Lindelof on Prometheus

Star Trek XI‘s Damon Lindelof is collaborating with Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) on a new movie that may or may not be a prequel to Alien.

In Prometheus, “Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Blade Runner, returns to the genre he helped define. With Prometheus, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.”

Working on Prometheus was different than working on Lost for Lindelof, as he felt that the responsibility wasn’t quite as heavy for him. “Having done Lost for six years, I felt this tremendous responsibility because I’m one of the visionaries behind the show, so there’s no safety net below you,” he said. “When I got the call [from Ridley] I had this tremendous amount of relief and comfort that Ridley Scott is going to be the safety net.

“What ensued was a series of conversations where I was kind of interviewing Ridley to get a sense of the movie he wanted to make. Once I got a sense of that, then it was really about channeling that idea so that I was realizing his vision, as opposed to imposing my vision on it. That was my perspective.”

Just as in Alien, Prometheus will have an ensemble cast and that is something that will make the movie interesting for the audience as they will wonder which of the characters will survive and which will not. “I think one of the really cool things about the first Alien, if you watch it cold, Ripley is kind in the background like one of the crew members, and you’re like, ‘[Tom] Skerrit‘s [who played Captain Dallas] the hero of the movie,’ and he’s one of the first to go. And then you’re like, ‘It’s [the engineer played by] Harry Dean Stanton.’ And, no, he’s gone… and suddenly Sigourney Weaver, in the last forty minutes of the movie, is the only one left alive.

“I think the idea of building a really cool ensemble and again presenting the audience with like, ‘Who’s going to be left standing at the end of this movie? Maybe all of them. Probably not.’ [That’s] part of the fun of what we set out to do.”

Prometheus will release in June of 2012.