Home Entertainment Ridley Scott talks Prometheus – Giger, Space Jockeys and Xenomorphs

Ridley Scott talks Prometheus – Giger, Space Jockeys and Xenomorphs

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As much I’m foaming at the mouth for Ridley Scott’s return to the world of science fiction with Prometheus, I’ve just about reached my saturation point when comes to promo marketing. This is just about as far as I’m willing to go when it comes to pre-knowledge of the workings of the film before I see it on the big screen.

But before that point, I have to share some snippets of a great interview that the director gave to Filmophilia, where he finally spills on visionary artist H.R. Giger’s level of involvement, the link between Prometheus and Alien, the story of the Space Jockey and he even finally gives a definitive answer on whether or not the acid-blooded “Alien” will be making an appearance.

One of the multitude of reasons that people have labelled Prometheus as an Alien prequel, is that both films have a very distinct and exceedingly similar visual aesthetic. In the case of Alien, that look was provided by legendary design artist H.R. Giger. Now Ridley speaks about how involved he was with Prometheus‘ similar designs:

“I brought him in, I showed him what we were doing, showed him the story and he liked it a lot. So he’s doing a little bit of work for me. He’s been doing some murals, big murals, which we’ll see in almost one of the first chambers we encounter when we land where we’re gonna go.”

He speaks about how they will be linking up the two movies:

“I mean, you could actually say, and there’s a quote I did, a pretty good quote: By the end of the third act you start to realize there’s a DNA of the very first “Alien, but none of the subsequent Aliens. To tell you what that is is a pity, and I’m not going to tell you, because it’s actually pretty good, pretty organic to the process and to the original. But we go back, we don’t go forward.”

About why Scott chose to go with the story of the so-called “Space Jockey” from Alien:

“Yeah, so there you have that. I was always amazed that, I mean, I’ve only done two science-fictions, but I was always amazed that no one asked who the hell the Space Jockey was. He wasn’t even called the Space Jockey. During the film they started to call it the Space Jockey. I don’t know who started that one off. I always thought it was amazing that no one ever asked who he was, and why was he there? What was all that about? I sat thinking about this for a while and thought, well, there’s a story! And the other four [films] missed it! So, here it is.”

And finally, he provides an unequivocal answer on whether or not we’ll be seeing the alien “Xenomorph” in Prometheus, as some fans have speculated:

“No. Absolutely not. They squeezed it dry. He (the xenomorph) did very well. (He laughs) He survived, he’s now in Disneyland in Orlando, and no way am I going back there. How did he end up in Disneyland? I saw him in Disneyland, Jesus Christ!”

Well that last bit certainly blows my pet theory out of the water. But have no fear, I am a true enthusiast! I will be able to think up some other elaborate geek-fueled hypothesis in no time!


Last Updated: April 17, 2012

3 Comments

  1. Justin Hess

    April 17, 2012 at 16:05

    I’m glad that he’s not using the Alien, tbh. He’s right. It’s used up. It’s actually pretty exciting to know that I have something new to look forward to as opposed to an already rehashed monster being rehashed again.

    Reply

  2. Christo Kruger

    April 18, 2012 at 08:29

    So either he is talking shit about the lack of xenomorphs and he wants to surprise us or he is actually serious and wants to build something completely different. I’m in either way.

    Reply

  3. James Francis

    April 18, 2012 at 09:18

    Hollywood greenlit an Alien movie without the Cenomorphs? Boy, Ridley must have cashed in a few favours to make that happen…

    Reply

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