Xenomorph outing nuked from orbit...

Well, that's it, it seems, for the highly-anticipated return of Ridley Scott to the Alien franchise. The 73 year-old director has worked so extensively on the script by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and many other sources of input that the famous movie monster, known for a complicated life-cycle, has evolved itself into...nothing. The Alien Paradise project, rumoured to have an Avatar-style jungle-vibe, is now a new and original SF movie called Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace.

Prometheus was the Titan in Greek mythology that gave the gift of fire to mortals and subsequently got referenced a lot during the industrial revolution, most notably in Mary Shelley's alternative title for Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, and this seems to fit in with what we have heard about the Alien prequel script featuring a race of creatures (formerly the 'Space Jockey' species found fossilised in 1979's Alien) that genetically engineer a deadly new breed of predator (nothing to do with the AVP sub-franchise).

That Scott is still making a new SF movie remains cause for anticipation and celebration, and in a way, much as I love the Alien franchise as no other, I'm glad that the project seems set now to be an 'original' piece, freeing the director to leverage a fresh set of ideas and a new visual aesthetic. On the latter point, I wonder if Scott considers H.R. Giger too bound-in to the Alien aesthetic to be a potential contributor to Prometheus, in the wake of his addition to the conceptual crew of the now-dead Alien prequel.

The news about the 'mutation' came via 20th Century Fox's Twitter feed, and subsequently was fleshed out by Ridley Scott:

“While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative. I couldn't be more pleased to have found the singular tale I'd been searching for, and finally return to this genre that's so close to my heart.”

Scott's previous two entries in the SF genre, Alien and Blade Runner (1982), remain among the most influential entries in SF cinema. Prometheus will star Rapace as scientist Elizabeth Shaw (cast by Scott after the director was impressed with her work in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), with Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie mooted as possible co-stars in a script that previous rumours have outlined as featuring a female-manned spaceship crew with a distinctly lesbian atmosphere.

Somewhere out there the late Dan O'Bannon is breathing a sigh of relief. When I asked the Alien co-creator in 2007 what he'd like to see happen to the franchise, he said "I’d like to see it stop. A horror movie’s a fragile thing, and once you’ve gotten past the original, it isn’t scary anymore. So you do a bunch of sequels to a horror movie, all they do is drain any remaining impact out of the original...it’s not as effective as it would have been if you had just left it alone. "

I didn't entirely agree with O'Bannon, having enjoyed the thrills and touches of originality in Aliens 2-4, but at this stage one does feel that the xenomorph has probably had its finest hour, and that continuing with the series would be akin to Hammer drawing back Christopher Lee time and again for the ever-diminishing returns on its 1950s-1970s Dracula franchise. With the aliens' inclusion in the two dreadful Alien Vs. Predator movies, one can only be glad that Abbott and Costello are long dead. I want to relive the thrill of the Alien experience, but  perhaps it can't be recaptured again after so much exposure, particularly as a CGI-driven project.

Source: Alien Experience

MORE 'ALIEN' FEATURES AT SHADOWLOCKED:

SPACE MISFITS: THE BACKSTORY OF THE NOSTROMO CREW	MERYL STREEP'S LOST PLACE IN THE 'ALIEN' FRANCHISE - AS RIPLEY	THE WORST CASUALTY OF THE 'ALIENS' BLU-RAY TRANSFER

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW:

If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.