Director Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox have finally announced an official title, release date and star for Scott's highly anticipated Alien prequel. There's just one thing ... it's NOT an Alien prequel anymore.
According to Deadline, the film is now called Prometheus and is scheduled for a March 9, 2012, release, with Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes 2) confirmed for the lead role of Elizabeth Shaw, as rumored for months. While the movie originally started development as a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic Alien, he now says that it has changed—with the help of screenwriter and Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof—into something completely different and wholly original.
Scott said, "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."
Lindelof, for his part, added, "In a world flooded with prequels, sequels and reboots, I was incredibly struck by just how original Ridley's vision was for this movie. It's daring, visceral and hopefully, the last thing anyone expects."
Scott did start off with an Alien prequel script written by Jon Spaihts, and hinted vaguely that it would involve terraforming of other planets, human slaves and the backstory of the original film's dead alien astronaut, aka "the space jockey." But sometime after Lindelof came on board for a rewrite, the story morphed into something else entirely, although the filmmakers are not saying what the story is just yet.
Meanwhile, casting is still going on, and the word is that Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron are in the mix for the second female lead, a no-b.s. woman named Vickers. As for Rapace, she won the role after Scott saw her play Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Are you disappointed that this won't be an Alien prequel after all, or are you excited that Scott and Lindelof have come up with something new? LINK
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