"He was marvellous, but he's cooked," laughs 74 year old Ridley Scott of the Nostromo's unforgettable chestbursting stowaway. "He's now got an orange in his mouth." What Alien's famous director wants to make clear, as post production on his much-vaunted $100 million, 3D return to the science-fiction genre, draws close, is that he has gone back to the universe of his groundbreaking classic, but he's also moved on. "I felt there was still life in the old sod, but it has evolved into something else. To stick to the story, you don't really get it until about eight minutes from the end." Deep down in its scaly heart, Prometheus is an Alien prequel, but not as we know it.
It certainly embraces the Alien aesthetic; that biomechanoid phantasmagoria born of H.R. Gigers pervy art and his director's unerring eye. "It does," agrees Scott ",but it's also different..." This is as much a metter of scope as anything. With a much bigger budget, Scott has been utlising all the tools availible to him: high-end digital effects ("Avatar set the bar high"), filming in 3D ("You engage more, you're drawn in") and building massive Giger-esque sets across Pinewood that oozed the atmosphere that defined his career ("I still believe in putting in the proscenium")
The cast went giddy at the belly-of-the-beast effect of the giant sets. If Alien was a souped-up B-Movie, then Prometheus is a biblical epic. "Alien felt epic," says Scott ", but this one is Epic."
Barring a beach scene in the long cut of Alien 3, the new film will feature the franchise's first genuine exterior, with Iceland's black lava fields providing the new planet's hardscrabble surface (LV-426 was created on a soundstage). Thematically, too, it's gone big. This is God versus Science, and the survival of not just the crew (most of whom probably don't) but mankind itself. In other words, there is a whole 2001-vibe going on. "It's gone off in a new direction," boasts Scott ", but I promise it will engage you in the first five minutes."
The script, written by Jon Spaihts and Lost's Damon Lindelof, based on "one single thought" Scott drew from the original, initially follows a familiar arc. The crew of the Prometheus (the ship's name designed to echo the Greek myth) follow a perplexing message to a planet that will open their eyes and their chests to a new alien race. "A crew of scientists embark on a journey somebody else is paying for," says the director, referring to the fact Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers is a "suit" for a certain Weyland-Yutani. Meanwhile, Michael Fassbender may or may not be an early model of Ash's android and may or may not be trustworthy. And Noomi Rapace's archaeologist heroine, Elizabeth Shaw - a spiritual cousin to "Rippers" - is one half of a conflicted couple of Logan Marshall-Green's Holloway: "One comes from a position of faith, and the other is pure scientist," details Scott. Both are going to have a lot to swallow.
Even at the time of Alien, some 32 years ago, Scott mentioned he was interested in exploring the origins of the 'Space Jockey', the dead pilot of the derelict "space croissant". He talked about bioengineering and biological warfare as potential themes. Has he been able to satisfy his curiosity in that respect? "Definitely." And what significance can we draw from the pictures slowly being released, especially the giant humanoid 'head' that looms over what Scott terms the "ampule chamber"? "Oh there's a lot more to it," he says wafting explanations away, "I've locked up all the sweet stuff..." Including something familiar, perhaps?
