If you were angry when screenwriter Damon Lindelof announced earlier this year he had no plans to write a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, breathe deep. Variety is reporting that 20th Century Fox and Scott Free are turning to Jack Paglen to write Prometheus 2.
Paglen recently wrote the upcoming sci-fi thriller Transcendence, which Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister is shooting with Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman and Kate Mara.
Prometheus was originally written as a prequel to Alien with Jon Spaihts’ script (titled Alien: Engineers) containing facehuggers and ending less ambiguously (his original concludes on the same planet Ripley and her crew discover in Alien). When Lidelof was brought in, the direct references to Alien were altered, and the film was envisioned as the first part of a new trilogy.
But when Lindelof said he had no interest in writing Part Two (you can read his full excuse over at Slashfilm), Fox execs were “literally freaking out” over how they would continue the adventures of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender). Lindelof’s story left a lot of gaping holes, the biggest of which is what happens to Shaw and David.
Less certain is whether Scott will direct the sequel. He is in post-production on The Counselor with Brad Pitt, and is gearing up to shoot his Moses epic Exodus, which is booked for Dec. 12, 2014.
Although it was always assumed Lindelof would return for Prometheus 2, the writer is no stranger for frustrating fans with stories that leave people hanging (was anyone else bummed by Lost?). And in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he revealed he kinda likes it that way.
“… I do think there’s something exciting and challenging about a certain degree of ambiguity in filmmaking. And when you look at the other two science fiction movies that [Ridley Scott] made, the original Alien and Blade Runner, both of those movies are still being debated and speculated and theorized about all this time later. And [we looked at Prometheus as] an archeology dig where we’re basically going to turn up some artifacts and we’re going to put them on the table for everyone to look at. How these artifacts necessarily connect to each other and what the larger story behind them is going to be a matter of some discourse, and the characters in the movie will be having that discourse amongst themselves. But no one’s going to basically come out of the skies and tell them whether or not they’re right or wrong.”
So what do you think? Are you happy Prometheus 2 is on the way, or do you think they should just all move on? Let us know what you think in the comments.
