Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic “Prometheus” proved one of the year’s most divisive films, and now the film’s scribe Damon Lindelof will not be returning for the proposed sequel.
Jon Spaihts penned an earlier draft which was a direct “Alien” prequel. When “Lost” show runner Lindelof came onboard, he made major changes which turned it into the standalone “side-quel” the film ended up being. As a result he took much of the blame for the film’s flaws.
Asked by Collider if he’s penning a second “Prometheus,” Lindelof says:
“I am not. Ridley [Scott] and I talked at great length during the story process of the first movie about what subsequent movies would be if Prometheus were to be successful. And I think that the movie ended in a very specific way that hinted at, or strongly implied that there were going to be continuing adventures worthy of writing stories.
What those stories would be would not necessarily usurp or transcend the Alien franchise as we saw it because we know that the Nostromo hasn’t come along yet. So the idea was to set up a universe that… Is it a prequel? Okay. If that’s what we want to call it, sure. But the sequel to this movie is not Alien. The sequel to this movie is this other thing.
The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite. Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it. And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus, kind of all in. The idea of building a sequel to it—from the ground up this time—with Ridley is tremendously exciting.
But at the same time, I was like, ‘Well that’s probably going to be two years of my life.’ I can’t do what J.J. [Abrams] does. I don’t have the capability. I’m usually very single-minded creatively. I can only be working on one thing at a time. So I said to him, ‘I really don’t think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff. And I don’t know when the other stuff is going to be done.’
And he was like, ‘Well, okay, it’s not like I asked you anyways.’ He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him. But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don’t see myself being involved in Prometheus-er.”
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