There’s been a lot of confusion in the last few months over whether Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, which is currently shooting, is a prequel to Alien or not. When it was first announced it was, but then it was revealed it was to be called Prometheus and that it wouldn’t be a prequel, but would have ‘alien DNA’ running through it. Nobody was quite sure what that meant, but the man largely responsible for the change was Lost producer/writer Damon Lindelhof, who’d come in to overhaul the script.
While it’s become clear as the film started shooting that it would feature aspects of the Alien universe (such as the Space Jockey), it’s still never quite been revealed how everything links together. However Lindelhof has now helpfully cleared things up a little. He took part in a very lengthy interview for The Kevin Polak Chat Show, spending two hours and 40 minutes talking about everything from trying to make it in Hollywood to creating Lost. As part of that he talks about Prometheus. You can see the entire interview below (it’s well worth a look), but here are some choice quotes, where Lindelhof explains how it is a prequel, but not necessarily in the way people might expect (and thanks to /Film for transcribing it).
“It started as an Alien prequel. That is what everybody wanted it to be. Obviously, Ridley Scott has not made a science fiction movie in 25 years, since Blade Runner, so the idea that hes returning to this genre is huge. But there is a real issue which is what is the state of the Alien franchise at this point in our lives? There has been Alien vs. Predator and all these things, and its been completely and totally diluted. Ive always felt that really good prequels should be original movies. And the sequels to those prequels should not be the movie which already exists because, with all due respect to anyone who makes a prequel, but why would you ruin the greatest twist in the history of cinema, Luke, I am your father, by showing me three movies which basically spoil that surprise. You can do movies which take place before Star Wars, but I dont need to see the story of the Skywalker clan. Show me something else which I cant guess the possible outcome of. There is no suspense in inevitability. So a true prequel should essentially proceed the events of the original film, but be about something entirely different, feature different characters, have an entirely different theme, although it takes place in that same world. That was my fundamental feeling about what this movie wanted to be.
And truth be told, it wasnt script doctoring in the strictest sense because the draft that existed before I came on was written by this guy named Jon Spaihts and it was very good. And there were a lot of things in the movie, Prometheus, which were Jon Spaihts and I feel like somewhere in the media reconstruction of this story, the tale is that I come in, I pitch an entirely new story, and its so original that everything else gets thrown out and thats what were doing. In my brain, thats not exactly what happened. But I also do feel that this movie is the movie I would want to see as a fanboy, take place in that Alien universe, which precedes the events of the original Alien, but is not necessarily burdened by all the tropes of that franchise with Facehuggers and Chestbursters, and all that stuff that I love but its sorta like, weve seen it before, can we do something different this time? And thats the movie that Ridley wanted to make. And when youre working with an auteur, you basically just shut your mouth and listen and try to transcribe and channel the vision of that person, and get out of the way.
So I read it, and it was good. This was not a disaster. There were really good ideas in that script. So I sent off an email . Ridley works with these guys, Michael Ellenberg and Michael Costigan. I basically sent them an e-mail and said, here is what I think, and here is what I would do, if you were interested, and the next morning I get the call and they are like We like your take, can you come in to Scott Free? I walk into a room and there is Ridley Scott and an executive at Fox and I verbally present, here is everything in the script that I like now, heres some of my thinking on it whats the lay of the land? What are the issues that you guys are having? And we have a great 90 minute meeting in which I do a lot of listening. Again, I dont want to say I went in and WOWed them, when what really happened was I gave a really short presentation and then Ridley talked about the movie he wanted to make. And then, they decided to hire me. I had to go down to Fox and talk to Tom Rothman about what I wanted to do as well.
And then Sir Ridley Scott and I, and Michael Ellenberg, sat in a conference room for four hours a day, three days a week, and sort of went over it, again and again and again until I understood exactly what he wanted to do and I wrote it. It took me two weeks to write it, not a lot of time the time consuming part was the collaboration because he thinks, and I know this sounds like Im brown-noising but, Ridley Scott is a true genius and he thinks in visual terms far beyond the comprehension of mortals like us but also understands story and mood and tone.”