20th Century Fox showed up to WonderCon 2012 ready to unveil some footage for their heavy hitters this summer. The studio led off with director Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, the loosely-tied prequel to that Alien franchise you may have heard about. We’ve already brought you the new trailer and the viral site featuring Michael Fassbender’s character, David. While they didn’t screen any additional footage beyond the trailer, Damon Lindelof was on hand to moderate a panel discussion that included Sir Ridley Scott, Fassbender and Charlize Theron.
Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce. Prometheus opens in IMAX 3D on June 8th. Hit the jump for our recap on the panel discussion .
After Lindelof had his own special fan-boy moment in introducing Scott (after sharing a funny story about watching Alien for the first time as a kid), Scott talked for a moment about his return to sci-fi. He said it’s been too long since he’s done a sci-fi project because, frankly, nothing was of interest to him lately. He also mentioned that Prometheus came about as a genesis of a very small idea that hadn’t yet been examined and confirmed that he liked the idea of the film having the “DNA of Alien.” Scott also alluded to the possibility of a sequel or continuation of this film, saying that Prometheus has “enough big, open questions at the end.” After that comment, they debuted the new trailer for the audience. Since you can now simply watch it for yourself, I’ll continue to the panel discussion.
Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender both commented on the fact that Scott sent them the script and only gave them two hours to read it. Theron said hers would self-destruct while Fassbender confessed that there was a man standing beside him with a gun to his head (and admitted to being a slow reader).
Scott, always the straight man, pointed to two things for Prometheus’ success: the strength of the script and the strength of the ensemble cast. He also mentioned that he prefers working with an ensemble cast as they have better interactions on and off camera which results in better performances.
As previously mentioned [POSSIBLE SPOILER], Fassbender’s character is David, an android. He acts as a butler of sorts for the crew and for the ship itself. Fassbender said that he was inspired by the “funny walk and economy of movement” of Olympic diver, Greg Louganis for David’s movements. Regarding the character, he also wondered, “How much would a program program itself? Could it develop ego, insecurities, etc?”
In regards to shooting in 3D, Scott called the results “absolutely beautiful.” He made sure to give credit to “a very talented group of people” including his cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, production designer Arthur Max, costume design by Janty Yates and the entire special effects team. Scott also quipped that he is primarily concerned with the visual aesthetic and often forgets to talk to the actors on the first day.
Since special effects have evolved since Scott’s first Alien movie, he mentioned the fact that the first monster was played by the seven-footer, Bolaji Badejo. While computer effects allow the ability to do more, they’re still more expensive; however, Scott mentioned that the cost benefit to all the effects work is to do more films and that it would be a pleasure to come back to a sci-fi film as soon as possible.
The trailer, as you probably know by now, looks absolutely fantastic and I wish this film was coming out tomorrow. The cast is phenomenal, the visuals are stunning, the story has added dramatic weight to it already because we know its inevitable conclusion and the return of Scott behind the camera is just the icing on the cake.
Here’s the official synopsis for Prometheus:
Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.
Click here for all our previous coverage on Prometheus.
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