Jon Spaihts' Original 'Prometheus' Script: Better Than The Film?
What if Prometheus had actually answered questions and had been more of a direct sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien films, instead of a maddeningly ambiguous but thought-provoking spin-off vaguely connected to the Alien universe? Screenwriter Jon Spaihts' original Prometheus script, confirmed to be legit by Spaihts himself, has surfaced online revealing what his facehugger-laden version might have looked like.
(Spoilers follow.)
As Spaihts teased to Empire last month, his Prometheus (titled Alien: Engineers) featured facehuggers and chestbursters, among other more obvious links to the Alien films. (One word to get your geek pulse racing: Ultramorphs.)
Spaihts' Prometheus script has found its way online at Scribd.com, and while it ultimately became a different movie, the core story is mostly the same. For starters, the ship? It's called The Magellan. And while the key players are present and reasonably similar in Spaihts' version (scientist-lovers Watts and Holloway, Peter Weyland as a "Warren Buffet type," David the creepy android, Meredith Vickers as a 45-year-old woman and not an earthbound goddess who looks like Charlize Theron) certain reveals and plot threads are very different from what subsequent writer Damon Lindelof became involved.
One major scene that went through a transformation is Holloway's fate, which I'll detail here since Spaihts himself spilled the beans to Empire. Rather than being poisoned with black goo by David, Holloway meets his end when, after being facehugged in the pyramid, a chestburster rips him open... mid-coitus.
It's a fascinating read alone just to see which of Spaihts' ideas stuck and which Scott and Damon Lindelof took in different directions, and it's always tempting to label what could have been as better than what actually made it to the screen. But some of the changes made between this version to the theatrical cut are smart ones; here, for instance, David is more of a pronounced villain saddled with even more expository dialogue — and what fun would it have been to really know what he said to the Engineer?
Scott's Prometheus may leave us with too many unanswered questions, but I'd venture to say this early script perhaps explained too much. It's still viewable here and below for the time being; chime in and tell us if you'd have rather seen this version make it to the big screen instead.
[via Prometheus Movie, Giant Freaking Robot]
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Comments
I watched the DVD of Prometheus with writer's comments on. As the movie progressed from scene to scene, you watched Scott's decision play out as both writers told what they had originally written. In my opinion, Scott made choices that resulted in a looser, fresher movie. Listening to the writers explain what they originally intended, you could see in many cases the writer's vision would not have meshed as well with the actors who read the lines, or Scott's ultimate vision of the crew of the Prometheus inadvertently kickstarting the Alien monster to follow. Sigourney Weaver is a different actor to Noomi Rapace, and while the writers could not help but write to the old versions of Alien, (for what else could they build on?), Scott was right to over ride some script ideas. Really, how exciting would more face huggers be? And David as evil, made no sense, he is a robot after all, he can not make judgement calls like that.
Whether Prometheus lived up to expectations or not, ( I Enjoyed it and hope for sequels ) Scott made the movie he wanted to make. If you have the chance to listen to the writer's comments, do so, I think you will see what I mean.
That commentary sounds interesting.
I only skimmed the article as plan to sit down tomorrow spoiler free and read through this but I shall be interested to see how it compares to the final film and which I prefer.
I loved Spaihts' Shadow 19 script and recommend it to anyone who can get hold of it.
I LOVED this script! Much better than what we got. I did prefer the film Vickers to the script and obviously Michael Fassbender's David was amazing but pretty much everything else in the script was loads better than the movie. THIS is the Prometheus we should have had, not a watered down prequel to a prequel of Alien. This ending even lends itself to a VERY entertaining sequel as well.
Well I just finished the script too and I found it a vast improvement. Nearly all of the complaints that I had of plot holes in the original film were addressed and characters actions made more sense with the addition of a few extra lines of dialogue.
though spaihts' script is solid, i much prefer prometheus. J.S.'s script is just too much of an alien/fachugger re-romp. I would have watched, and probably somewhat enjoyed, a film shot around the script in question. However, having seen Prometheus, im very pleased that we ended up getting the film that we got. Prometheus is more interesting, more multifaceted, and more ambitious than what is presented in J.S. script (again...no disrespect to J.S...its clear he come up with some of the core ideas that drive the final film). Prometheus is lovely...bring on the sequel!
Call me crazy but fans of the Alien franchise wanted to see a direct prequel or series of films showing the rise of the Weyland-Yutani Company and that Space Jockey in the first film. The film had these elements but they were rushed and not fleshed out completely like they should have been. Don't get me wrong, the film was not bad but it should have been great. After reading J.S. script, it makes me even more disappointed. Its really to bad that both writers didn't collaborate on this film and make the best Alien prequel possible.
I'd rather have too many answers than not enough.
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