In news that will send some hearts beating faster and others starting to fill with barely-concealed vitriol, Ridley Scott has revealed that he has plans for the Prometheus universe that expand beyond the sequel now in pre-production{
Talking with German site FilmFutter – so be aware that there are always translation issues when covering such stories – he was asked when Prometheus will tie in explicitly with the films he himself kicked off back in 1979 with Alien. "It won’t be in the next movie," he says. "It will be the one after this one, or maybe even a fourth film, before we get back into the Alien franchise." Yes, it appears he’s taking a leaf out of Aliens/Avatar director James Cameron’s book and keeping the story going. We have to wonder whether he’ll have the time to do it all, even given his usual fast pace when cranking out movies, or if he’ll go the same route as he did with Alien and hand other films off to different directors. We can imagine one person feeling less than pleased if Prometheus does extend across a longer run - Neill Blomkamp, whose plan to make more Alien films is reportedly on hold until Scott feels he's satisfied with the Prometheus universe.
Scott also talked more about what he sees the driving idea behind the whole Prometheus story, regardless of how many movies it ends up covering. "The whole point of it is to explain the Alien franchise and to explain the how and why of the creation of the Alien itself," he says. "I always saw the Alien as a type of biological warfare. For me, the original spaceship that I call the croissant was a battleship that contains these biomechanoid creatures, that are all about destruction."
He’s now gearing up to shoot** Prometheus 2**, working from Michael Green’s script. And for a film about space that’s drawing much more consistent praise, Scott's latest, The Martian, arrives on September 30.