Ridley Scott’s two-film alien prequel has deep-sixed while work on it has been morphed into a new science fiction project for Scott to helm.
Late yesterday Fox announced that Scott will direct an original sci-fi thriller titled Prometheus with Noomi Rapace of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Sherlock Holmes 2 already locked in to star.
Rapace will play Elizabeth Shaw, one of two lead female roles amongst a core cast of five. Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie are names currently in the running for the other big female role of Vickers.
The term Prometheus hails from Greek mythology and refers to the theft of fire from Olympus by a Titan to pass along to humans. Zeus chained the Titan to a rock and ordered an eagle to eat its regenerative liver on a daily basis.
The first draft for Scott’s Alien prequel was written by Jon Spaihts based on an original idea from Ridley. Late last year Lost’s Damon Lindelof then came on board to work with Scott and improve the story.
During Lindelof’s time on the project, unconfirmed rumors began to circulate of bloated budgets surpassing $150 million and creative indifferences between Scott and the studio, Twentieth Century Fox. Without offering specifics, Fox maintained that the rumors were false and that the Alien prequel pre-production process was moving along without a hitch.
Somewhere in the creative process Scott and Lindelof split from the alien mythology and came up with an expanded story to tell. Fox is committed to this new idea by locking in an aggressive March 9, 2012 release date.
“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” wrote Scott in the announcement. “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.”
Casting for the other roles is expected to be completed “soon” per Fox with production starting within the next few months in order to make the early 2012 release date.
Source: Deadline
