Prometheus UK priemere Q & A

http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2012/04/the_most_interesting_thing_i_l.html#axzz1rduvzDHY

the most interesting thing I learned about Prometheus at this morning’s footage reveal in London...

[no spoilers!]

Michael Fassbender’s character

Prometheus Michael Fassbender

is an android.

At the Q&A after the footage reveal, Ridley Scott assured us that this is not a secret of the film, that it’s known from the opening moments. It’s a nod to Ash from Alien, but -- as Scott said -- you simply cannot do a science fiction movie these days and have someone secretly be an android. I believe the word he used to describe that notion is daft.

(We weren’t allowed the bring any recording devices into the auditorium for the footage or the Q&A, but we’re assured that a transcript will be available later. When that happens, I’ll share a couple of quotes I found interesting.)

Fassbender -- who was also there to answer questions, along with Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron -- talked a bit about how he developed the android character David, and he and Scott assured us that he’s meant to be a little funny and that it’ll be okay to laugh at him. Judging from some of the footage we saw (which has not yet been seen in trailers), there’s definitely some humor going on with the character. I’m looking forward to seeing Fassbender funny. He’s certainly funny in person, and we haven’t really seen him be less than very intense and serious onscreen.

I guess the android nature of the character is probably already known to those who have vaccumed up every scrap of information already available about the film. But I’m not that sort of movie geek, and so this tidbit escaped me. It certainly has not been at all obvious from the trailers.

Something shocking I just learned about the movie right now, as I went hunting for an image of Fassbender, is that this:

Prometheus Logan Marshall-Green

is not Tom Hardy. Despite the fact that one of my other reactions to the footage reveal was, Huh, Tom Hardy is in this, too? I did not know that. It’s Logan Marshall-Green. And I’m not the only one stunned by their resemblance:

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/prometheus-footage-reveal-report

Prometheus footage reveal report: details and reaction
We've seen 13 minutes, and it's awesome…
Apr 10th 2012 By George Wales

This morning saw the world's first screening of 3D footage from Prometheus at the Vue cinema in London's Leicester Square. We at Total Film were lucky enough to get a look at it, as well as attending a Q & A with both director and cast, and if possible, we're even more excited than we were before…

We were treated to approximately 13 minutes of footage comprised of a series of scenes setting up the film's premise. Naturally, if you don't want to know anything before going in, you should probably stop reading now.

First up was a sequence set on Scotland's Isle of Skye, in which research scientists Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green discover some peculiar markings on the wall of an old cave. Surmising that the etchings make reference to a race of extra-terrestrial beings, Rapace make the fateful proclamation that, "I think they want us to come and find them." Hmmm…

The next scene was set upon the good ship Prometheus in the year 2093, with Michael Fassbender's placid android, David, attending to a pushup-performing Charlize Theron. "Were there any casualties?" she asks him casually, as she completes her workout. David confirms that there were not.




She's referring to the awakening of the ship's research crew from their stasis chambers, having spent a whopping two and a half years in there before being roused. Straight off the bat it seems as though Theron's character, a suit from the Weyland Corporation, is a very cold fish indeed. Intriguingly, Theron revealed after the screening that her character is initially detached from the mission, but has actually got a very personal reason for being there. Curioser and curioser...

We're briefly introduced to various crew members (including Idris Elba's scene-stealing badass, the pilot, Janek) before a hologram of Peter Weyland introduces the lead scientists and congratulates them on the mission ahead. As suggested by his TED talk, it's to be one of discovery. He also makes reference to David the android, describing him as "a son" before referring to his absence of a soul. David looks a bit hurt.

It's then the turn of Marshall-Green and Rapace to explain the mission ahead, referring to their cave-based findings and revealing their discovery of a planet with its own moon, capable of sustaining life. That's where the crew are heading. Sean Harris makes a snide comment scoffing about the veracity of cave paintings, leading us to believe his card may well be marked…




The final sequence showed us Prometheus coming in to land on the aforementioned planet, with Elba revelling in centre stage, firing off one-liners and generally chewing the scenery to great effect. It was probably the most visually arresting sequence in a film that promises to be extremely easy on the eye.

The stage duly set, we were then shown a brief sizzle reel, re-capping some of the footage from the trailer, and generally showing all hell breaking loose. There was a very brief glimpse of something alien-like (although not particularly similar to a Xenomorph), the revelation that that giant head "is moving", and a deliciously icky moment involving one crew-member's eye…

All in all, we were fairly blown away by proceedings. Although the bulk of the film's action was kept firmly under wraps, there was enough to suggest this will be quite the spectacle. Pleasingly, the 3D (filmed on the super-crisp RED camera) is of the layered, innocuous variety, never appearing distracting but adding real depth to some breathtakingly beautiful space-vistas. Indeed, we could have sat staring at the view from the ship's bridge all morning, had we been given the chance...

In a brief Q & A after the screening, Ridley Scott revealed a few more tidbits about the project, explaining how Alien's Space Jockey scene was the whole jumping-off point for the film. Who was that figure, why was he there, why was he bearing that specific cargo and where was he heading? He and his kind might have wanted to be found, but not for the benevolent reasons believed by Rapace's character…




As for the connection between the two films, Scott explained that the link is "barely in its DNA", reasserting that the film is a standalone piece. However, he did admit that the connection becomes more apparent in the films final seven minutes...

Scott also dropped one final, mouthwatering teaser, promising that there will be a scene in Prometheus that serves as a counterpart to Alien's chestbuster moment. It involves Noomi Rapace, but that's all we know. Some things are best kept as a surprise…

Prometheus opens in the UK on 1 June 2012. It just became our most-anticipated film of the year.

How excited are you for Ridley's return to space? Tell us, below.

http://www.prometheusmovienews.com/2012/04/prometheus-footage-screening-and-qa-report/

Prometheus footage screening and Q&A report!
Posted on April 10, 2012 by weyland

This article has been updated for clarity and a few new comments. I have moved all my comments, opinions and ponderings to the end, to avoid confusion over what was actually shown/said, and what my theories on it

So, we’ve just been lucky enough to see a chunk of Prometheus footage, followed by a Q&A hosted by Empire Magazine’s Chris Hewitt and featuring direct Ridley Scott and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron, at press event held by 20th Century Fox in London’s Leicester Square.

The footage lasted about 15 minutes, and consisted of mainly completed scenes, which were both extensions of bits we’ve seen in the various trailers, and new stuff, before merging into what seems to be a slightly modified version of the International trailer footage that we have all seen by now. Before the screening began, we were told that we were the first people outside Fox to see the footage.

The following descriptions come from my hastily scribbled (in the dark) notes, and memory, so my apologies in advance if they seem a bit disjointed.

The footage opens on the Isle of Skye in the year 2089 and is a features a longer version of the opening of the International trailer, with Shaw and Holloway on an archaeological dig and uncovering the pictogram/constellation we have seen already.

Cut to the year 2093, and the Prometheus glides through space. David the android walks alone on the ship, which suddenly judders to a halt – it appears to have reached its destination.

David goes to the bridge and fires up all the systems before going to wake the crew from stasis, only to find that Vickers (Theron) is already up and finishing what looks like a punishing exercise regime. Ever the hard-nosed business woman, her only question to David is ‘did anyone die?’

After seeing the crew recuperating from their hyper sleep, including some copious vomiting from Shaw, we cut to the Prometheus’s hanger. Here we see a hologram video message from an aged Peter Welyand, recorded in 2091. If you are watching this now, he says, “I’ll be dead, may I rest in peace”. He uses his recording to introduce Shaw and Holloway and they then give their talk shown in the trailers, though extended here. To paraphrase – “The constellation shown in the pictograms was so far away that the there is no way the civilisations that appear to have made them could have known about it, but we do. We know it has a sun, and we know it has an Earth-like planet. And this is where we are now.”

That planet is LV-223.

Next we get some new shots of the Prometheus landing, and an extremely clear shot of the ‘mountain’ structure previously glimpsed. Now, while I have said that this reminds me of the work that Giger did for an abandoned adaptation of Dune (see below), in the shot here it’s unmistakeable. It’s missing the ‘arms’, but the ‘head’ and face are clearly visible in profile.

Here’s where we cut back to more familiar ground, consisting mostly of the international trailer footage with maybe a few tweaks here and there, though nothing real note.

I have to say it was all very impressive. The footage looked fantastic – Scott has hit a visual home run on this one, without a doubt. I’m not a fan of 3D at all, but I must say it works well, not drawing attention to itself, but definitely pulling you into the movie. This could be the movie that changes my mind about – well utilised – 3D. The old age makeup on Guy Pearce is also very well done. It may have been helped by the hologram VFX hiding covering any weaknesses, or it could even be CGI-enhanced, but it looked very natural and didn’t interfere with his performance.

Next up was the Q&A. Empire’s Chris Hewitt took charge, as a few lucky audience members go to ask questions. We’ve been promised a full transcript along with some clips of the session, so in the meantime here are a few highlights I picked out.

Scott commented on what brought him back to the Alien universe – The sequels had not explored the biggest question – who was the Space Jockey, why did he have that cargo, and where was he headed with it? The Alien sequels were “all jolly good, in one form or other”.

While the project started as an Alien prequel, the more he got involved in another story, the “less inclined I was” to connect it to Alien.

Noomi Rapace calls he character conflicted. Shaw is a scientist with a faith in God – her search for the origins of man-kind doesn’t lead where she expects.

Michael Fassbender didn’t re-watch Ian Holm’s or Lance Henkrikson’s performances, but instead looked to Blade Runner and Lawrence of Arabia amongst other for inspiration and clues for his performance. Scott said there is a lot of humour in David’s character – I did detect a certain amount of deadpan wit in Fassbender’s performance – and that we “are allowed to laugh”.

Theron said that Vickers starts the film as detached and cold – I guess that will change – and is neither a believer nor a scientist, but is there for a personal reason.

Scott spent 4 and a half months working with production designer Arthur Max and his team before the film was even green lit to get the designs locked down.

Scott was then asked a question about the rating of the original Alien, but his answer was a more general one. Starting with a half-joking “I want a certificate that’s best for the box office”, he made a valid argument that it’s in everyone’s interest to make a film that is as accessible to as big an audience as possible. After all, he pointed out, if a studio doesn’t make its money back, there are no movies. Even if a rubbish film is a hit, overall it’s a good thing. I have to say, as much as I’d like to see a full-on R/18 rated Prometheus, I understand completely that studios are running a business – Scott himself said is a director and a business man. Given that movies like The Woman in Black and The Hunger Games are pushing boundries at the lower rating, I don’t think we should be too worried if Prometheus ends up a PG-113/12A.

Scott promised that Rapace has a scene ‘equivalent’ to Alien’s chestburster, that no other actor was involved in.

Finally, touching on his use of 3D, Scott seemed to dismiss those who say it adds too much complexity to shooting. As a strong visual director, Scott says, he found 3D “pretty straightforward”.

Overall I came away very impressed. The look and feel of the footage we saw was excellent, while the director and stars seemed really enthusiastic about the film.

So what did we learn? Nothing massively earth shattering, though many peoples’ suspicions that the movie does not take place on LV-426 appear confirmed.

As I said, we have been promised a full transcript of the chat, which will hopefully make a bit more sense, and we’ll get that online as soon as we have it!

My thoughts on what we saw and heard.

I’m now more convinced than ever that, despite the character saying otherwise, Peter Weyland is very much alive and more or less well when the Prometheus lands on LV-223, and that the images below do in fact show Weyland. Did he get to LV-223 before the Prometheus, and the crew find him there?

Guy Pearce?

As for Theron’s comments on Vickers having a personal stake in the mission – does she know that Weyland is on LV-223? Is she related to him?

Regarding the rating, I think even if Scott settles on PG-13/12A for the theatrical release, there’s a good chance we’ll see an uncut/extended home video release.

As far as the link between Prometheus and Alien, perhaps Scott’s regular comments that the last few minutes of the film will tie in to Alien will see a change of location from LV-223 to LV-426. Perhaps the ‘derelict’ we see crashing is in the trailers is not the same one that appears to be taking off when we see the giant ‘hanger doors’ open under Shaw’s feet in the trailers, and it’s this second ship that the crew of the Nostromo find?

Finally, as far as Shaw’s chestburster scene ‘equivalent’, I have some ideas, but I’m going to keep those to myself – feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or forum!

Oh yeah, the head moves. Who’da thought it?

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

http://cinemart-online.co.uk/2012/04/10/special-report-prometheus-footage-preview/

Special Report: PROMETHEUS Footage Preview
April 10, 2012 By Martyn Conterio Leave a Comment

‘Big things have small beginnings,’ says android David (Michael Fassbender) in a viral video promo for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Indeed, the 1979 sci-fi classic, Alien, starts with some poor astronaut named Kane (John Hurt) finding a chamber filled with mysterious eggs. From a truly monstrous birth a horror franchise was born and the rest was supposed to be history – certainly for Ridley Scott.

The director began Prometheus or ‘Prequel to Alien’ (as Noomi Rapace, in the Q&A, admitted the film was known before the title change) asking a question none of the other directors (James Cameron, David Fincher or Jean-Pierre Jeunet) failed to ponder. “Who was the big fella?’

The ‘Space Jockey’, a name/description that perplexes Scott to this day, was the skeletal remains of an alien being sat in some sort of giant chair with a hole in his chest. No other director or writer thought much of this creature but Scott was drawn to questions surrounding it and from this Prometheus grew into a film that shares ‘DNA’ with Alien, but isn’t a true prequel. Do we believe them?…

On 10th April 2012, in central London, gathered bloggers and journalists were treated to a montage reel of scenes from the movie (all take place in the first act by the look of things). We were told by the marketing people we were the first people in the whole wide world to see this footage outside the studio. However, there were no major surprises and this preview was clearly designed to whet the appetite and make people generally excited to see the finished product. Given everybody is already dying from excitement anyway, it seems a bit pointless, yet still pretty cool. Go figure…

The first clip takes place on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and sees Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and Dr. Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) finding a cave, some 35,000 year old drawings and what looks like a star map. They are clearly excited (and loved up).

The second clip featured a stunning shot of outer space (I’ll admit it, the 3D here was ace). This shot also echoes the opening of Alien but slyly subverts it when the outer edge of a surface enveloped in darkness turns out to be the Prometheus spacecraft and not a planet.

We are now in 2093, some years after the Isle of Sky sequence, and deep in space. David, the android, is walking about the ship preparing for everybody to wake. Once the crew awakes, they are suffering from the effects of space travel (Elizabeth Shaw throws up into a container – nice) and Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) is quickly established as a bit of a corporate bitch. She talks to David in that ‘Master to Servant’ tone which is cold and aloof. David, given he doesn’t possess emotions, just smiles blandly on.

Next up was a scene featuring Guy Peace (heavily made up with prosthetics) as an elderly Peter Weyland. He’s recorded a message for the crew explaining Holloway and Shaw are basically in charge and the reason why he gave these crazy kids a spaceship and loads of money to find the origin of life. Weyland says David is like a son to him even though he’s a robot servant. By the time the crew hear Weyland’s message, he’s been dead a good two years. This is a man who wants his legacy to live on and still be part of history.

So what do these scenes amount to? Not a lot, that’s for sure. There’s a sense Prometheus will contain some grand surprises and Ridley Scott (don’t call him ‘Sir’ because he gets embarrassed) clearly likes toying with an audience. When a person in the crowd mentioned the original film’s iconic ‘chestburster’ scene, Scott noted there is a scene in Prometheus which could be said to have a similar ‘What the f&#!!’ shock factor. The director revealed it was shot on a closed set and none of the actors apart from Noomi Rapace know about it. Interesting…

During the enjoyable and good natured Q&A, which included Fassbender comically admonishing Charlize Theron for interrupting him, little was revealed beyond the usual boring talk about character back story (Elizabeth Shaw was born in Africa and her dad a missionary) and Scott insisting Prometheus is only really an Alien film in the last ten minutes.

Scott definitely came to life when talking about graphic design and how the film was designed. He clearly loves building the worlds his flicks take place in. Prometheus looks pretty incredible on design and photography levels, let’s hope the story matches such graphic perfection. One of the major reasons Scott didn’t want to make another sci-fi film for years and year was he felt once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. It appears with Prometheus he’s found something new to say and explore whilst presenting it as related to his second feature, Alien.

There’s no doubting Prometheus looks stunning and the eagle-eyed viewer will spot design similarities between the interior of the spacecraft and the Nostromo. What is interesting is how Prometheus and Alien clearly occupy the same universe but allows for different production design. The Prometheus ship is clearly well more expensive and sleeker than the Nostromo, which was a commercial vessel carrying minerals back to Earth.

This short event, whilst certainly cool to see, didn’t reveal a great deal. We have learned dates, names and spotted the odd visual reference and nothing more. Clearly Twentieth Century Fox and Ridley Scott wish to keep their picture under wraps. The best thing about it was seeing potential character dynamics. David the android sees a very peculiar character – he smiles a lot which suggests something creepy could happen – and I don’t mean in the demented Ash sense. Maybe he’ll the only character, who under pressure, starts behaving rationally and kindly.

Meredith Vickers, Theron’s character, is clearly a hard-headed corporate type and in the second clip barks orders at David, and even asks nonchalantly if any of the crew have died during the trip. We also see Idris Elba’s Captain Janek attempting to spread a little cheer and goodwill on the Prometheus with a Christmas tree, only for Vickers to seem utterly bemused by this action.

For now Prometheus’ and its major secrets remain under wraps but what I’ve seen today fills me with even greater levels of excitement. Ridley Scott – at his absolute best – transports audiences to some scary and brilliant places.

Big things have small beginnings yet big budgets can lead to small box office. Scott needs to tread carefully and a balancing act needs to be delivered regarding its relationship to Alien. Fans do not want to be disappointed. The last thing cinema-goers want is to feel conned: “It’s not an Alien movie!” We want a new story, new characters and to forget the sequels which got progressively worst because they continued to centre on Ripley – which was ridiculous. Scott takes us back whilst promising something we haven’t seen before.

www.whosjack.org/prometheus-footage-preview-qa/

Prometheus Footage Preview & Q&A
April 10, 2012

prometheus footage and question and answerThis morning we were lucky enough to be at the world’s first showing of 3D footage from Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi adventure, Prometheus. Also at the screening were Sir Ridley himself and the films stars, Noomi Repace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron who were on hand to answer some questions after.

The Footage:

The morning started with a 13 minute montage of footage sliced up from the film setting up the premise and hinting at some surprises to come when Prometheus is released on 1st June. If you’re trying to keep yourself away from any spoilers maybe jump past the next few paragraphs to the Q&A section so you don’t read anything you don’t want to know!

The footage opened in Scotland’s Isle of Skye in the year 2079. A group of scientists including Noomi Repace’s Elizabeth Shaw and Logan Marshall-Green’s Charlie Holloway have stumbled across some strange markings on the wall of a cave. They seem to set of alarm bells that someone or something wants the scientists to come and look for them.

We’re the taken to the year 2093, we’re in outer space on the Prometheus ship where we see our first shot of Michael Fassbender’s emotionless, robotic character, David. David is an android working alongside Charlize Theron’s Meredith Vickers who asks David if there have been ‘any casualties’ before the footage jumps to the ships research crew who have been induced into sleep for the last two and half years, two of which are Shaw and Holloway. It is now that we begin to get a bit of background into where the full length film will be going.

The research team are taken into a briefing where Shaw and Holloway explain that during their research missions they found a series of etchings and drawings on walls and in caves from all over the world. And despite them all being created years apart and by completely unconnected people they all feature a cluster of symbols that they believe represent a planet which holds the meaning of humankind. They’ve worked out where the planet is and the Prometheus ship is now landed on it and awaiting the team to begin exploring.

Having brought us up to date with the back story we then saw some fast paced, sliced up clips from the rest of the film where it became fully apparent that things don’t go to plan and that they’ve disturbed something that does not want to be disturbed.

As the prequel to Alien we’d be led to believe that this film may end where Alien picks up or indeed have some links with the film but it’s hard to tell from the footage we saw what exactly the team have stumbled across but as we know from the posters and trailers for Prometheus, unless they act quickly it could mean the end of mankind.

The Q&A:

After the preview had finished the floor was opened up to questions from the films director Scott and some of the cast. Scott opened up about how Alien’s famous Space Jockey scene was where he first bore the idea for Prometheus, having asked himself questions like who that figure was, where he was heading and why he was there he quickly booked in a meeting with Fox and the original idea was born. He also put to bed any rumours that Prometheus is closely linked to Alien saying the film should be viewed as a ‘stand alone piece’.

Meanwhile Repace spoke about how she came to first work with Scott. Apparently Scott had seen her in the original Girl With A Dragon Tattoo and was blown away, ‘he said he wanted to work with me in the future’, said Repace. ‘I thought I was going to die’. She then explained how just a few months later she got the call saying Scott wanted to see her for Prometheus and the rest was history.

Before departing from the stage Scott gave an animated talk about how easy he found it to shoot in 3D, explaining that he works visually and made all his decisions based on instinct rather than consulting with everyone else on set. And from what we saw in the clips he’s done a good job and we while we were excited about the films release before it’s just become our most anticipated film of the next few months.

See all of our Prometheus coverage here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9195794/Prometheus-preview.html

Prometheus - preview
A short selection of early scenes from Prometheus, Ridley Scott's Alien prequel, lay the foundations for the blockbuster event of the year.
Tim Robey

By Tim Robey

2:58PM BST 10 Apr 2012

Comments26 Comments

Anticipation for Prometheus, Ridley Scott's sort-of-prequel to Alien, is almost on the neurotic end of breathless by now. Some aspects of it are closely-guarded secrets, and plenty of the core audience live in terror of hearing a single thing about it before paying on opening night. Some things we know, though: it's going to be more or less a new story, only the very end of which will connect us up with the science fiction mythos Scott originally established in 1979. The question Scott began this film wanting to answer, which Alien's sequels hadn't explored, is best put in his own words: "Who's the big guy in the chair?".

On stage with his top-lining cast members Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron, Scott took questions this morning at a private preview, after a selection of scenes - what you might call an exposition reel - setting up the movie's premise. Those who've banned themselves from even watching the trailer should stop reading right this instant, but nothing was spoiled which the movie won't lay out for us in what I'm assuming is its first half-hour.

We start, from the look of things, with a discovery on the Isle of Skye, in the company of Rapace's archaeologist, Dr Elizabeth Shaw, and a colleague played by Logan Marshall-Green. It's a 35,000-year-old cave painting depicting a faraway solar system, including one habitable planet with a moon. Fast-forward to 2093, and these two awake from hypersleep on a 17-man exploratory space vessel, their mission to probe the secrets of LV-223 -- which buffs will note is not LV-426, the dread-filled planet from Alien and Aliens.

Rapace, Scott confirmed, is the closest thing to a Ripley figure here; Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers is an employee of the traditionally nefarious Weyland Corporation, charged by her late boss Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce, briefing us in holographic and aged-up form) with ensuring that the search for signs of life goes to plan. Meanwhile, a blond-dyed Michael Fassbender is David, the ship's creepily effete android butler, who calls Theron "Ma'am" and has been quietly watering plants for two and a half years while the rest of his crew-mates switch off.

"It's categorically not a secret what he is," says Scott about David, explaining that the role is a nod of sorts to Ian Holm's Ash, but that holding onto his identity as any kind of mystery would have been too clichéd. Fassbender, in shaping the character, relied less on memories of Holm, Lance Henriksen and Winona Ryder (!) in the earlier films than recent viewings of Scott's Blade Runner, Dirk Bogarde in The Servant, Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia and Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth. Apparently there's even a bit of the Olympic diver Greg Louganis in there -- something about his weirdly efficient walk. He looks fantastic in it, and so, in a more vulnerable and human way, does Rapace.
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Theron's character, who gets straight out of the hypersleep chamber and does push-ups while her colleagues are spewing into buckets, looks to be a coldly enigmatic functionary, but she wanted to find ways to make Vickers brittle and afraid, inspired in part by Tilda Swinton's Oscar-winning performance as a panicked lawyer in Michael Clayton. Idris Elba's the pilot, and the supporting cast is a roll call of British character actors, from Sean Harris (24 Hour Party People) to Benedict Wong (Sunshine) to Kate Dickie (Red Road) and Rafe Spall (Anonymous). No sign yet of Patrick Wilson, who I've read somewhere is playing Rapace's father.

For Scott the starting-point - how the big bone creature from Alien came to be there - became less and less important as the new movie took over, or, as he says, "adjusted itself into much larger questions". The origin story ended up "barely in its DNA" - the last seven minutes provide the link. He worked on it design-first, persuading Fox to spend some money blueprinting the entire visual scheme of the film before a script was green-lit. It's his first feature in 3D, but he bats away the idea that this posed any particular headaches. "It's not brain surgery. It's actually pretty straightforward."

Exposition over, we were treated to that tantalising trailer montage of everything going gloopy and haywire – unfamiliar egg chambers, things entering people's eyes, screams of "What IS that?" and "Take us HOME!". This is what aficionados of cinema's greatest science fiction series, and the Star Wars faithful who are now furious with me, will be waiting for. If Scott and his cast can deliver on their movie's huge promise - only heightened by the careful, intelligently-played establishing scenes just unveiled - they'll be responsible for the blockbuster event of the year.

Prometheus is out in the UK on 1 June and in the USA 8 June

http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/empire-states/post/p1219

19 Things We've Learned About Prometheus

Posted on Tuesday April 10, 2012, 15:09 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
19 Things We've Learned About Prometheus

If you’ve read this month’s issue of Empire – and if you haven’t, stop faffing around and go and buy it immediately, then come back here and continue where you left off – you’ll no doubt share our excitement about the cover feature, a no-holds-barred peek inside the world of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.

And after this morning’s sneak peek of 12 minutes of footage from the movie with Alien DNA, that excitement hasn’t abated any. In fact, it’s ramped up a notch or ten. The footage – largely from the film’s opening scenes, albeit with a montage at the end – was followed by a Q&A with Sir Ridley, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender, hosted by yours truly. Here’s what we gleaned from the morning’s events.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. Prometheus is an Alien prequel. Make no bones about it – Scott has frequently said that there are direct connections in the last eight minutes of the film, but for Alien fans, Prometheus will have Easter eggs galore. For example, we learned that the planet on which much of the action takes place is designated LV-223. Just a stone’s throw, astronomically speaking, from LV-426, home of Alien and Aliens.

2. Another connection comes in the subtitles informing us about the Prometheus, as Scott did with the Nostromo. It has a crew of 17 (ten more than the Nostromo), it is very, very far from Earth (if we recall correctly, 32x1014 km from Earth, which is approximately 32 HUNDRED TRILLION kilometres from our home planet. Quite a way to go.). It is December 21, 2091. Its destination is unknown.

3. But we start in 2089, on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, as Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw and her scientific partner (in more ways than one, fnar fnar), Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) uncover evidence of an ancient civilization that worshipped giant beings. A cave painting shows one of the giant figures pointing to five balls hanging in the sky…

4. Which, as it turns out, represent the exact configuration of a solar system a long way from Earth (about 32 hundred trillion kilometres, as it turns out). Holloway and Shaw have been studying similar cave paintings from different civilisations, none of which could have known each other, and have discovered that they are, in fact, a map to the aforementioned solar system, which has a sun much like ours, and a moon orbiting a gas giant that is capable of sustaining life. So, with some heavy-hitting financial backing, away they go.

5. In 2089, camping equipment and clothing hasn’t changed that much. Holloway and Shaw still look like they’ve just shopped at Millets.

6. On Prometheus, Holloway favours flip-flops.

7. Prometheus also feels like an Alien movie, down to the hustle bustle of activity on the Prometheus as the crew come out of cryo-stasis. There’s even a brief moment where some people are eating dinner around a table – but there’s no fear of a chestburster here. At least, not yet.



8. Speaking of chestbursters, Scott and Rapace were asked if there was a moment on set that rivaled the chestburster scene – where Scott, famously, didn’t tell his actors the exact specifics of what was about to happen, hence their genuinely shocked expressions. They said no, but Scott confirmed that there is a scene, involving Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw, that might rival it for visceral impact. Rapace added that it was hard to get the horrific images of that scene out of her head for a while after filming.

9. The film, thanks largely to Scott’s insistence on shooting much of it practically on giant sets, feels real and lived-in, although it doesn’t have the grimy, claustrophobic feel of Alien. Prometheus is a state-of-the-art flagship, unlike the Nostromo, and its bells and whistles reflect that. Prometheus, the film, feels more pristine and lush to look at than Alien. But we expect things are going to get dark and spooky very soon indeed.

10. The opening spacescape shot – a silent canvas of awe-inspiring stars across which the Prometheus moves at a fair old lick, creating a light-wake behind it – is stunning. In space, no-one can hear your jaw drop.

11. Guy Pearce was confirmed as Peter Weyland, head of the Weyland Corp and the man whose mega-millions fund the Prometheus expedition, in that TED viral that came out a couple of months ago. That, however, took place in 2023, a full sixty years before the events of this movie, and saw Pearce play Weyland in his forties, unencumbered by make-up.

Today, though, confirmed our theory that Pearce also plays Weyland in old age make-up. As Prometheus comes out of orbit, its assembled crew are treated to a holographic lecture from Pearce (accompanied by his playful dog, who rolls over at one point), who informs them that he is: a) their employer, b) dead now and c) the ‘father’ of Michael Fassbender’s David, the ship’s android. Unfortunately, David has no soul and so cannot appreciate the gifts that Weyland has bestowed upon him.

He once again invokes the Prometheus myth, in which the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the Gods to bestow to man, triggering our evolution. He was roundly punished for this, but Weyland appears to be ignoring that part, and is placing great importance and significance on this mission, hoping that it will yield a giant step for mankind that can see them stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the mysterious race that ‘invited’ them.

12. However, if Pearce’s Weyland is dead, then who’s that old man who can clearly be seen on board the Prometheus in the trailers? Is Weyland secretly stowing away aboard his own ship? If so, who knows about it: his direct employee, Vickers (Charlize Theron)? Fassbender’s David? And why is he there? Could he be looking for the secret of eternal life? Might this explain why Scott chose an actor in his 40s, rather than someone in his 90s? Will we see Weyland ‘de-age’ at some point?



13. Theron’s Vickers is – at least at first – cold as liquid nitrogen, and hard as nails. While all other crew members have to be forcibly awoken from cryo-stasis, and then spend most of their time heaving their guts into a space-bucket while their bodies adjust, Fassbender’s David – who, as an android, doesn’t go into cryo-stasis, bustling about the ship on his lonesome during the two-and-a-half year journey – finds that she has roused herself from cyber-slumber. Following a trail of wet footprints, David finds Vickers in her chambers. Rather than being violently sick, she’s already doing push-ups, while dripping with viscous fluid (which explains the shot of a stressed-looking Theron lowering herself onto something from the trailer).

She then barks orders at David – “Robe!” – and demands a status update from him. “Were there any casualties?” “No, ma’am, everyone’s fine,” replies David. “Well, then, wake ‘em up,” she orders. It’s clear that, while they’re both technically Weyland employees, Vickers wears the trousers around here.

14. David, meanwhile, is a calm and fastidious presence. He is the first character we meet on board the Prometheus, wandering its corridors while waiting for the ship to reach its destination. At one point, the ship is jolted by something, and rocks slightly (in a nice touch, futuristic pool balls slide around a table as the ship tilts to the right), but David just waits, calmly, for the situation to be rectified before carrying on with what we reckon is his daily routine.

David’s interaction with the other characters is going to be fascinating. “How far will you go for your answers?” he asks an unseen character in the climactic montage. “What are you willing to do?” Will David be an Ash-like hindrance as his human masters, whom he so desperately wants to be like, face unending horrors, or a Bishop-like help? Either way, Fassbender and Scott said that they would like the character to be somewhat comedic. Fassbender said that Scott’s best piece of direction was that David’s prissy manner should make other characters think one thing: “Is he taking the piss?”

15. Idris Elba’s Captain Janek has a Southern lilt, and a quirky character, unveiling a Christmas tree, much to Vickers’ disgust. His crew includes Benedict Wong and Game Of Thrones’ Emun Elliott.



16. The sequence finishes with Prometheus landing on LV-223, and then cut to a montage of terrors yet to come. This sequence was largely identical to the recent trailer, but with a few new shots, including:

– A shot of the besuited scientific crew in the docking bay of Prometheus, with the planet’s rocky, windswept landscape glimpsed behind them.

– A shot of a solemn Vickers, intoning, ‘if you go down there, you’ll die.’ She may not be wrong.

– An extended shot of something – a microscopic worm – wriggling into Holloway’s eye, back on board Prometheus. Does he become infected by something?

– And the piece de resistance, a brief shot of a living organism – a tiny thing which, true to form for this franchise, has a mouth that is redolent of female genitalia – rearing up, presumably while the Prometheus crew is completing their first sweep of the planet. What does this mean? It’s not a facehugger, or an Alien, but something else entirely. Is it about to attack someone? Will it end well? I think we all know the answer to that.

17. The issue of certification was brought up once again during the Q&A. Scott, who was on fine, funny form throughout, said that his preferred certificate is “Whatever guarantees me the biggest box office possible”, and demanded that the MPAA get their act together. Sounds like this one is going to be a PG-13 in the States, but could well be a 15 over here.

18. When asked about his first foray into 3D, Scott was also hilariously blunt. In short: he found it almost ridiculously easy. The 3D, by the way, looks excellent: the space sequences have a wonderful depth of field, and we can’t wait to see what happens later in the film, when all manner of nastiness is unleashed.

19. June 1 can’t get here soon enough.

http://www.filmchronicles.com/that-prometheus-qa-in-full/

That Prometheus Q&A in full

Here’s the full Prometheus Q&A held in London today, as well as the whole thing as a transcript below. Enjoy listening and reading!

The full Prometheus Q&A
PART ONE

The full Prometheus Q&A
PART TWO

The full Prometheus Q&A
PART THREE

‘PROMETHEUS’

Q&A LONDON, 10TH APRIL 2012

SIR RIDLEY SCOTT – Director

NOOMI RAPACE – Elizabeth Shaw

MICHAEL FASSBENDER – David

CHARLIZE THERON – Meredith Vickers

CHAIR CHRIS HEWITT: Ridley you had an idea for a prequel to ‘Alien’ based around the Space Jockey for a long, long time but at what point did that coalesce into something solid, into this?

Ridley Scott: Well, I watched the three subsequent ‘Aliens’ being made, which were all jolly good in some form or other. Does that sound competitive? Because I’m really competitive! So I thought the franchise was fundamentally used up. How long ago was the last ‘Alien’?

Chair: ‘Alien Resurrection’ was 1997.

RS: 1997, so I must have thought about it for three or four years and thought in all of the films nobody had asked a very simple question which was – who is the big guy in the chair, who was fondly after ‘Alien’ called The Space Jockey. I don’t know how the hell he got that name; there was this big boned creature who seemed to be nine feet tall sitting in this chair and I went in to Fox with four questions. Who are they? Why are they there? Why that cargo and where were they going or had they in fact had a forced landing? And so in fact it was a study of a pilot and Tom Rothman [co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment] said, ‘That sounds good to me’. And so off I went with two writers, John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof and we came up with the screenplay, the draft. It’s interesting when you start off with an interesting idea like that and you don’t know whether it’s going to be a prequel or a sequel, it gradually adjusted itself into much larger questions and therefore now the actual connection to the original ‘Alien’ is barely in its DNA. You kind of get it in the last seven minutes or so. What you saw here was a montage of what comes out of the film, just to give you a taste of what’s to come, so some of it felt a bit disjointed but you may have caught a bit of it, but there is a little bit of it right at the end that gives you a connection. That’s about it.

Chair: But there are Easter Eggs in the film, I don’t know if anyone saw the planet is LV-223, I believe and the planet in ‘Alien’ is LV-426. Was it fun putting those things in, layering those little references?

RS: Yes; but the more I got into another story the less inclined I was to take on board that it was connected to the original.

Chair: Noomi, let’s talk about Elizabeth Shaw. This film is about faith versus science and she represents the faith side, doesn’t she?

Noomi Rapace: Yes; she is a scientist and she grew up in Africa and her father was a priest, so she has been raised close to God, seeing different cultures and different people living under different conditions from a very early age. She has been travelling around, seeing different life forms since she was quite young. But her father died when she was young so she has been on her own and she has been able to turn and to use God and things that have happened to her in a constructive way. So she became a scientist but she still has a great gift of believing. It’s an interesting conflict that we [points to Ridley Scott] were talking about a lot, being a scientist but still believing in God. What she’s looking for out there and this whole mission is very personal to her; it’s like something she has been living with and waiting for and wanting to do her whole life, in a way.

Chair: And is it about retaining faith in the middle of horrible things happening to you? Visiting hell, essentially?

NR: Yes. She goes through a lot of things in the movie and she transforms. You know in the beginning she is not maybe naïve, but she is full of hope and a true believer and then things happen and she becomes a survivor and a fighter and a warrior in a way. I’m not sure that she is so convinced at the end of the movie. I think she realises that it wasn’t really what she expected.

Chair: Michael you play David, the ship’s android, the sort of ancestor if you will of Ash Bishop and ‘Alien Resurrection’s’ Call, we might as well mention her. Did you look at Lance Henrikson or Ian Holm’s performances in any way?

Michael Fassbender: I didn’t; obviously I’d seen the films before, but for some reason I didn’t want to go there…

RS: …he copied all the time!

MF: I copied other things. Actually, I watched ‘Blade Runner’, for some reason I watched that and of course Ridley had suggested ‘The Servant’. So I watched ‘The Servant’ with Dirk Bogarde and then there was ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’. And then Greg Louganis the diver popped into my head, I don’t know why. Just the way he sort of moved. As a child, watching the Olympics or whatever, I was, ‘Wow, who’s that guy?’ It was such a weird walk it made me laugh, but it also felt very efficient, centred, like yoga with economy of movement. So I thought that would be interesting to take something on board.

Chair: And Charlize, what can you tell us about Meredith Vickers? In this series company employees tend not to be trustworthy. How about Vickers, where does she come out?

Charlize Theron: It’s weird because I guess there’s a lot of her that is, that makes her the enigma that she is in the beginning that comes across very quintessentially ‘suity’. I guess, like detached and cold and that she really is just there for the sole purpose of you know, making everybody’s life hell, as suits tend to wanna do! That she’s just causing a lot of red tape and she’s not a believer, she’s not a scientist, she really is just there to make sure that you think that everything is going to plan. But then she’s actually there for a very personal reason, of which I cannot speak.

Q: Charlize, we got a really great glimpse of your character now, and I thought it was quite telling in the clip that we saw; everyone else wakes up after the two years of sleeping and they’re sort of throwing up and getting sick and your character is doing push-ups. I thought that was a really telling glimpse into her, and you get the sense that if anyone is going to make it out alive it’s going to be her. I wondered if you could maybe expand on her as that kind of steely character.

CT: I have Sir Ridley to thank for that because initially when I got the script, I spoke to Ridley and we were wondering how we could maybe play more on the mystery, because otherwise she just kinda becomes like a one-dimensional suit. You know there was this amazing performance that Tilda Swinton gave in ‘Michael Clayton’ and Ridley and I were talking about how when you see her, she doesn’t say anything in the beginning of that film, the first time you see her. The kind of panic that is instilled in her says so much without her ever having to say anything. And I said it’d be great if we could come up with something like that, and then Ridley came up with that idea to put me in a physical position where physically I’m saying ten times more than I could verbally. And when he called me with that, I thought, ‘Oh, f&#! yeah, that girl, that’s the girl I like; the girl that wakes up early, does the push ups, and is like, “did anybody die”?’ Like the way she acts, “Are they dead?” I guess you don’t realise the power of picking one very specific thing and that one moment was so powerful and I have Ridley to thank for that.

Q: This is for Mr Scott, you’ve work with genius designers in the past, how long did you work on designing this new world and who are the people that worked on it with you?

RS: Oh, I knew you were going to ask that question! I’d have had my little list. But actually I tend to work with one guy all the time now called Arthur Max, who’s my production designer. I’ve worked with him, since, God, I must’ve done about five or six movies with him now. It used to be Norris Spencer before that. Because I was a designer, I really enjoy the process. And so I really get into it. And so this film, before we were even green lit, I persuaded Fox to spend some smart money, in that the film was completely planned with five designers who are digital designers who can design like industrial designers. From the suits to the kitchen on the ship, to the corridors, to everything you can possibly think of, and then actually climbing into the environment. Arthur Max and these five guys sat in my office in LA, while we were writing and re-writing, for about four and a half months, and by the time I had finished I had a book which was this big and that thick of glossies that were like photographs; they’re not drawings they’re exactly what you get on the screen. So I planned the film before we then mustered and put together a huge team, because once that huge team goes together, that’s where your money runs away. And time and time again I’d get asked, ‘Are you sure? I would like to just adjust this’ and I’d say, ‘Nope, there it is’. ‘What about the light?’ ‘There it is!’ And so that became my benchmark. So it worked out economically first, as opposed to trying to work it out on the floor when you’ve got a unit of three hundred and fifty people. So designing to me is very important.

Q: How conscious were you of fusing the world of ‘Prometheus’ with the world of ‘Alien’…the derelict ship, the Giger designs, the biomechanical?

RS: You know one of the problems with science fiction, which is probably one of the reasons why I haven’t done one for many, many years, is the fact that everything is used up. Every type of spacesuit is used up, every type of spacecraft is vaguely familiar, the corridors are similar and the planets are similar. So what you try to do is lean more heavily on the story and on the characters, to make that really, to give you lift-off, bad pun! But then during the design process, I think we come up with a lot of fairly, to use that awful word ‘cool’…cool looking things which evolve from the drawing board with the designers saying, ‘I’ve seen that, you can’t do that, you can’t do that’. Then you suddenly start to come up with evolutions of different looks so that as a total package, the film feels quite different.

Q: This question is for Noomi. How does it feel for you to take on this big part? Is it a big pressure for your career?

NR: Well, you know, the first time I met Ridley it was in August, almost two years, one and half years ago, in LA. He’d seen ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ a couple of times and he said to me that he loved my performance and that he wanted to work with me and I thought I was gonna just pass out! I don’t really get nervous; it’s not that I have many people in the world that I really admire and don’t really know how to behave around, but I thought I was gonna die. And my English was really bad, so I kinda felt like I was dreaming. And then he actually meant it! So he came back to me a couple of months later and said to me that he wanted me to play this character in his…it was called ‘the prequel to ‘Alien’’ at that time…but then ‘Prometheus’. And the magic kind of is that as soon as you step in and start to work, I don’t feel nervous, I don’t look at it from the outside, it’s almost like you’re stepping into another universe and then you don’t really reflect, you don’t judge it, you don’t think about doing a lead with Ridley Scott, how other people see it around you. You melt into that world; it’s only when you’re done and you step out that you realise there was a lot of pressure and that you probably wouldn’t be able to do it if you started to think about the fact that many people are going to judge it and see it and all that. So I don’t really feel it when I’m in there; when I’m working and I don’t reflect on it. I’m probably just forcing it really so hard.

Q. And Charlize – do you feel much the same about this movie? Do you feel any pressure in any way? Are you clicking on the Internet, watching what people say about the trailer or do you let it all wash over you?

CT: I think Noomi articulated it really well. I think all you can do is try to stay on a path and I think if you think too much about what the outside world is gonna think, or what you people are gonna think, it stifles the creativity and I think it’s fear-based and I don’t really know how to work from there. But I definitely have, the only thing different for me, I do have a sense of fear every day going to work, but I think it’s something that I like. I mean I do like the feeling of waking up on my own, having this moment of like, “Oh, f&#!, I hope I can do this today” because it makes you realise that you’re working with material or you’re working with a director or you’re working with a cast and they’re keeping you on your toes. Nothing’s kinda like, ‘I can do this with my eyes closed’ and I think that is ultimately what every actor wants, something that challenges you to that point.

MF: Just a healthy dose of respect and disrespect.

Q. It’s a question for Sir Ridley. With films like ‘The Hunger Games’ and also ‘The Woman In Black’ getting ratings like 12A, I was just wondering, I was going through my Blu-Ray collection last night, and I saw that the ‘Alien’ collection still has 18 on it and I was actually kind of surprised by that. I was ten when I first saw the ‘Alien’ movie and, rightly or wrongly, I loved every minute of it and I’m sure if you go around the audience there would be a show of hands of kids that saw it way before they got to ten. Do you think the original ‘Alien’ movie should be a lower certification? And what certification would you want for this film?

RS: I want certification for this film that allows me to make as large a box office as possible! And stop calling me Sir Ridley! Bloody embarrassing. No, I’ll tell you what, the studios wrestle constantly with these ridiculous adjustments to whether it’s PG13, PG15, you know, R, double R and it does, to a certain extent, affect the box office, which is arithmetic, which is not a cash register, it’s how they get their money back. And if studios don’t get their money back we don’t have any movies. And so it is important that films are successful and I am fully supportive of that because I’m not just a director, I’m also not stupid, I’ve been in this business long enough and, to a certain extent, I’m a businessman, I know the importance of that; so when a big film fails it’s disastrous for all of us. When a big film wins it’s terrific for all of us, whether you like the film or not, it’s really cool. So the adjustment of the ratings thing are inconsistent and ridiculously inconsistent, so I can start talking about films that have got PG13 this year, which are absolutely f#%@#&! ridiculous! Or a film like, I’m going to say it because he’s a friend of mine…no, I can’t say it. But it’s f#%@#&! ludicrous. Is anyone in here from the MPA or whatever it is?

Chair: I don’t think so…BBFC over here.

RS: Get your house in order!

Q. Charlize, did you feel you had anything to prove in terms of potentially being compared to Sigourney Weaver?

CT: No, no, I think that kind of role, I don’t want to speak for Noomi but it was probably more Noomi’s character.

RS: Quite right.

CT: Yeah, it’s more her character.

RS: Yep.

Q: Noomi, did you feel like you had any pressure?

NR: No, we talked a lot and it’s not Ripley. The amazing thing with working with Ridley is, it feels like you are so much inside the characters and every character in the story and I never felt alone in there. We were doing quite disturbed things some days and it was quite tough and you came home and your mind and your soul and your body were a mess, but I always felt really happy. It never felt like I was carrying something really heavy on my shoulders, even though it was quite tough some days; it always felt like we were doing something together. And it’s definitely not Ripley but she feels like she’s in the same family, in a way, she’s a survivor and a fighter in the same kind of way, a little bit similar to Ripley.

RS: Ripley, not Ridley!

Chair: Michael, can we just talk a little bit more about David, and that layer in the movie of creators and the created, because David is created by Peter Weyland but the humans are also created…

CT: …or is he? I don’t know is he!?

MF: Yeah. I don’t think there is really a secret in that one!

Chair: Was there an attraction for you, playing that extra layer of a robot without a soul looking to become human, I guess?

MF: I don’t really know exactly what’s going on with David to be honest! There are a lot of things there. Because he’s the one android amongst humans, and the humans don’t really like having a robot around that looks like them, who can figure everything out quicker than them and is physically stronger than them. There’s something a little bit off-putting about that. Is that the future? It’s like the idea of engineering people for example. He’s asking his own questions. He’s curious like the gods in old Greek mythology being jealous of human beings for their mortality and for what that must be like to experience. Also, he has been programmed like a human being, so will his programming start to form its own personality outside of the system that was programmed? Or the idea of human beings – are we all programmed anyway as well? Is someone creating us? Are we programmed to go into a certain job, to make a certain decision at thirty two that will lead to something that happens at thirty five…is everything pre-programmed for us in life? That’s kind of interesting as well. Or do we have free choice in fact? So we just sort of played around with all those things. I just tried to keep it ambiguous. It was something that Ridley said to me at the beginning, when we’re watching him it’s like, ‘Is he taking the piss?’

RS: And actually you should mention the fact that it’s categorically not a secret, what he is. From the beginning, there is no point hiding it doing a science fiction movie today. To me it’s a nod to Ash as well. You can’t say it’s going to be a big deal to review somebody aboard the ship who is actually an android or a replicant or a robot, or whatever the hell you want to call him. It’s daft, it’s so normal. So what you delved into was another layer of a great deal of humour and wit, getting inside this character that you knew what he was from the very beginning, you think he is a housekeeper or a butler. Then what is he doing? He picks up dirt from the floor like a housemaid, but then he walks around very strangely. I thought you walked like that!

MF: There you go! The thing is, humour was what I wanted to start off with.

RS: I think he’s a very humorous character. You’re allowed to laugh in this.

MF: There is a lot of fun to be had with the character and that was something at the forefront of my mind. And the jealousy of seeing human beings and of being left out. Plus there is something quite childlike about him. He has two and a half years while everyone is asleep, he’s got to occupy himself and keep his imagination going.

Chair: What does he do?

CT: Does he have an imagination?

MF: Well, that’s what I’m saying, Charlize. We don’t know! He doesn’t know!

Chair: So there could be a prequel, ‘David’ – just simply watching you for two and a half years walking round the spaceship.

MF: Well, I wanted him to have a little disco dance at the end, while the credits are rolling, in his little private disco.

Chair: Ridley, can we see that?

RS: Yeah, sure.

MF: Maybe on the DVD extras!

Chair: That would make it 18 rated I think!

Q: Question for the actors. Given what Ridley did to his poor actors on the original ‘Alien’ film. I’m thinking of a particular scene that was in 3D shall we say; were you constantly living in fear everyday on set? Did you make any special preparations to join Ridley’s crew?

MF and CT: What was the fear?

Q: The scene in the original ‘Alien’ where the actors were surprised by something bursting out of the actor’s chest. Was there an extra level of anxiety that that brought to you?

MF: I never knew that! So, no I was living in bliss, ignorance and bliss.

RS: There is a scene that could be called the equivalent of that in this film. But that was private, no one witnessed that. It’s your scene [points to Noomi]. But we can’t say what it is.

MF: Which one was that?

NR: But I did! I dreamt nightmares for two weeks. I had these weird f&%$#& up images in my head, so yes it did affect us.

Q: Ridley, there must be a learning curve for you with 3D here. The first real footage I’ve seen in 3D of the film, I was wondering could you talk about how you chose some of the 3D images for the film?

RS: Well, I’ll footnote by saying it’s not science, it’s not brain surgery. It’s actually pretty straightforward. And yet it is science, because it’s science to actually make 3D occur and to be shootable and capturable on a daily basis, but I’m sitting in a studio with four huge screens which are all 3D in a little black tent and I’m looking at them. If there’s four monitors there are four cameras, if there are six monitors then there’s six cameras, and because I’m a visual person anyway, it was dead simple and very straight forward. You could easily allow things to turn into major conferences where you ask anyone, including the tea lady what she thinks, but I don’t do that. I had a wonderful camera man called Dariusz Wolski. He is a wonderful cameraman full stop, and had one shot at 3D doing the last ‘Pirates’ and I was going to go for him anyway because he’s one guy who I wanted to work with but hadn’t worked with yet. So I talked to him and said, ‘We’re going to do 3D’ and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine’. So we went with using the RED camera, as opposed to the other one, and the RED was superb. The quality was fantastic, whether it’s 2D or 3D it’s amazing and it wasn’t a problem. So anyone who says, ‘Oh, you’ve got to add sixteen weeks’ means they don’t know what the bloody hell they’re doing! ‘There’s a lot to it’. No, it’s dead simple, straight forward. If you know what you want, you know what you want. That [holds up finger] could be hanging in the foreground, and you can have a forty five minute discussion about something hanging in the foreground. Say ‘I hate it; get rid of it’ or ‘I love it; f&#! off!’ It’s that simple!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/prometheus-londons-footage-screening-and-q-a-with-scott-theron-fassbender-rapace

'Prometheus': Blow by Blow on London's Footage Screening and Q & A with Scott, Theron, Fassbender, Rapace
News by Matt Mueller | April 10, 2012 12:46 PM | 4 Comments

Ridley Scott's "Prometheus"
Tuesday morning in London, Twentieth Century Fox held the world’s first screening of 3-D footage from “Prometheus,” treating an early-morning crowd to three scenes and thirteen minutes followed by a Q&A session with director Ridley Scott (“Please stop calling me Sir Ridley”) and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron. Fox is definitely keeping its powder dry for now: the footage didn’t contain any action, nor did it reveal much more beyond what we already know from the all-hell-breaking-loose trailer. Nonetheless, from an aesthetic, spectacle and performance perspective, it made an excellent appetizer for the cinematic experience Scott has in store.

First up was a scene where two research scientists (Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) in the year 2089 discover some ancient cave paintings in the Isle of Skye, Scotland, that sit beside a peculiar etching of what looks to be an extra-terrestrial pointing to six celestial bodies in space. “It’s an invitation,” reasons Rapace’s earnest, bright-eyed Elizabeth Shaw. Not an invitation anyone who’s seen an "Alien" movie would accept but she’s convinced of its benevolence...

The next, most substantial sequence was set four years later on board the scientific exploration vessel Prometheus. Following two and a half years in stasis chambers, the ship’s 17 crew members are awakened by Michael Fassbender’s blond robot David. First out of her chamber is Theron’s Meredith Vickers, who launches into a few push-ups before casually asking David, “Were there any casualties?” Okay, we get it – she’s an ice maiden, evidence confirmed by the fact that she’s the Weyland Corporation suit heading up the mission. Also on board is Rapace, who is shown puking her guts out after emerging from her long outer-space nap.

Assembling the crew together, some of whom look so dodgy you wonder how they ever passed the rigorous job interview to get on board, Theron initiates a holographic presentation by big cheese Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce, coated in some very iffy-looking old-age prosthetics), who explains he’s dead by now. He hands the floor over to Rapace and Marshall-Green, who explain to a grumpy-looking crew their interpretation of the alien symbols and how they pointed to the very planet they’ve just pulled up beside. The final sequence showed the ship’s laid-back, bad-ass pilot (Idris Elba) guiding the Prometheus into a safe landing on said planet’s surface.

During the Q&A, Scott explained that “Prometheus” was born out of the questions that have been plaguing “Alien” lovers for decades: Who’s the big guy in the chair, why was he there, what was his cargo and where was he heading? (“I don’t know how he ever came to be called the Space Jockey,” Scott chuckled.) While developing the script, however, Scott found that the story “adjusted itself into much larger questions so that it barely contains ‘Alien’ DNA now.” Only in the final seven minutes of “Prometheus,” he revealed, will the two films link together.

Rapace gave a brief background précis on Elizabeth Shaw: she was raised in Africa by a father who was also a priest, thus making her a scientist “who possesses the great gift of believing.” Of course, that faith in God comes to be severely tested on the Prometheus mission, with Elizabeth forced to become “a fighter, a survivor and a warrior…I’m not sure she believes by the end.” When Theron was later asked whether she felt pressure to live up to Sigourney Weaver’s iconic Ripley, she swiftly batted the question over to Rapace – “That’s more Noomi’s character” – with the Swedish actress admitting, “It’s not Ripley but she is in the same family.”

As for Theron, she was initially worried that Meredith might come off as a one-note corporate bitch who’s “just there for the purpose of making everyone’s life hell.” But the actress added that the enigmatic Meredith is on board the Prometheus “for very personal reasons, of which I cannot speak."

Rapace’s performance looks promising but judging from today’s clips, it’s Fassbender who appears in serious danger of walking away with the movie. From the way he strolls around the ship in sandals with an arch robotic gait, to his display of childlike enthusiasm during the exposition presentation, to his referring to Theron’s Meredith as “Ma’rm” as if he’s addressing royalty, the actor conveys an unanticipated levity. Even Scott said he didn’t expect Fassbender to bring so much wit to David (who, the director adds, is “a nod to Ash”). “I thought you really walked like that,” he joked to the actor, who for his part listed one of his inspirations as Olympic diver Greg Louganis. “I loved watching him during the Olympics,” says Fassbender. “He had such a weird walk, it really made me laugh.”

Scott explained that, before they’d even greenlit the film, he convinced Fox to splash out a significant sum to allow his production designer Arthur Max and five top-notch industrial designers to nail down “Prometheus”’ design over a period of months. “One of the problems with sci-fi is that everything has already been used up – suits, corridors, ships,” he said. “But if you start with the characters, you can come up with the evolution for different looks.” He also expressed frustration at the MPAA’s seemingly random approach to ratings, saying he wanted Prometheus to get a rating “that allows it to make as much money as possible. I know the importance of that. When a big film fails, it’s disastrous for all of us.” But he also blasted some of the “films this year that have got PG-13 ratings – it’s absolutely f#%@#&! ludicrous. So MPAA, get your house in order.”

“Prometheus” marked Scott’s first 3-D shoot and, unsurprisingly, he deemed the technology “dead simple to use – it wasn’t a problem. Anyone who says it is just doesn’t know what they’re doing.” He also teased that “Prometheus” contains a sequence he calls “the equivalent to [“Alien”’s chest-burster] scene.” Rather than being a group scene, however, it will only feature Rapace’s character. The rest stays a surprise for now.

“Prometheus” is released in cinemas on June 8. Here's the trailer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/apr/11/prometheus-preview-five-things-learned

Prometheus preview footage: five things we learned

Alien echoes abound in Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi, including the space jockey, dodgy suits and a potentially untrustworthy android

Prometheus
Spaced out ... Charlize Theron and Idris Elba in Ridley Scott's Prometheus

It's T-50 until the release of Prometheus and on Tuesday the great and the good (OK, film hacks from around Europe) were invited to London's Leicester Square to watch a teensy bit more footage from the movie.

Prometheus
Production year: 2012
Country: USA
Directors: Ridley Scott
Cast: Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Patrick Wilson
More on this film

The crowd were shown approximately five minutes of new material, including what may be the entirety of the opening scene in which archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her lover and colleague Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) uncover a pictogram that Shaw sees as confirmation that aliens visited Earth in pre-history and invited humans back to theirs. Next we were whisked straight off into space and the exploratory vehicle Prometheus. We are introduced to the crew, from push-up loving suit Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) to disgruntled staffer Fifield (Sean Harris). There's an on-ship briefing, a bit of truculent banter and the judicious use of technology which, it's fair to say, is far more sophisticated than that in the Nostromo, despite it taking to the skies decades later (in Alien time). From there the descent begins to planet LV223 and, one suspects, the trouble starts.

Back on Earth, we got the chance to pop a few questions in the direction of cast members Theron, Michael Fassbender (who plays the ship's android, David) and Rapace. Oh, and Mother himself, Ridley Scott. With the film so highly anticipated and its relation to the Alien series of movies still debated, what did we learn from this little event?

1) It's all about the "space jockey". The colloquial name for the creature uncovered by the crew of the Nostromo in the original Alien, the space jockey (James Cameron calls it "the big dental patient") is a carcass, its chest exploded in bits, probably by a xenomorph. In the Q+A, Scott said the "who is the space jockey?" question will be answered and that the film is "the story of a pilot".

2) Elizabeth Shaw is the new Ripley. This may not surprise everyone – although it did one journalist, who asked Theron what it was like to follow in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver only to be told to redirect her question to Rapace instead. Shaw is the wide-eyed archaeologist who, in the UK trailer, discovers a crucial cave painting that leads to a trip into the stars. By the end of the movie, we're reliably informed, Shaw is transformed into a hardened, remorseless soldier. Whether that's a hardened, remorseless soldier with a weakness for ginger cats, remains to be seen.
Watch the Prometheus trailer Link to this video

3) Watch out for the Weyland Corporation. That's the company that funds Shaw's trip across the universe, and its CEO and founder is a nonagenarian called Peter (Guy Pearce in, it's fair to say, excessive prosthetics). Of course, anyone with even a passing association with the Alien movies will know that suits are not to be trusted. The footage showed a hologram of an apparently now deceased Weyland (that can happen during a transgalactic journey) publicly humiliating his charge, Vickers. This suggests they're still not to be touched with an electrified bargepole.

4) There will be other Alien echoes. More than just a few, perhaps. While Scott says the links between Prometheus and the original film will only become clear "in the final seven minutes", it seems as though there will be a deliberate pairing of characters and events throughout. So for Shaw read Ripley, for Idris Elba's Janek read Tom Skerrit's Dallas (the scruffy but debonair captain) and there seems to be an expanded cast of disgruntled below-stairs workers too. Most intriguingly though, Scott hinted at there being an equivalent to the defining chestburst scene. When asked about the original, Scott said there will be a refiguring of some sorts in Prometheus; "There will be an equivalent, but it will be private to Shaw," he said. The lucky girl.

5) Fassbender might just steal the show. Everyone's favourite half-German plays David, the sole android on ship. Again, we know that in Alien Iain Holm's Ash sold the entire crew out. Will David do the same? That audience suspicion will seemingly be played on as, going by the footage, Fassbender plays David as an airy, affable butler figure, shuffling around the ship with the awkward grace of an arthritic ballet dancer. The character looks almost lovable, which would make for an even better doublecross. In London, Fassbender cited an intriguing mixture of influences for his role, ranging from the obvious, Blade Runner, to the unlikely, Dirk Bogarde's The Servant and Lawrence of Arabia, to the downright odd, in the shape of former Olympic diver Greg Louganis.

• This article was amended on Wednesday 11 April 2012. We originally said that Prometheus lands on planet LFE222, in fact the ship lands on LV223. This has been corrected.