The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy recently spoke with Ridley Scott about the Blade Runner sequel, and now they have published more details on next year’s sci-fi epic Prometheus.
Two details emerged from the interview that were of particular interest to sci-fi fans, with Prometheus the first sci-fi film that Scott has attempted in over three decades. The first of these details concerns Prometheus itself:
The central metaphor of “Prometheus” is about a “higher being” who challenges the gods, and the gods don’t want to give him fire. “Fire is our first form of technology,” Scott says, and so by taking fire, the higher being is punished “in perpetuity in a horrible fashion.” Much like the story of the mythological god, Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and for his actions was bound to a rock with an eagle eternally devouring his liver.
Of course, what fans really want to know is whether there is any true in the long-rumoured connections that Prometheus may have to Scott’s seminal sci-fi film Alien. On this, the interview remains vague:
The last eight minutes of the “Prometheus” story evolve into “a pretty good DNA of the ‘Alien’ one.”
This could mean anything from thematic similarities to a direct line-through to the popular series. Guess we’ll have to wait until June 2012 to find out.
