They're Remaking 'Alien' -- the 'Prometheus' thread

I am going to enjoy this, but I am still probably going to be laughing during the running away from the rolling spaceship segment of the movie

Referencing the William Gibson script for Alien 3 mentioned earlier -- the producers had him do a script thinking that he was a novel- and short story-writing science fiction guy who would give them a script with crazy ideas and they'd work with a traditional screenwriter to hammer it into a filmable script with those ideas. What he ended up delivering was a completely filmable script with no crazy ideas. Whoops.

xpost

"This one is for your alien mother!"
"Run away!"

More insight into the bizarre world of "how producers think."

I want to say, from memory, that the alternate cut of Alien3 is significantly better. But I can't recall why, exactly.

It's got the better opening scene with Charles Dance finding Ripley on the beach, and it keeps the whole subplot where they actually successfully trap the alien and the crazy guy lets it out, for starters.

well i mean the original alien scripts were a dog's dinner of cliche and producer-driven rewrites too. i've watched enough "making of alien" docs to know that if they'd filmed either the o'bannon original or any of the rewrites straight, if they hadn't drafted scott, who then brought in giger and all the rest, we'd probably (not) be talking about a movie on the level of a third-tier roger corman flick.

but you know...movies. so god knows how it's gonna turn out.

I want to say, from memory, that the alternate cut of Alien3 is significantly better. But I can't recall why, exactly.

yeah, no, it isn't. the parts that work (first 2/3) are rejiggered and expanded in a way that doesn't harm the film, but the final act is still a complete failure.

Guys - I just shudderingly thought about Contact and how Prometheus stole the fire from the ruling deity of his time and how the peeps are going on a search for the origins of humanity... This isn't going to turn into some bullshit religious crapfest, is it?

if it is i am going to throw a flaming trashcan through the movie screen

Seems way too fucked up for that. Then again if the message is "Yeah Jesus Christ was an alien visitor who caused human bodies to explode" I'd be impressed.

I want to see this at the same theater as s1ocki!

trashcan would take up a whole seat, you'd have to buy two tickets, i dunno if it's worth it man.

you bring the trashcan, i'll bring the attitude http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-merv/shades.gif

Jesus having acid for blood throws some real wrinkles into the Eucharist. 10/10. Would watch again.

Actually I think I'll be in the right city but I'm gone before this movie comes out :(

Cautiously optimistic about this.

Would watch even if alien JC's bleeding acid all over the joint.

they already did the jesus stuff in 3 anyway.

if you throw the trashcan please paint one side blue and the other side red so it looks ok to the 3D goggle crowd.

( ^ has never been to a cinema to see a 3D movie so this may be a somewhat outdated view of how 3D works, no idea)

no i pretty much think that is it

in 3d movies generally the actors on the left hand of the screen are painted blue while the ones on the right are painted red. (see avatar)

otm

Wow, the imdb entry has far more info than I remember:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0103644/trivia

Richard E. Grant turned down the role of Clemens. Director David Fincher offered him the role as he was a huge fan of "Withnail & I" and wanted to reunite Grant with co-stars Paul McGann and Ralph Brown.

The damages inflicted on Bishop were too severe to have Lance Henriksen work a prosthetic head while hiding under a table/chair/platform, so the filmmakers ended up having the android being played by... an android. A mechanical copy of Henriksen's likeness was used in this movie for the portrayal of the Sulaco-Bishop.

Writer/Producer David Giler has stated he regrets writing this movie, as it eroded his authority as producer. Giler only committed to writing the film upon demands from Sigourney Weaver who, after Vincent Ward's departure, would only sign on to the film if Giler and Walter Hill would pen the screenplay. Giler claims this later generated conflicts between himself, director David Fincher and Fox Studios executives, with Fox taking Fincher's side over Giler's. After one particularly heated disagreement, Giler walked off the set, leaving his duties to producer John Landau.

Lance Henriksen only agreed to reprise his role as Bishop as a personal favor to Walter Hill. To this day, Henriksen has said he dislikes the film for its nihilistic themes.

---

Also, Alex Thomson was the final DP after the original was too sick to continue. Here's his obit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/jul/05/guardianobituaries.obituaries2

Lolz all around!

I need to rewatch the first two. Haven't seen them in years. Also its funny the way Doom and Quake keep being brought up cos Doom was actually supposed to be based on the first two movies until the license fell through.

"Henriksen has said he dislikes the film for its nihilistic themes"

so he then went off and made Millenium?

...so then he disavowed his career and spent the remainder of his years playing Van Helsing-esque characters in direct to video monster movies.

seriously, that's all he ever does now.

and Alien vs. Predator...

so he then went off and made Millenium?

lol, was gonna say

well huh: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2093965/

And Scream 3.

Who wrote this one?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:30 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Crap. Lindelof is one red flag. The other guy is ... the other.

As a screenwriter Spaihts became known in the film industry as a "go-to-guy for space thrillers"[citation needed] when his science fiction romance Passengers was included on the 2007 Black List of unproduced high-value screenplays.[2] Keanu Reeves had hired Spaihts to write the film after originally becoming attached to Spaihts' now abandoned science fiction script Shadow 19.[3] After Reeves agreed to produce and star in Passengers,[4] Spaihts was commissioned by Scott Free Productions to write the next installments in the Alien saga, two prequel films to be directed by Ridley Scott for a release in 2012.
Spaihts rewrote the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour for New Regency Productions[5] and worked on a film version of St. George and the Dragon for Sony Pictures Entertainment. As main screenwriter Spaihts is also attached to a Disney film project called Children of Mars. He is currently engaged in a two-picture deal at Bruckheimer Films.

"go-to-guy for space thrillers"

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:32 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Spaights wrote a pretty good spec script a few years ago called Shadow 19. It's got some cheesy dialog in it, but also some really neat sci-fi ideas in it. It reads like how Avatar would have been written by the younger, more R-rated James Cameron.

So maybe he was the crazy idea guy, Lindelof is the script polisher, and Ridley is there to tell Lindelof what parts need rewrites and throw shit

So if you call **WEYLAND on your smartphone, you get the on-hold message from Weyland Industries, along with a text that has a link to a little Weyland commercial about their new androids.

Cute trick.

what's the number for tyrell corp

When ESPN gives you money to talk about whatever.

And Empire frame-by-frames the US trailer

Wheres the shot of the Derelict winding up in the same position as first encountered later in the earlier film?

I rather suspect there isn't one.

ugh that grantland piece

I was reading that thinking "You know, any one of us could have done better..."

we could have done 'word at a time' collectively and done better

Wait, what's a Space Jockey? Do they go over that in the films?

Wait, nvmd. Memory failure.

The Space Jockey AKA The Pilot AKA The Big Dental Patient

AKA the disguised Predator

xxpost underpants iirc

Gunna be pissed if the SJ we know & love turns out to be a mutated michael fassbender who climbs into the seat in the last scene before a chestburster erupts

Then again, I like stories about xenoarcheology. I still hold that StarGate was a great movie up until the point they actually went thru the stargate.