Ridley Scott on Prometheus

Speakeasy recently interviewed Ridley Scott, and here's what he had to say about Prometheus:

The central metaphor of "Prometheus" is about a "higher being" (Scott's words) 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. (Let's hope things turn out differently for our higher being...)

Scott is especially excited about the story of "Prometheus" -- you can hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he discusses the film. The screenplay was written by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. "I think the reason why I haven't attempted science fiction in a number of years is because I haven't really come across a script that I really liked," Scott says. "This developed and came out extremely well."

The last eight minutes of the "Prometheus" story evolve into "a pretty good DNA of the 'Alien' one."

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Regarding the use of 3-D and CGI, Scott says he has "completely taken off into this cyberworld" and called working on "Prometheus" "the best time I've had in a number of years making a movie."

Although Scott embraced "all the tricks, the toys" of computer-generated imagery and 3-D, he says, "I'm a great believer in filming the real thing if you can and so I did a lot of building the real thing." He used the "007" stage (more commonly known as the "Bond" stage) at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., one of the biggest stages in Europe at about 59,000 square feet. He used other stages at Pinewood too.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/11/07/ridley-scott-spills-the-secrets-of-prometheus/