There is a little Prometheus sequel blip in the news this week that is definitely worth noting. Not only is Fox 100% on board for a follow-up, but they are currently drafting writers to get it in gear. That is right. Lost alum Damon Lindelof will likely not be working on the second effort as he is too busy working on his HBO drama.
This is more than a bit discerning to fans of the writer who firmly believe that without Lindelof, Ridley Scott’s quasi-prequel would not nearly have been as good and that is saying a whole considering many hated the film. Problems were two-fold.
One half of the people who saw this movie really had no idea it was related to Alien in any capacity. They thought it was a sci-fi film that was largely exploratory and then rejected the film when they found out that it was a horror flick with Alien vibes. The other group of people wanted this to be an Alien prequel in the worst way and they felt that the franchise’s roots were ripped out of the story entirely leading to profound disappointment.
Either way you look at it, you have a heap of people who only showed up to round one because of something else and now that they have been clued in, theatergoers may shrug off any sequel offering. That is some great cause for concern at Fox who barely made a profit on the movie as Prometheus made $305 million worldwide on a budget of $130 million.
Today’s news on the topic came from THR who suggests the film may be ready by as early as 2014 noting that Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are already signed on to reprise their roles as Elizabeth Shaw and David. Given that Ridley Scott has other projects in the pipeline that have first dibs, it is looking like that could be wishful thinking.