New Prometheus Character Details Revealed by Screenwriter Damon Lindelof
Posted 09.30.11 by Ryan
Despite an informational panel at this year's Comic-Con, there's still plenty of questions surrounding Prometheus, director Ridley Scott quasi-prequel to his 1979 sci-fi classic Alien.
Sure, we already knew that Prometheus's story had "evolved" beyond an Alien prequel and into "a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place," but Scott's claim that Prometheus would feature "strands of Alien's DNA" left plenty asking: Will fans see the franchise aliens in the movie? Will the movie include the "space jockey" character from Scott's Alien? Is cast member Michael Fassbender really an android as he has been rumored to be?
That last question was finally answered when Prometheus screenwriter Damon Lindelof (Lost, Cowboys and Aliens) sat down with MTV.
We've confirmed today that he plays a robot. One of the things that evoking the idea of Blade Runner is, "What does the movie look like from the robot's point of view?" If you were to ask him, "What do you think about all of this? What's going on? And what do you think about these humans who are around you?," wouldn't it be cool if we found a way for that robot to answer those questions. And I think when you cast a guy like Fassbender, who's going to bring a lot more to it than [makes clichéd robot movements] — that was me doing the robot, I don't know if you could tell — it's not Anthony Daniels. All due respect. He's phenomenal. But, you know, C-3PO...
What about Charlize Theron's character? At Comic-Con, Theron said that her character is "the suit... the one that runs the company," but Lindelof says there's more to her than just telling everybody else what to do.
Her character's name is Meredith Vickers and she's sort of a corporate entity. That's another one of the familiar things from the Alien movies — that there are corporate interests in play. I feel like Charlize brought a new spin on that old variation. It's a remix... I don't think she's slimy [like Paul Reiser's character in Aliens]. She's not the fast-talking, snake-oil face of the company. By the way, "What company is she a face of?," I think is a big part of the fun. As we were developing the script, she had some really cool ideas that made it not the suit you're used to.
While Lindelof didn't offer details on the characters played by Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, and Idris Elba, but did reveal that the ensemble will be treated much like the one in the original movie.
I think one of the really cool things about the first Alien, if you watch it cold, Ripley is kind in the background like one of the crew members, and you're like, "[Tom] Skerrit's [who played Captain Dallas] the hero of the movie," and he's one of the first to go. And then you're like, "It's [the engineer played by] Harry Dean Stanton." And, no, he's gone... and suddenly Sigourney Weaver, in the last 40 minutes of the movie, is the only one left alive. I think the idea of building a really cool ensemble and again presenting the audience with like, "Who's going to be left standing at the end of this movie? Maybe all of them. Probably not," [that's] part of the fun of what we set out to do.
That still leaves a pretty good amount of questions, which hopefully will get some kind of answer whenever the first trailer is released.
Next Showing: Prometheus opens June 8, 2012