Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, and Noomi Rapace Talk PROMETHEUS

Today is Speak in Broad Strokes About Prometheus Day.  For some, it may be a cause for celebration since the project thrived for months on misinformation and double speak.  First we believed it to be a strict Alien prequel, then two prequels, then one prequel again.  Oh, but it isn’t really an Alien prequel, except that it kinda is in the sense that it’s set in the same universe prior to the events of Alien, as scripter Damon Lindelof emphasized earlier today.  Glean from that what you will.

In part two of SIBSAP Day, Ridley Scott and Prometheus stars Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace attended CineEurope tonight to sell European exhibitors on the prospects of the 3D sci-fi project. Production is underway in London, but they obviously didn’t bring any footage or images or anything that would reveal what Prometheus is literally about. But the trio did speak to the themes of the movie. The first hint of a prequel centered on the question “Who the hell was that space jockey?“  Scott conceded that the desire to explore that mystery inspired him to revisit the Alien universe.  He attributed further inspiration to sci-fi author Erich von Däniken, a proponent of the “ancient astronaut” theory that credits civilization on earth to extraterrestrials:

“The (space) journey, metaphorically, is about a challenge to the gods… NASA and the Vatican agree that is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way.  That’s what we’re looking at (in the film), at some of Erich von Däniken’s ideas of how did we humans come about.”

That is an intriguing idea.  In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan that stole fire from the gods and gave it to the mortals.  Scott confirmed at CineEurope the title refers to a space ship sent from Earth by a powerful corporation, possibly for the purpose of terraforming.
THR doesn’t provide a direct quote from Fassbender, instead offering this maddening paraphrase:

“Fassbender did hint his character, David, might be a version of the infamous corporate-designed android that plays a pivotal role in all Alien films.”

Rapace restricted herself to talk about the production: she described her work as “hard and sweaty” and claimed the 73-year-old Scott “still has more energy than all of us combined.”
Prometheus is scheduled for release on June 8, 2012.

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