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

Alien dancers are truly the most supple.

God bless any of yis who saw Prometheus and can still manage to pretend convince yourselves that this is going to either convincingly link to alien or be worth catching on its own standalone merit.

I am simple in this regard: I mostly just want to see James Franco's character die bloodily.

You always say that tho

I fail to see the problem in James Franco's character dying bloodily in every film ever made.

am i the only one who thought the CGI alien looked really bad?

I think so too, but I can't separate that completely with my vague sense of emptiness and disappointment that seeing one of these aliens onscreen no longer produces any kind of thrill or scare in me. I don't want it to be that way but it is. These used to be genuine nightmare-producing horrors for me, from around the time I first saw Aliens, and unfortunately that's been worn away. Having them flipping and flailing around, CG-style, in broad daylight, does not help, of course. And the tail creeping in on the shower scene still offers a little of the old excitement. But I do increasingly feel like, as much as I enjoy Resurrection as a fun, disposable (tho stylish) 90s popcorn movie, it would have been way better in every way if the series had taken its final curtain with the third movie.

er, separate that completely from, etc.

Part of me has to wonder, especially given Scott's vociferousness a couple of years back about how he didn't want to deal with 'dragons' anymore, if there's some sort of bait/switch going on here in terms of the actual focus. Because I agree with Doctor Casino heavily here on the sheer overfamiliarity and its resultant impact or lack thereof. I'm curious about this film but not excited about it.

[Prometheus 2 is] fresh” and “getting away from gods and dragons and shit. If I see one more dragon I’m going to shoot myself. Stop the dragons.”

Rather than a dragon, Scott describes his original Alien as “the definitive dragon and he’s a motherfucker. The alien’s real which is why it’s probably one of the scariest monsters in film history,” Scott says. “So with Prometheus 2 what I’m trying to do is reintroduce a fresher form of alien in the third act.”

what if...the alien is us

he's talking total shite though

James Franco, alien.

Everything in that trailer takes 15 minutes of screen time and the rest is the Engineers holding Six Sigma workshops to design a new monster.

Alien: Dilbert

Quote just sounds like he's complaining about swords n sorcery films, idk. If only he'd been put in charge of Dragonheart, they might have really had something...

the hanging-off-something-in-space-by-a-rope trope is really starting to get boring. i mean it was in at least 2 Avengers movies, also in the 2nd Captain America, probably perfected in the first of the new Star Trek movies.. Rogue One too maybe? it's been done to absolute death.

the windswept somewhat lush desolation of the planet reminds me a bit of the mikkelsen homestead in Rogue One, minus the black sand beaches.

i'm kinda optimistic about this film, i like the visual ambition at least and have always enjoyed Scott's efforts to make sci-fi films that at least look good. i think his visual sense works better in this genre than in swordplay epics (as much as I did really really like Kingdom of Heaven.)

What if... Matt Damon planted all the wheat?

makes u think

https://anotherkindofgrass.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/gladiator-walking-thru-elysium-500-by-191.gif

ultimate shared universe theory: i think they ended up in the wheat field from Gladiator

or Summerisle

if there's some sort of bait/switch going on here in terms of the actual focus

this certainly crossed my mind too Ned

rather than a dragon it's the definitive dragon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP75aZvWVdw

idk i guess i can see why ridley scott would turn down this pitch

i think they ended up in the wheat field from Gladiator

or the one in this trailer for COMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FwiuJLwAIg

in space, if you build it they will come

that grass waving in water scene from Tarkovsky's Solaris has a lot to answer for

Building on what dr casino says, about the aliens inevitably becoming less frightening as time goes by, this movie is prob going to stand or fall on how good the human actors are, and I can't guess that from the trailer. The trailer obvs won't show the mundane 'oil rig crew' moments (if there are any, hope there are) and doesn't tell us anything about the pacing between the scary moments (which I'm not expecting to be scary tbh).

Or I dunno - they don't have to be gnarly and cynical I suppose. If they're meant to be idealistic colonists and they actually put that across using acting, that could work.

I like the photography and design. I wd probably watch a tv show set in the Alien world but without any aliens, just people grumbling about in Alien-style sets unable to find the right screwdriver.

You should check out The Expanse!

I've been meaning to, is it good?

It comes as close as any TV show ever has to what you just described.

Yeah The Expanse is some good shit

Anyway, I'm gonna post this w/o comment. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/VbGQP2Wy6qA

the expanse has some brief periods of laying out the political landscape that drag a little, but the strength is that the plot is constantly twisting. there aren't any experts or unstoppable heroes in the main cast -- just people who happened to be there when shit went down and they're using their strengths to do what it takes

find the right screwdriver, basically

People keep raving about The Expanse, but I watched the first episode of Season 1 and it seemed awful - the worst combination of dull and pseudo-gritty. How much better does it get after that? Cause Season 1 is free with Amazon Prime, so I'll dive back in if there's a radical leap in quality from pilot to episode 2 (or even 3 or 4, if I know it's coming).

there's a whole thread about the show

Meantime: or maybe Ridley just likes blood again?

http://www.slashfilm.com/alien-covenant-set-visit-report/

While fans of that first Alien prequel will surely appreciate the scope and general weirdness of the some of the stuff we saw on set, we’re also being promised a movie that embraces its R-rating, a movie that “(orders) blood in the 40 gallon drums rather than the 5 gallon drums,” Huffam says.

And Scott is right in the muck, getting his hands dirty with the crew. Yesterday’s gore effects involved pasta and tapioca. “(Ridley) loves practical effects,” Huffam explains. “He just loves to try and do as much as possible in-camera.”

I'm more...amused by this quote:

“I have to get a cushion and hide behind it,” producer Mark Huffam says of watching footage from Alien: Covenant. “I’ve seen it being filmed and I go ohhhh….don’t look at it!”

http://youtu.be/Vc6dt0rFddA

Hmm hmm hmm:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/ridley-scott-promises-a-return-to-alienstyle-horror-in-alien-covenant-20170222-guj8wk.html

..."Alien was special without question; it was unique really. Prometheus was a good starting block to kick off the idea that no one ever asked in the sequels."

That question is who made the chest-bursting alien and for what purpose?

"Prometheus was about who and why? This is getting closer to who designed it and for what reason."

--

While working on Alien: Covenant, he had the next instalment written so he is ready to keep advancing the saga.

"You've got to assume to a certain extent success and from that you'd better be ready," he says. "You don't want a two-year gap. So I'll be ready to go again next year."

you designed it, ridley -- you and h.r.giger

reason = to scare people

Who knew!

This is the other 'hmm' bit:

"What we did really well on Prometheus, considering that it was a ground zero idea that was starting all over again, was I discovered that people do have an appetite for the alien and what he means and his evolution – the egg, the facehugger, the chestburster as we call them.

"People still want to see it. So I return to a little bit of that but not wholeheartedly; there's a lot in here which is new as well."

Translation: we made an Alien prequel that had next to nothing to do with the movies that came before it, except for what little people liked, so we made a movie like that again, an Alien movie with an alien in it.

But not wholeheartedly.

"Oh yeah, alien. Anyway, about these big heads."

"i discovered that people do have an appetite for what the alien means" = "i want to know why ppl like the alien so much more than my very serious and philosophical exploration of [whatever garbage it is that prometheus explores])

HEY NOW

lol

the alien is less important for what it means than what it does, although maybe another half dozen films about what this horror from space means will change that

I hope the next sequel is a musical.

Alien!

mel brooks beat us to it