It was very interesting to note on Thursday in Hall H of Comic-Con that the hall wasn’t filled by the Twihards during the first panel but was filled later in the day by the fans of Guillermo del Toro and the hope of the fans of Damon Lindelof that he would reveal some news about the upcoming film Prometheus.
More about Mr. del Toro in another post. I couldn’t wait, though, to share this information on the until-now near-total mystery of Prometheus. It came during the Fox panel moderated by god-to-the-geeks-like-me Damon Lindelof, who, after thanking us for choosing his panel over the Game of Thrones panel over in Ballroom 20, got right to the Prometheus talk AND – hallelujah – a video prepared especially for Comic-Con.
Damon said that the first question about the movie is always, “Is it an Alien prequel?” but ironically didn’t really give an answer. The understanding is that the movie is related to Alien but is not a classic prequel, in that there will likely not be a direct correlation to the cast and plot details of the first film.
But let’s get to the clip. At first it seemed a little jumbled, a little familiar – then it became clear that it was a montage of Sir Ridley Scott’s amazing work over the decades. For just a moment there was a fear that we wouldn’t get any actual Prometheus footage, but SQUEE – that came next.
Because we were in the dark I couldn’t tell that my pen wasn’t working, so I’ll borrow a description from HitFix:
Using both behind-the-scenes footage and actual images from the film, the preview reel suggested that this is a film about both the origin of mankind on earth as well as our first encounter with an alien intelligence significantly different than our own. It looks scary, thrilling, and bizarre, and I can’t think of anything I’d want from a new Ridley Scott science-fiction film more than that. The H.R. Giger influence is clearly felt in the sets we saw, including one that features what looked like egg tubes embedded in the floor around a statue of a giant face. We caught quick glimpses of Charlize Theron doing naked push-ups, Noomi Rapace lighting someone on fire with a flamethrower, a blonde, short-haired Michael Fassbender weeping a single milky android tear, and much more. We were shown the sets they built at Pinewood Studios, including the ones that took over the entire 007 stage, and it looks to be a massive physical build.
Now it’s possible that HitFix has additional information, but I didn’t get any “origin of mankind” feel from the bits we saw. There were a couple of moments that definitely had an Alien feel in the shots, especially those that featured powerful women. Speaking of which…
Yes, Charlize Theron was in The Hall. She gave some great insight into her character in the movie, Meredith Vickers. She called Meredith “a suit, cold, frigid’ but neutral, “not a scientist or a believer “ (ooo! so “believers” will be something in the plot) but “an enigma.” She said that the perception of her as a mystery will be aided by the fact that “Ridley had me lurk in corners” making the viewer wonder just what she’s up to. But, she said, it will be during the third act of the movie that we’ll find out just what she’s doing there.
Charlize has recently returned from shooting the film in Iceland, and explained that Sir Ridley Scott was still there and unable to make the panel. Which, she said, is “bullsh!t”. She felt that if she was able to make the trip, he should have as well. It was a cute setup, as they showed the map that marked the distance between Iceland and San Diego….
before introducing the video-linked Scott.
Sir Ridley talked a bit about the fact that the film is being shot in digital 3D which he appreciates but will never work with again. He said he was brought up as a camera operator, and feels “if you can do it live, do it live. First of all, it’s cheaper.”
Damon asked Sir Ridley if there would be a robot in the movie, to which Sir Ridley replied, “there may be two.” He went on to say that robots, replicants, etc., are no longer unique in this genre, and that there needed to be a new approach. Another Ooooo! and Hmmmm!
Sir Ridley was asked about the cast, at which point he had the camera pull back to reveal that Noomi Rapace was there with him. Damon said that the role looked to be physically demanding for her, and she replied that she’d just returned from three months “in space.” I had to laugh when a person sitting near me said, “in space? really?!” Rapace said that she had bumps and bruises all over from the demanding role. Cool.
Damon then asked Sir Ridley if he felt inhibited at all by the PG-13 rating. Sir Ridley replied that he wasn’t, but also said that it’s important to “always make sure you have both options,” from which we can probably infer that he’s holding out the possibility of an R-rated version.
20th Century Fox later released the first official promo image from the film, which you can check out below!
And that was it for this part of the panel; other films and appearances followed, but I gotta get some sleep so I’ll post about those tomorrow. Day Two approaches!
