox brass and Scott Free, the director’s Fox-based production company:

Vulture can report exclusively that at the top of the list is Natalie Portman. (She recently detached herself from the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at Lionsgate Films out of concern that she was now too old to play the part of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet. Portman turns 30 next June; Bennet is only 20 in both Austen and Grahame-Smith’s versions of Pride.)

Right behind Portman is the already-reported Noomi Rapace, star of the Swedish The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Don’t take Scott’s recent interview with The Independent — in which he claims that the Alien prequel would be “really tough, really nasty” — to mean this is automatically going to be an R picture: We’re told another reason Fox execs are pleased with Lindelof’s rewrite of original screenwriter Jon Spaihts’ script is that it's still aimed at a more accessible PG-13 rating. "The thinking," explains one insider, "is that if the original Alien were released today, minus the F-bombs, you could still get a PG-13. Alien is a very Jaws-ian movie: There’s no sex, and while there’s lots of violence, most of it is off-camera. Maybe you’d have to cut away from certain scenes two seconds earlier, but it could be done."

The prequel still lacks a proper name. Untitled Alien Prequel hardly comes trippingly off the tongue, but while several titles are being bandied about, none have unanimous support of Fox and Scott.

It’s not in any way a reboot of Alien or the Aliens franchise; it’s really meant to be viewed as Scott’s second Alien movie. What's more, no Predator creatures appear anywhere within the film. Despite Fox’s efforts to mate the two sci-fi icons (sci-ficons?), Scott’s camp sees the two franchises as hailing from distinct genres that will not co-mingle, synergy be damned. “The later Aliens movies were action movies, but the original Alien was a horror-suspense film," explains one spy. "This returns the franchise to its roots."

Scott himself said last month, in an interview with the Independent: "The film will be really tough, really nasty. It's the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"

Let's see what Ridley Scott and the boys over at Fox conjure up eventually.

[_____V_____]

Alien Prequel Story Leaked!!




***BEWARE OF POSSIBLE MAJOR SPOILERS***




The long awaited Alien prequel sees a group of terraformers (the space jockeys as seen in the first film), moving from planet to planet in order to make them habitable. In tow are two human slaves, who are forced via mind control to engage in sexual activities – the twist? They’re both male!

Now this is a twist fans won’t be expecting. In a shock turn of events the details of Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel have been leaked online, only for Fox to order the website in question (Whatsplaying.com.au) to take the story down again – but not before somebody managed to grab a screenshot first!

While this does have a bit of a whiff of hoax about it, it was a story too interesting to simply pass up! So taking this with a pinch of salt for now, here are the details of the original story:

The script (by John Spaihts and recently rewritten by Damon Lindelof) tells of the space jockeys traveling from planet to planet and terraforming them.

The space jockeys are holding captive of two human slave farmers named Fin and Karik and force them (via mind control) to engage in sexual activity. (The twist: they’re both male).

There will be a black Vasquez-esque spaceship crew member named Oliver.

Gemma Arterton was offered to play a female crew member named Truks.

The aliens are used by the space jockeys (known as “Growers” in the script) in their terraforming processes as some sort of biological tools.

The signature alien won’t appear until the latter half of the film when it fully develops into it (this hints that we’ll be seeing different and new forms of aliens).

The editor calls the film a hard science fiction part psychological drama.

Ridley has met with Lance Henriksen to appear in the film.

The idea behind the man-on-man action is apparently that the growers want their human slaves to breed. They’ve no idea about human genders as they are a single sex race and so things get a little… confused, leading to what the original story described as “Brokeback Alien”.

It would be cool if this twist did turn out to be true, lets be honest here it’s certainly untrodden ground, and if said slaves are conscious of their actions while being forced into this it’ll make for some pretty harrowing scenes.

What do you think? Bull or believable?

[_____V_____]

So Ridley Scott is apparently done meeting with potential leads for his upcoming “Alien” prequel and surprise, surprise, the list of names in contention for the part is still the same as it has been for the past little while:

Noomi Rapace, Carey Mulligan, Abbie Cornish and Natalie Portman.

However, it appears one more name, and a pretty obvious one, is now in the mix.

Olivia Wilde, riding in a wave of advance buzz, mostly from geeks going gaga over her form-fitting getup in “Tron: Legacy,” is apparently another name being bandied about to kill some aliens.

No word on what has happened to Anne Hathaway who was rumored last week. She didn’t seem like a strong choice for the part, and we’d imagine that she had a meeting and then was quietly taken off the list.

No mention of Gemma Arterton either, who was an early name linked to the project.

Now comes the hard part of choosing somebody and while Scott has a favorite, 20th Century Fox is expected to be “heavily involved” in the final choice.

It’s hardly a shocker that Scott wants Rapace for the part. While a role in the upcoming “Sherlock Homes 2,” an Oscar campaign underway for her work in “The Girl With Dragon Tattoo” and a fresh and eager young face in Hollywood, it seems everyone wants to work with her.

But apparently Rapace’s command of English might be a problem.

Looking over the candidates as a whole, it’s clear that neither the director nor the studio are too concerned with landing a big name and other than Portman, these aren’t actresses known to mainstream crowds. But that’s not really an issue, since the marketing and allure of the ‘Alien’ films have also been on the creatures not the actors.

All that said, the film was last reported to have a budget in the $160 million range (though Fox would like to bring it down a bit) so you can bet the decision is going to be a very tough one.

The project has a script from “Lost” scribe Damon Lindelof who was brought on to rewrite Jon Spaihts’ draft in July, and everyone is quite pleased with the result. The film is gearing up to be a PG-13 affair which is no surprise since Fox will want to recoup their budget and make some money on this. No official production plans have been unveiled but it’s a safe bet everyone involved wants this in front of cameras soon as possible.

For everything else we know about the project so far, here is a brief rundown:

* The prequel won’t involve Ellen Ripley. It will, however, continue the franchise’s tradition of having a female protagonist.
* Lindelof’s screenplay places the project at a PG-13 rating, doesn’t add expensive set pieces, but remains “creatively engaging.”
* The plan is to film two prequels, both of which will be shot in 3D.
* The action takes place thirty years prior to the events of the first Alien movie.
* Scott says the film is about “the discussion of terraforming — taking planets and planetoids and balls of earth and trying to terraform, seed them with the possibilities of future life.”
* The prequels will elaborate on how “The Space Jockey” fits into the world of Alien.

[_____V_____]

This news, if correct, will make some people very happy, but let’s stress ‘if correct.’

The wife of Swiss artist and designer H.R. Giger told the TV show Glanz & Gloria (http://www.glanzundgloria.sf.tv/Nach...ach-H.R.-Giger) that her husband is ‘on board’ for the new Alien film being developed by Ridley Scott.

This would mark the artist’s first direct association with the Alien series since David Fincher’s Alien 3.

Previously, of course, Giger conceptualized and built designs for Ridley Scott’s original Alien — those designs scared the hell out of people and earned the artist an Oscar and legions of fans. His highly sexualized, ‘biomechanical’ visualizations were one of the primary factors that made Alien stand out from other films of the time, and his core xenomorph design became one of the most recognizable movie monsters.

Thing is, H.R. Giger could be doing anything from a bit of consulting all the way up to actually working on full designs for the new film. Since the movie is reportedly based in part on the space jockey skeleton he designed for the first movie (in a concept painting by Giger), it’s reasonable to think that he’d be brought on for this unusual prequel.

But don’t assume just yet that this means we’re going to get a full-on Scott/Giger reunion. And since his wife is still saying this will likely be two films rather than one, which is a claim that Fox has refuted, fans will be curious to know how current Giger’s conversations with Ridley Scott and Fox have been, and what her statement really means.



Also, there’s some big news on Ridley Scott‘s two-part prequel to his 1979 film Alien. First up, time to kill off the rumor that the project has been delayed: Fox says that there is no delay.

But more important, a report says that the first film is called Paradise, and that cast sought by Ridley Scott includes Michael Fassbender and Michelle Yeoh. More info on the character details and plot of the film follow. Please note that there are possible spoilers in the info that follows.

First up: the title. Vulture does not explain any context for the title, but doesn’t refer to the film as Alien: Paradise or anything like that. Just Paradise. But the report does say,

We’re told that Paradise reboots the original Alien franchise, in that the story follows a group of space travelers who encounter a monstrous alien creature that picks them off, one-by-one.

That’s less than inspiring, but could be a broad generalization. Because while fans are nervous about a film that explored the ‘space jockey’ from Alien, they could be far more nervous about something that boils down to a reboot. The news that Damon Lindelof‘s script revisions were well-received was good, but now…

So let’s talk about casting. Vulture reports that Leonardo DiCaprio was sought for the lead role at one point, and efforts to work out a schedule that would see this film shot after Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar are what resulted in the rumored shooting delay. But Mr. DiCaprio hasn’t been cast, and the schedule remains as it was before the rumor.

The idea that Ridley Scott would look for someone like Leonardo DiCaprio is interesting — what part in the film would be well-suited for him? Even when he’s part of an ensemble cast (The Departed) he has a tendency to stand out.

There’s also word that the director wanted Michael Fassbender for a character called David, who is an android and precursor to the Ash and Bishop characters from Alien and Aliens. But Mr. Fassbender’s quote has risen astronomically, and he may be out of the running for now. Too bad if so — fans might have loved to see Robo-Fassbender.

There’s also a character called Vickers, “a 40-something, tough-but-sexy woman,” for which Michelle Yeoh is being sought. If you read the spoiler-ish script details which was posted a while back in the previous posts, you might guess that this is the Vasquez-like character mentioned there, assuming those details were correct.

Other characters:

* Elizabeth Shaw: the main female lead, for which Noomi Rapace remains a front-runner.
* An unnamed ‘older businessman along for the ride’. Shades of Burke from Aliens?
* Engineer 1: a character to be played by a very tall actor who will be replaced by CGI, a la Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

[scouse mac]

Not quite sure what to make of all this information, would tentatively welcome a prequel with Scott on board and some decent actors being mentioned. The thing is all this is mostly speculative 'pie in the sky', will have to wait and see what actually emerges from the mix.

Alien, Aliens & Alien3 are amongst my favourite sci-fi/horror flicks so would love another quality addition. Fingers crossed.

[ferretchucker]

Originally Posted by scouse mac

Not quite sure what to make of all this information, would tentatively welcome a prequel with Scott on board and some decent actors being mentioned. The thing is all this is mostly speculative 'pie in the sky', will have to wait and see what actually emerges from the mix.

Alien, Aliens & Alien3 are amongst my favourite sci-fi/horror flicks so would love another quality addition. Fingers crossed.

Glad to see someone else has a little love for Alien 3. I enjoyed the isolated, totally hopeless feel of it. Granted, we got that with the original - I just feel this film did it in a different but equally affective way.