The Guardian has a nice interview with screenwriter Damon Lindelof on the making of the Alien myth as we prepare for Prometheus. It’s worth a read.
Yet after so many big, dumb success stories, will audiences actually want a highbrow blockbuster? “My hope is that it functions on two levels. First, I hope it is entertaining. I hope that people can enjoy it, whether that means providing scares, thrills or even humour in places. That’s all great. But I also hope that, when the movie’s over, there’s still stuff to talk about. There is an attempt in Hollywood film-making to have a character come out and explain everything. I didn’t want to do that, and I don’t like doing that.”
He laughs, perhaps thinking of Lost’s cryptic/awful series finale. “Even though people think I ask too many questions and don’t give enough answers! I have a lot more faith in the imagination and intelligence of the audience over my own – they come up with things that are infinitely more interesting. That’s why people are still talking about Blade Runner, 30 years after it came out – because some things are unclear. And that’s cool.”
So is this a one-off? The end of the line? Apparently not. “One of the things we’ve always said, that makes Prometheus not a direct prequel of Alien, is that if there were a sequel to Prometheus – and, God willing, there will be if people like it – then it will not be Alien. This film ends in a way that goes off at a different tangent to the original Alien. If you see Alien straight after, you will see it in a context that didn’t exist for you before, but it’s not going to do anything to change the story of Alien. Prometheus has to go off in its own new bold direction, and hopefully it does so.
Here is a quick-read of the Alien franchise:
It’s 2093, and Michael Fassbender jets off into space in search of the origin of humanity …
Twenty-nine years later, an evil Alien bursts out of John Hurt’s chest …
Come 2179, Sigourney Weaver is revived from hypersleep and gains a child sidekick …
… before crash-landing on a prison planet, with another psychopathic alien in tow.
For some reason in 2381 she’s brought back to life …
… only to discover that the franchise has gone to pot, leaving our Alien queen to duke it out with a Predator.
