Lindelof comments on his vision of the Alien universe ...

Prometheus, one of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2012, made quite a splash at San Diego's Comic-Con last week. Writer Damon Lindelof, best-known as co-creator and showrunner (with J.J. Abrams) of Lost, talked about Prometheus, playing God, and PG-13 horror.

The original story of Prometheus involved a Titan, the god of forethought, who created mankind out of clay then stole meat from the table of the gods, and fire from the sun, to better mankind's lot. The punishment that was sent out for Prometheus was the eternal eating of his liver by vultures; the punishment for man was the creation of woman. Depending on your personal situation, you may believe Prometheus got the better deal. Either way, naming his Alien not-a-prequel after this god leads one to believe that playing God is one of the major themes of the film.

"I think that whenever you talk about playing God this old 1950′s movie construct comes into play ... this movie delves more into the area of, "Are there questions we’re not meant to know the answers to?" He elaborates, "What happens if you get the answer to your question, and you don’t like that answer? Then what?"

The Alien movies, particularly Ridley Scott's original Alien (1979) were truly frightening, sci-fi horror films. As Prometheus is expected to be released with a PG-13 rating, rather than an R, will Prometheus be able to be as scary as the others? Lindelof thinks so:

"I think a PG-13 movie can be very, very scary, but it just has to be more clever about how it’s scary. This movie is not going to be gory. It’s going to be a psychological underpinning of how something very, very bad is about to happen."

Finally, one of the major things that the original Alien movies are well-known for is the creation of a female archetype in Sigourney Weaver's Ripley character. When considering whether the female characters in Prometheus would be traditional, or more Ripley-esque, Lindelof had a considered response to the subject. "I think a lot of male writers only understand women as the damsel in distress or the hardass. If I’m going to use those constructs, because those are the ones familiar with me and the storytelling lexicon, then let’s try to understand why someone would be a damsel in distress or what made them a hardass."

For the full text of the interview, click here. Dread Central has also posted some unauthorized screen shots of the film, taken at Comic-Con. Check them out here if you're interested!

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