Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)

[flyonthewall2983]

First trailer debuts in two days.

Guess it's more of a teaser. Thoughts?

[Mr. Ned]

Got excited at first, then less so once I saw the overwrought CGI skyline shots with crumbling spaceships and landscapes. I wanted this to be in the same vein as Alien in that its entirety is mostly confined to the claustorphobic arena of a spaceship, but it looks like Scott is headed in a different direction. Still look forward to that ensemble cast, however.

[mfunk9786]

I was hoping Prometheus was a big-budget remake of this

[Mr Sausage]

Guess it was more of a teaser. Thoughts?

Looks exactly like a sequel to Alien--except without the alien, I guess. At least it doesn't have the grainy, washed out look of Scott's output from the last decade. Photography seems closer to Blade Runner.

I wanted this to be in the same vein as Alien in that its entirety is mostly confined to the claustorphobic arena of a spaceship

I can see why he wouldn't want to go that route, considering he's already done it as well as it could be done. No need to make the movie any more redundant than it already is.

[Mr. Ned]

Good point, although without the presence of the alien lurking about Scott may have been able to conjure up different sorts of dread (as if the alien was that prominent in '79 anways). I'm still intrigued why Scott would make a film like this now, though; the aesthetic is so similar and all the old haunts like the direlict spacecraft and LV-426 are there. How is he going to tie the new stuff into the colonization, the eggs and everything else? Couldn't gather much from the teaser but I'll likely see this, unlike most of Scott's recent output.

[matrixschmatrix]

I was hoping Prometheus was a big-budget remake of this

Haha, every time I read the word I think "Promootheus!" I was actually going to link that last night, but I thought there was a way to embed youtubes here and then got distracted looking for one.

[colinr0380]

If we are talking about the title, I was imagining a new version of Tony Harrison's Prometheus, his industrial wasteland poetry-film from 1998!

There has been talk about this prequel film for what seems like forever though - I remember reading that Scott wanted to go back and explore the origins of the "space jockey" from the first film in magazine articles in the early 90s (where they also talked of tantalising deleted footage of Ripley running into Captain Dallas again at the end of Alien, which of course later turned up on the DVDs).

[Roger Ryan]

If you think this looks disappointing, I would suggest watching ALIEN RESURRECTION again...or the latest ROBIN HOOD. I'm not sure what one would expect from a fifth ALIEN film or from any film released by Ridley Scott in 2012, but PROMETHEUS looks fine to me so far. There's nothing in this trailer that makes me think "Good Lord, don't do that!" and I'm encouraged by the idea that the "Alien" as we know it may not be involved.

Essentially, the new trailer is quite close in style to the original ALIEN trailer and I'd rather not see anything more conclusive until I'm sitting in the theater for the film itself.

[Zot!]

Got excited at first, then less so once I saw the overwrought CGI skyline shots with crumbling spaceships and landscapes. I wanted this to be in the same vein as Alien in that its entirety is mostly confined to the claustorphobic arena of a spaceship, but it looks like Scott is headed in a different direction. Still look forward to that ensemble cast, however.

Agreed...but hopefully this isn't representative of it on the whole. I'll see it regardless, but at this point I'm very cautiously optimistic. Scott is such a weirdo. He makes Alien and Blade Runner, and then follows it up with Legend (and several decades of random garbage with a few glimmers of hope here and there, though I unequivocally like Thelma and Louise.) No matter how bad it might get, at least it's a legit attempt to reboot the franchise and not another AVP cash in.

[hearthesilence]

Just about every person I know is excited about this after seeing the trailer, but I'm not. To be fair, I'm not a fan of the franchise, and I've even grown to dislike the second one (despite its reputation as the 'best' in the series - I don't like it for virtually the same reasons I dislike all of Cameron's films). The one exception is the first one, but even with Scott coming back to the franchise, I wasn't expecting much because I think he's a good craftsmen, not a great filmmaker. I think his best films really depend on his collaborators - they really bring a lot to those films, namely Blade Runner and Alien.

With this trailer, we get a glimpse of a big sci-fi spectacle, which is no surprise, but I've grown pretty numb to those now.

[Finch]

Having seen the trailer I'm even more determined to hold out for the reviews because it pretty much gives away that they are doing an origins story for the space jockeys (the prospect fascinates me and fills me with dread at the same time, dread that they'll botch it and ruin one of the original's remaining mysteries): that's a space jockey head on the laboratory table and at approx the half minute mark you see the famous chair rising out of the ground (interesting to ponder what role the humanoid giant on the right of the frame might play). Appreciated the nods to the original 1979 trailer combining the siren with the annoying Inception boom sound and the forming of the title credits. What gives me cautious optimism is the cast and the fact that Jon Spaiths got joint credit with Landelof on the script so they evidently kept elements of Spaith's draft (btw, read Ward and Fasano's script of Alien 3 the other day, quite enjoyable, will give the Gibson script a look as well).

[mfunk9786]

Just about every person I know is excited about this after seeing the trailer, but I'm not. To be fair, I'm not a fan of the franchise, and I've even grown to dislike the second one (despite its reputation as the 'best' in the series - I don't like it for virtually the same reasons I dislike all of Cameron's films).

I can't imagine ever disliking Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

[Highway 61]

Just about every person I know is excited about this after seeing the trailer, but I'm not. To be fair, I'm not a fan of the franchise, and I've even grown to dislike the second one (despite its reputation as the 'best' in the series - I don't like it for virtually the same reasons I dislike all of Cameron's films).

I can't imagine ever disliking Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

I like the film, but c'mon. Certainly you can understand the complaints with Edward Furlong's performance, not to mention turning Arnold into a goofy, non-killing "terminator."

[Murdoch]

Hey, don't knock my stand-in father figure for the 90s.

[domino harvey]

"Take me to the state fair, Edward Furlong! Edward Furlong, come watch my softball team practice Saturday morning at 8!"

[mfunk9786]

Edward Furlong was busy, he'll come to your blue belt ceremony when you get there

[Murdoch]

Boo, you jags. When Ah-nuld shot that guy in the leg it was like a real special moment and stuff *tears up*

[flyonthewall2983]

Essentially, the new trailer is quite close in style to the original ALIEN trailer and I'd rather not see anything more conclusive until I'm sitting in the theater for the film itself.

I read somewhere that back in the 70's, something to the effect that trailers were often put in front of films that necessarily wouldn't have had the same audience. One thing I read was that this was put in front of a Muppets movie. Can anyone clarify or put that to rest for me?

[SamLowry]

I read somewhere that back in the 70's, something to the effect that trailers were often put in front of films that necessarily wouldn't have had the same audience. One thing I read was that this was put in front of a Muppets movie. Can anyone clarify or put that to rest for me?

Yes, it is true. My most memorable childhood movie experience was probably when my parents took my sister (6) & I (8) to see a double feature of Dumbo & Herbie The Love Bug at the drive-in. The very last trailer before Dumbo started was for The Exorcist.

[flyonthewall2983]

Great story. I'm guessing PG-13 changed all that.

[Brian C]

I don't think it's a ratings issue so much, but more an issue of who decides how trailers are programmed. I imagine that back then, individual projectionists would have had the freedom to choose whatever trailers they wanted to show. Certainly I did when I started working projection back in the mid-1990s. But as the exhibition landscape became more consolidated under corporate control, trailer programming came to be more centrally dictated.

These days, of course, with the proliferation of digital projectors, most theaters don't even have "projectionists" as such. I'm not sure how trailer programming works but I would guess that the corporate office has basically 100% control over the process.

[Matt]

This is getting off-topic, but David Bordwell's recent blog post about digital projection has a bit about trailers with a photo showing the "playlist" for ads and trailers.

[flyonthewall2983]

The viral campaign begins

[Roger Ryan]

The viral campaign begins

If Scott can make the movie as riveting as this little marketing short, then I think it could be pretty darn good.

Interestingly, Guy Pearce is not listed as playing "Peter Weyland" in the film, but a character called "Stannison" (according to Imdb). Two other characters feature the "Weyland" surname, so I'm wondering if Pearce's character has been simply changed, was incorrectly reported to begin with...or if "Peter Weyland" is deceased when the film begins and "Stannison" is the first "son of God" made in Weyland's image?

[flyonthewall2983]

My guess is that it was done in part to keep the project covered in secrecy.