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

If you want to tell an interesting story about humans, engineers, xenomorphs and androids, you start with the parallels between the first two and the last two. humans and engineers are creators of terrible things. any other weapon created by either race pales in comparison to the potential of the xenomorph or the android.

You should, perhaps, actually compose a fucking story where an outbreak of the parasitic xenomorph species is pitted directly against the terrifying cleverness and fearlessness of a single android. that could be interesting above and beyond the cinematographical future-gothic playfair excess that has typified the Alien whatchamasaga to date.

You might, if you gave a shit, consider the possibility that humans resemble a god figure admired by a species that do not resemble humans - say if the engineers created humans in the image of "god" and as such we ourselves are simulacra, like our own androids. You might bother to explore this concept in a couple of dialogues such as those that take place in any given wachowskis movie (speed racer even has one. for fuck's sake!)

You could even use one of such dialogues to explore the need to create extraordinary, self-directing weapons - and you could let the audience revel in the irony of how "our" androids are not so different from the space jockeys' monster race. You could even spin a pretty healthy narrative about how a creator can lose control of their own creation - and throw a few loose ends out there with implications about who created who (back to the whole "god looks like us, god made space jockeys, space jockeys made us in the image of their god" thing).

Or you could make this film. Hey, we all gotta get paid and even the rich and established have deadlines. For my part, let me know when I can see it for free (legally).

btw I looked under the formatting help for how to mark up my post as "pompous" but there wasn't one so you will all just have to suck it.

summary, if I may:

the second most interesting contrast available in the alien mythos is between the space jockeys and weyland-yutani et al. only one of these allows for human interest storylines, so ok, we'll go with that.

the most interesting contrast is between the androids and the xenomorphs. this narrative doesn't really allow for humanity at all, except via the magic of bullshit, so ok, that can take the back burner.

to me, the absolutely most fascinating question available - and presented, in this film, but never explored - is who created who and for what purpose. I love the concept of intelligent design in science fiction. I think it's one of the reasons sci-fi succeeds, because it's not afraid to talk about who made Jehovah (ok, frankly, other types of genre lit probably aren't afraid either, they're just more concerned with shooting, stabbing and/or fucking, which is fine and perhaps healthier overall). If we think we were created by something else, why wouldn't that something else believe the same? Would they try to re-create their creator? Having tried and being disappointed, would they also feel the need to hit delete, many times, as hard as possible, cursing all the way?

You might, if you gave a shit, consider the possibility that humans resemble a god figure admired by a species that do not resemble humans -
― El Tomboto, Friday, 15 June 2012 03:28 (1 hour ago) Permalink

But they do look like humans. Hell, they have "identical DNA."

yeah i think the tombowt is imagining an alternate, "not completely shit" version of this movie

wherein space jockeys have elephant trunks

far as i'm concerned, they do

i'm with you

tombot you should probably get cracking on that script

ALIEN vs SMALL WONDER

alien vs roy beatty

alien vs data

alien vs terminator ... oh wait already exists

alien vs ananova

alien vs babar the elephant

alien vs lily allen

alien vs ALF

I'm actually encouraged that this movie has great images in it and actually "works" as a movie in a lot of ways. Hopefully Ridley gets a better script for the Blade Runner sequel.

Blade Runner sequel.

Maybe I've been blind dumb deaf but NOOOOOO

Yeah, it's been in the works for a while. A hopeful sign, though: Hampton Fancher on board for the script, and since he cowrote the original, who knows? I've no doubt Dan O'Bannon is swearing loudly at Prometheus from the great beyond.

Hampton Fancher on board for the script, and since he cowrote the original, who knows? I've no doubt Dan O'Bannon is swearing loudly at Prometheus from the great beyond.

I have this nightmare of Lindelof being called in to rewrite it. Just leave Blade Runner alone please, tyvm.

i feel the need to say this morning how much i love that this thread, originally just They're Remaking 'Alien', starts with

psych

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, February 11, 2005 10:16 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

it's just so perfect considering where we find ourselves now

Waiting for the speculative fiction universe version of the avengers where all the robots form gangs and do battle, destroying most of humanity in the process.

Data and R2D2 vs Weyland bots & the Replicants; etc

Harrison Ford could stab R2D2 with a sword, Hylander style

Highlander

Prometheus was in the works for a while - is there any actual talk from Ridley Scott about "next year when I'm shooting the Blade Runner sequel"?

idk if Prometheus will ever become my "I am drunk and want to eat salty foods and watch a movie before sleep" movie, thank god we still have Highlander

You know what we're missing in 2012? Science fiction/fantasy with music that has vocals. By Queen.

cant even imagine how badly dude is gonna screw up bladeruntheus

;_;

Did I tell you guys about my plan to watch recent Ridley Scott films in the run up to Prometheus so I wouldn't get my hopes up? I ended up only having time for that Robin Hood one before I went on vacation. I watched the theatrical release, but apparently the thing with his recent films is that the theater version gets all the exposition cut because he can't make a movie of any reasonable length

Hmm and everyone else. I'm at a loss as to why Scott lacks the juice to push through 3 hour epics like Cameron and Nolan get away with.

one thing about prometheus at least it was only 2 hrs long

Yeah, I mentioned above that that in many ways is the biggest red flag that tons of stuff was cut.

A 2 hour sci-fi epic ... how quaint.

xp - I'm guessing the lack of billion-dollar grosses in his resume?

Billion dollar grosses are a totally contemporary thing. I bet 90% of Scott's films were hits.

the secret is that Ridley's 3 hour versions aren't any better, they just flesh out some unnecessary plot threads or show back story for boring characters

Only "Kingdom of Heaven" has gotten the superzize treatment, no? "Blade Runner" and "Legend" both gets director cuts, "Alien" and "Gladiator" reluctant director cuts.

Robin Hood had an extended cut, too

lotta people must have watched that

lol

Eh, it's like 15 minutes more or something.

That movie made money. Cost $150, made $350? Something like that?

let me check

Tickets for 21+ 10:15 PM show 2nite. Looking forward to (watching jbr) decipher this in a drunken haze whilst I cross-reference it with two weeks' worth of spoilers!

There are certainly annoying mistakes in the movie -- characters whose personalities flip on a dime, characters who figure out that the aliens created us based on who-knows-what, "DNA match". But there were a lot of things people consider errors that I thought added to the movie. The first scene, David's motivations, not knowing what the aliens' plans were -- these were all fine by me. I did not need the blanks filled in.

They should make a movie that's just all blanks. It would look like this:

I JUST SAW ALL OF ALIEN FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS MORNING

HOLY SHIT

Okay hold on

Let me just back up here

...first...time...ever?

HOLY SHIT

this seems consistent with first time ever. also OTM.

Yeah yeah I know

Fucking great movie, dunno why I waited so long to see all of it, in order (I'd seen most/all of the famous scenes)

I re-watched Alien on the weekend. The shot of Jonesy when the Alien gets Harry Dean Stanton is the greatest piece of animal acting ever