Damon Lindelof, Lost Screenwriter & Executive Producer was hired by Fox last year & Ridley Scott to rework Scott’s highly anticipated then Alien Prequel script. Lindelof reworked an original script by Jon Spaihts which led to the controversial announcement that the Alien Prequel was no more, but now the film had "morphed" into something "more original", 'Prometheus' was born. A lot of folks were confused and a lot of the fanbase felt isolated even outdated, well dont worry ladies its going to be alright. Lindelof recently gave a very interesting interview to [KPCS] The Kevin Pollak Chat Show which revealed a whole bunch of pretty awesome stuff and put some bad rumors to bed. Hit the jump for the details.
Is it an Alien Prequel?
"Maybe the tagline to Prometheus should be 'or is it?' as to its origins, the film started as a Prequel to Ridley's Alien [1979.] It was a prequel because everyone wanted it to be. Obviously Ridley had not made a science fiction picture for 25 years, not since Blade Runner. The idea of him returning to the genre is huge. But the very real issue here for us was what is the state of Alien franchise right now?" Lindelof assessed the problem with the franchises modern identity. "Movies like Alien Vs Predator totally diluted the franchise. In my opinion really good prequels should be original movies and should not exist before the original movie and the sequel to that prequel should not be the movie that already exists! Why would u ruin the biggest twists in movies and spoil that surprise? There is no suspense or inevitability, a true prequel should precede the events of the original movie but should feature something completely different, have different themes and characters, although it takes place in that same world. So I cannot guess any possible outcome. Thats my feeling about what i wanted to be told."
On Jon Spaihts Alien Prequel Script.
"Jon Spaihts wrote a very good script, the media reconstruction painted a picture where I come in and throw everything out, thats not exactly what happened. there are a lot of elements in Prometheus that were hatched by Jon. This movie is the movie that i want to see as a fan boy, that precedes the events in the original Alien but is not necessarily burdened by the tropes of that franchise facehuggers etc, we have seen it before can we do something different this time."
How I got involved.
"I spoke to my Agent Todd Fellman and stated that I was willing to think about getting into movies and 3 days later my phone rang while I was in Italy and my Agent is like, Damon are you available to talk to Ridley Scott in 5 mins? I pulled the car over and I had a feeling it was the Alien Prequel, I kind of knew what was happening with the franchise, I knew he was currently working on the Prequel. I am a fanboy and we talked like he knew me, Scott stated he has a script and he is going to send it to me. Ridley sent me the script, delivered by a Personal assistant who basically waited in his car until I was finished. I read Jon Spaihts script, it was good, it was not the big disaster, there was really good ideas in the script, so I spent about half an hour thinking about it and sent an e-mail to Michael Ellenberg and Michael Costigan and told them basically what I would do with it. The next morning I get a call, they said; we liked your take, can you come in to Scott Free Productions? I was excited and creatively engaged and I wanted the meeting. We met and they told me they liked my take. Ridley was there with Fox Executive, Steve Asbell and I verbally presented what I liked in the script and my ideas. I asked them what are the issues they were having? It was a 90 minute meeting and I listened a lot. Scott talked about the movie he wanted to make and at the end of it they hired me. So i had also to go down to Fox and talk to Tom Rothman and tell them what I wanted to do."
The Process.
"Ridley and I sat in conference room with Michael Ellenberg 4 hours a day, 3 times a week and went over the direction of the script. I went off and wrote the script in about 2 weeks. The real time concussing part was the collaboration. Ridley really understands tone, mode and story, writing for Scott is like ..he is very serious, not dialogue heavy, very moody, very visual, a true genius, in visual terms he is far more advanced than most of us. Its exactly the kind of movie that is unsettling, better than horror, different than horror. The scares of the original Alien are back."
