‘Prometheus 2’ Gets New Title, Ridley Scott ‘Gradually Getting’ To ‘Alien 1’
Director Ridley Scott may have delighted, entertained and confused fans — somewhat — with his mysterious sci-fi adventure, Prometheus, and the director is hoping to fix the mistakes he made in the Alien films when he follows-up with the pseudo-prequels to Prometheus, which served as a fifth installment in the Alien franchise. Scott tells IGN that because the Alien series got away from him, he intends to keep tight control over future Prometheus projects.
“I’m trying to keep this for myself,” Scott told IGN in talking about plans to follow his 2012 Alien prequel, the first of which — recently re-titled Alien: Covenant(it was called Alien: Paradise Lost) — is due in 2017. “I let the other one get away from me – I shouldn’t have.”
Scott participated in a retrospective conversation at the AFI Film Festival recently where he dropped the new title and Cinema Blend published his full remarks.
“I was going to be doing what will be called ‘Alien: Covenant,’ which starts shooting next February, and we were struggling then with the screenplay there and then there was a phone call, somebody saying, ‘Listen, we’ve got this thing which is completely written called ‘[The] Martian,’ and I said, ‘Huh.’ And I sped read it in an hour and by mid-afternoon, I talked to Fox and said, ‘I need to talk to ‘Drew [Goddard]…'”
The horror, the horror. pic.twitter.com/DH6OGHb8v5
— Prometheus (@PrometheusMovie) October 31, 2015
Prometheus is a Titan of Greek mythology, who stole fire from Zeus and the gods, gave it to mortals, and was punished eternally for doing so. Scott’s film is set in the late 21st century, and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. The film centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map in hopes that it leads to the origins of humanity, IMBD notes as the official plot. However, when the crew arrives on a distant world, they discover a threat that could cause the extinction of the human race.
After directing the original Alien movie in 1979, Scott moved on from the franchise to other projects and future installments moved from director to director, including James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens and David Fincher’s 1992 Alien 3, THR notes. Scott and Aliens franchise star Sigourney Weaver have suggested that he could return for a fifth movie in the series, but his ideas about that eventually manifested into the Prometheus universe.
“I’m trying to re-resurrect the beast and let if off the hook for a while because I’m coming back into the back-end of Alien 1,” the director told IGN of his plans for the series. “I’m gradually getting to Alien 1.”
Not only has Ridley Scott set the record straight on the new title for the next installment, he also confirmed that it will start filming next February.
“Prometheus 2 will start getting shot in February and I’ve already begun now so I know what the script is,” Scott explained. “Then there will be another one after that and then maybe we’ll back into Alien 1.”
The Hammerpede was designed to resemble translucent deep-sea life. pic.twitter.com/2LO4PCeFdQ
— Prometheus (@PrometheusMovie) October 24, 2015
According to previous statements made by Scott, original stars Rapace and Fassbender are set to reprise their roles as Elizabeth Shaw and the android David, respectively. Alien: Covenant will reportedly follow the two characters as they pilot the Engineer spacecraft to the home world of their nefarious makers in a quest to discover who made them, a mission that will pose huge risks and ramifications.
Prometheus had a budget of $120–130 million and earned over $400 million in global box office. Only time will tell if Alien: Covenant will top this figure and make Scott’s full takeover of the franchise worthwhile.
Are you excited for Prometheus 2, and do you think it will undergo another title change before its release? Leave your comments below.
[Photo by Newsmakers/Getty Images]
