20th Century Fox
The only similarities shared by Ridley Scott’s last two directorial efforts were Michael Fassbender and a good deal of disappointment. In 2012, Scott returned to the sci-fi game and the universe he created in Alien — arguably the best film in the genre’s history — with Prometheus, a film that dazzled in scope and aesthetic conscience but that left us wanting more in the realm of story (we’ll chalk that lethal ending up to Damon Lindelof’s rewrites). Just this past weekend, Scott released his next picture: the Murphy’s Law crime drama The Counselor, which too was not a complete failure but seemed to discount the power of its weird, otherworldly script from novelist Cormac McCarthy. But recent shortcomings aside, the filmmaker is a versatile and highly skilled one. A force so talented that his announcements, even the one about a sequel that might have underwhelmed us, has us excited. Scott spoke to Empire
magazine for its latest issue, revealing that the script for the developing Prometheus 2, is complete.
He says, “Prometheus 2 is written. I have already got the next two films ready to go. That will be 2014, 2015.” This time around, scripting duties lie with Jack Paglen, a newbie who will make his feature debut with another ambitious picture, Wally Pfister’s Transcendence. If the sequel can hone in with a bit more attention to detail and an intention to complete the interesting story that its predecessor opened, Prometheus 2 could very well offer up a formidably satisfying, inspiring return to the sci-fi game for Scott.
Also on Scott’s plate is an adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, which Scott calls “one of the last great science-fiction books.” The story revolves around an interstellar warfare between humanity and an alien race. Commenting on his choice to adapt the novel: “We’ve finally got a very good draft of that for Fox. I thought I’d left science-fiction for too long, that I had better climb back in. Prometheus was a great experience for me. Chasing number two, we can start evolving the grand idea.”
Additionally, Scott mentions on the muddled status of Blade Runner 2 (“Yeah, we’re working on [it] right now – that will happen sooner or later”) and his viewpoint on his developing Biblical epic Exodus (“F**king huge”). So, rest assured there.
