Over a decade on, Ridley Scott has some harsh criticism of his 2012 Alien prequel, Prometheus, and some of his collaborators.
On its release in 2012, Prometheus – director Ridley Scott’s prequel to his own Alien from 1979 – was somewhat divisive. Though most critics agreed that it looked and sounded spectacular, opinions were more split on its characters and the way it filled in previously obscure areas of the Alien universe.
Over a decade on, Scott himself has harshly criticised his own movie. The idea to make the prequel began, he said, when he noticed the ongoing popularity of the original Alien on TV.
“I saw this bloody film that they keep playing every night somewhere on the globe, on all platforms,” Scott told Deadline. “There’s life in the [beast], yet. That’s why I sat down with the great writer [Damon] Lindelof, and we reconstructed a resurrection of the era, with Prometheus, and how it evolved from Alien.”
Scott then appeared to distance himself from the resulting film, and even suggested that some of his collaborators who were responsible for the decision-making on Prometheus have since left his production company, Scott Free.
“…we were asleep at the wheel,” the filmmaker said. “My advisors, who frankly no longer are with me, were asleep at the wheel, certainly. And I partly blame myself, except I was busy making other films. And so it was let go and it shouldn’t have been. When you resurrect, you better put your nail into the wall.”
Read more: Ridley Scott interview | Gladiator II, Alien 3, art and baboons
Although reviews for Prometheus were mixed, it did well enough for 20th Century Fox to commission a sequel – Alien: Covenant, which came out in 2017. Although that film drew more heavily on the style of Alien, its critical and financial performance was somewhat worse than its predecessor, and despite leaving things open for a second sequel, the franchise lay dormant until this year’s Alien: Romulus.
Unfortunately, Scott doesn’t clarify exactly where he thinks Prometheus fell down. Certainly, the prequel changed considerably during pre-production, with original screenwriter Jon Spaights’ earlier drafts containing more direct connections to the original Alien.
Whatever Scott makes of his prequels, strands of their DNA remain in Alien: Romulus, which he executive produced and Fede Alvarez directed. Following that film’s success, a Romulus sequel is now in the works. Interestingly, Alvarez’s spin-off is itself a prequel to Alien, as is the upcoming TV series Alien: Earth. To date, no filmmaker has directly followed 1997’s Alien Resurrection, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
“Three and four became more and more difficult,” Scott said of the two sequels that followed 1986’s Aliens. “As it unrolled, I thought, oh God, they’re f*cking it up.”
If anyone has the right to critique the Alien franchise, we guess, it’s Ridley Scott.
