Ridley Scott's Prometheus: Semi-prequel to alien

[alien space marine]

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Basically its in the same universe as the alien franchise but the film is not going to be a direct precursor to alien 1979 , the Xenomorphs are not going to appear in this movie either, Instead its going to be centered around an ancient space faring race that seeded life across the milky way galaxy.

[Great Rumbler]

I am excited for this.

[A Black Falcon]

I haven't actually seen any of the Alien movies...

[Great Rumbler]

Well, that sounds like a problem.

[Dark Jaguar]

I hope Ridley's recent scientology doesn't poison the movie. I mean it ruined the War of the Worlds remake after all.

[Great Rumbler]

I wasn't aware he had anything to do with Scientology.

[Dark Jaguar]

Not really, I misinterpreted this.

"The (space) journey, metaphorically, is about a challenge to the gods," Scott said. But Scott’s ambitions with Prometheus go far beyond simply restarting a hit franchise. The British director said the film’s storyline, and script by David Lindelof, was partially inspired by the writings of legendary Swiss sci-fi writer Eric van Daniken.

Van Daniken, author of 1968 bestseller Chariot of the Gods, is best known as the first proponent of the so-called ancient astronaut theory, which holds that aliens kick-started civilization on earth. "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," Scott said. "That’s what we’re looking at (in the film), at some of Eric van Daniken’s ideas of how did we humans come about.

It's interesting that he frames van Daniken as just a creative author, but in reality he actually believed that nonsense. He's one of those racists who thinks egyptions could NEVER have built the pyramids on their own, so expect that in this movie.

[Great Rumbler]

It's hardly an uncommon idea in science fiction, even 2001: A Space Odyssey features such a thing.

[Sacred Jellybean]

The monolith from 2001 interacted with man apes before civilization though.

[Great Rumbler]

The monolith from 2001 interacted with man apes before civilization though.

We're not talking apples and oranges here, we're talking Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.

[Dark Jaguar]

2001 is overrated. I mean that end sequence? That's just a screensaver passing itself off as deep.

[A Black Falcon]

... Yeah, Van Daniken didn't think he was a sci-fi writer, as far as I have ever heard, he believed that stuff in all its racist stupidity. That probably shouldn't be used as a base for much of anything.. though I will admit to playing, and somewhat enjoying, the late '90s Myst-clone Timelapse, which had an "ancient aliens" plot at its core.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah GR the big issue is Scott seems to not just be using it as "inspiration" but has started drinking the kool-aid a bit, stating "Both NASA and the Vatican" as thinking it's "mathematically impossible" for us to be where we are without some outside help. I have no idea where he's getting that. Firstly, I really don't care WHAT Rome has to say on the matter. Secondly, one nut does not represent all of NASA. Thirdly, well, history does a pretty danged good job explaining exactly how we got here. Yeah, it's pretty racist if he actually believes that stuff.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm pretty sure, and you guys are free to pull up some quotes to contradict me if you like, that Ridley Scott doesn't think he's making a documentary about how civilization on Earth got started.

2001: A Space Odyssey, Mission to Mars, StarGate, the writings of HP Lovecraft, Halo, Quatermass and the Pit, and others deal with alien intervention in human [or other races'] civilization and development. Star Trek even dealt with the idea of the major races all having a common ancestor, which seems to be what Prometheus is leaning more towards rather than "aliens helped the Egyptians build pyramids".