Hey folks, Harry here - and it's been a curious and interesting day. You see - I first saw this script about 3 weeks before the first PROMETHEUS non-teaser trailer hit. I read it - and wasn't convinced it was real - thus - I never mentioned it on the site. THEN... that next trailer hit and things really seemed to key up. Nearly everything seemed to come out of that alleged 2nd Draft. I had conversations with folks about the script, who worked on the film - and most of what I would consider the spoilery things, well, it was syncing with what they would tell me.
So then I post the following... Today, shit hits the fan and @DamonLindelof starts writing me on Twitter saying that there is no "Planet Zeus" in his draft or @jonspaihts and that he feels I have been duped. Then Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly tweeted a question to his followers about rather or not somebody ever knew of a filmmaker that blatantly lied to protect the secrecy of their project. Lindelof responded, "Never. That would be deplorable. #IAmLyingRightNow" Then an hour later Lindelof tweeted, "Harry, I swear upon The Force and Geekdom itself that what you read is 100% bogus. I would never lie about this." And finally an hour later he tweeted at me, "THERE ARE NO SKRULLS IN PROMETHEUS!!! (but seriously, if you stand by this script, so be it, but I know how to spell "Zeus.")"
If Lindelof swears upon the Force and Geekdom itself that what I read is 100% bogus, then as someone that has had several intoxicating drinks and have geeked out with Lindelof, I must say - The script I read must be bogus, because Lindelof has sworn so - and I am happy that I know nothing about PROMETHEUS and that apparently every source that I know on this film - and that things I've heard from others is also complete fabrication. Because that means I'm completely pure for this film then! And that would be fantastic too.
SO - what's the deal with this draft. Misspellings of ZEUS aside - there's an awful lot of material in the script that seems to somehow echo the film. For example - Mr Beaks called to tell me the script was fake, because well... he has sources too. Yet, when we started trading notes - I knew everything that he did, but that came from the script. Beaks & Quint are following up on this, and we'll have some additional PROMETHEUS 'alleged' information in the next couple of days.
BUT do realize, for me - I feel no shame in the following. I was sent the script, read it. Did a few months of digging. Thought about writing Lindelof, but the reality is he's signed a non-disclosure clause and it isn't like he's able to really tell me things, but he could have said, "BULLSHIT." And at that point it would've stopped any stories.
AICN has always been about reporting news & rumors and that is what this was. I actually have the highest of respect for Damon Lindelof - and talking to him about STAR TREK with Orci & Kurtzman at the HIGHBALL after our STAR TREK screening is a wonderful night of geeking out and drinking. Lindelof is good people and if he and Ridley have kept us all in the dark... FANTASTIC. Good show and best of luck with the badassery y'all intend to release.
Harry
The following "script review" could in fact be bullshit, but my passion for the ideas that the script put forth, which may or may not echo things in the eventual film is rock solid. We know we're learning more about the Space Jockey... and to me, that's what has me most excited by PROMETHEUS - and if we don't get a single ALIEN that looks like Giger's from the Original ALIEN - I'll be ecstatic. I hope they have conspirted to give us a far more indepth look at the universe that eventually gave birth to ALIEN.
Hey folks, Harry here… thanks for checking out the YouTube show, and if you missed it, here it is:
Now that you’ve seen it, you might be thinking, WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT PROMETHEUS SCRIPT REVIEW?
Well, here we go…
First off, I won’t be directly quoting from the script, that’s how these things get pulled. But I will tell you exactly what I read. And what it made me think of. And what it could mean for the final film and our overall experience with PROMETHEUS.
This was Damon Lindelof’s 2nd Draft.
I know there have been changes, because the whole Archeology angle that we’ve seen in trailers… none of that was in the script. AND it was a very fucking tight 79 pages, but never left me particularly WANTING for more. What was on the page showed me that Ridley Scott hasn’t reached a point in his career where he was motivated for a nostalgic career revisit for the PAYCHECK. He came back because there’s a lot left to be said.
We learn in this film, that mankind, though space faring, has yet to make contact with an Alien Civilization… that we’re aware of.
The mission puts a Michael Crichton-esque team of experts in their field, combined with the technician types, an android and the company person – and they’re all on mankind’s fastest most technologically advance space craft yet engineered, because the PROMETHEUS, it’s Weyland’s opportunity to take advantage of whatever that first contact experience could possibly bring them.
This mission isn’t to LV-426, it is to a different planet, that at least in this draft was referred to as the leader of the ancient Greek Gods… ZEUS.
Much of the film is about the historic and curious nature of this expedition of discovery.
Then there’s the freaky fucking scary parts. You know what’s scary? It’s that the Space Jockey’s race… You’ve no idea what they are. That’s what these folks find out. Other than the Alien Queen… pretty much nothing of worth has been added to the ALIEN universe since Ridley Scott, Dan O’Bannon & H.R. Giger went to make the original masterpiece. When people get all angry and bitchy about Cameron’s film, ALIENS, and we all know who these people are. Essentially it is that factoid that pisses them off. That Cameron switched genres. Personally, that’s what I love about Cameron’s ALIENS, which in terms making me quote happy and giddy watching… ALIENS takes me to places that ALIEN didn’t go. BUT – man, ALIEN just introduced that entire universe… and other than a few comic books… which are technically not canon… we really don’t know much about the SPACE JOCKEYS.
I’ve had COUNTLESS geek conversations with friends that ALL went nuts on how the franchise just became the latest egg hatching, face-hugger, impregnation, chest-bursting, aspects of host variation on GIGER Alien design.
Here we’ll see the face of a SPACE JOCKEY, at least. Have you ever wondered what a Space Jockey would do if it came across a human being? A group of human beings? Would it be violent? Curious? Scientific? And yeah… what you will experience in this film will truly have impressive surrealistic scary fuck me baby jesus style sequences. Unless they get all pussy on us and that stuff doesn’t happen. BUT I BET IT DOES.
I love that in the script, there’s strange visual references to Giger’s artwork from Jodorowsky’s abandoned DUNE project. And that when I read the reference, I knew the exact image they were thinking of. The “Temple” that some folks are thinking is bullshit tie-in crap to ALIEN VS PREDATOR’s Mayan stuff… WRONG. Go explore Jodorowsky’s DUNE work – if you’re curious you’ll be rewarded with a smile when you finally see PROMETHEUS – and I love that it has been adapted.
There’s parts of the script that read like lucid nightmares of a Lovecraftian variety. That’s very cool. Reading PROMETHEUS, I smiled because it isn’t the movie I thought it was going to be. And I haven’t given you nearly enough to know what I’m talking about… but honestly, I don’t want to spoil the various reveals and turns that this movie makes.
It will play with what we know of the ALIEN universe… but then absolutely mindfuck you with a different twist on things we thought we understood.
IF that movie is still in PROMETHEUS – and I have to tell you – every line and every image I see in the trailer, I absolutely recognize VERBATIM from the script, except that Archaeology and TED talk. Things have been added, but let’s see if Rothman’s balls have dropped. I think they have. Watching a film like CHRONICLE, it honestly gave me a bit of hope from that company. I liked MONKEYS ARE MAD AS HELL AND AREN’T GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE. I loved AVATAR. But I have to say. If they made the movie I read… then no matter what, the happy I have for everyone involved in the creation of that 2nd Draft… I applaud.
This feels like the man that directed ALIEN has gotten older, he’s no longer interested in just making another “GOTCHA” movie. He’s aged. Become a man of industry. He’s made films about the past, the present and of dire situations. Ridley Scott has been knighted and is respectfully acknowledged as Sir Ridley Scott – and Sir Ridley seems to be inviting us upon a rumination of the big questions that the highest minds ponder and pontificate upon. The big questions. Has he gone and made this thing so classy that it’ll be a snooze fest? No. I’m betting that when we collectively go see this thing, from the opening till the closing we’ll spend a great deal of time going, “WHOA!”
At least that’s what I suspect and I CAN NOT FRIGGIN WAIT!
