Posts Tagged "interview"

Damon Lindelof talks about the reaction to Prometheus

Damon Lindelof was it this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, and spoke briefly with a very annoying G4TV host about the very divided opinions and reactions over Prometheus.

EXCLUSIVE – Fuel VFX’s Jason Bath tell us about Prometheus effects

You may not know the name, but Fuel VFX provided some of the most striking and recognisable visual effects work on Prometheus. A few days ago we put some questions to Jason Bath, Executive Producer and Co-Founder, and here’s what he said in this exclusive interview.

Can you please provide a little background history about Fuel?

Fuel is an artist owned and driven company in its 12th year now. The five founders were already experienced supervisors and producers and the company was formed with a strong sense of what we wanted Fuel to be. That wasn’t just about delivering great work, it was also about a ‘culture’ based on trust, respect and collaboration, and creating a supportive and stimulating work environment.

We’re very fortunate to have had many talented, like-minded people join us over the years that are not only talented visual effects artists but have helped us build and grow that culture to make Fuel the great place to work that it is today.

In just a few years you’ve progressed to working on some huge movies, including Marvel’s Avengers-based films, and the latest Mission Impossible, and of course Prometheus. What skills do you think you bring to a production that can ensure you get such high-profile work?

I think it’s a combination of things. Being able to deliver technically proficient work is a pre-requisite for all vendors on such shows and we’ve got good, critical internal processes to ensure that. We also very good at doing the ‘creative’ shots – shots that need some graphic design, concept development, some extra ideas brought to them. The big films have quite a bit of this sort of work and we find the supervisor-producer who know Fuel will lean on us a bit to help solve this sort of work, and that’s something we really enjoy and appreciate.

Finally, I think it’s about how we work with our clients. We are very accessible people that care about the result and we like to collaborate with the VFX production team to solve problems, and we understand that not everything goes according to plan. I think the fact that the owners of Fuel work actively on our projects is a big part of the good relationships we are able to develop.

How and when did Fuel come to be involved with Prometheus?

We were fortunate in that we had existing relationships with Richard Stammers (VFX supervisor), Allen Maris (VFX producer) and Todd Isroelit (VP, Visual Effects, Fox). All of them have known Fuel for a number of years now through different circumstances and all were very supportive that we would be a good contributor to the film.

We came on board early in pre-production, starting with concept and look development work for the holographic Engineer characters and the holotable.

Can you describe what your work on the movie involved?

We did a lot of the work that could be called ‘design-heavy’ – the Orrery and it’s control desk energy; the holographic Engineers; the holotable on the bridge of the Prometheus; and the laser scanning ‘pups’ were all effects that we conceptualized at Fuel based on Ridley’s and Richard’s ideas and developed into final shots. It was a very rewarding experience to be given responsibility for such key looks in the film and have Ridley respond so positively to our concepts and look development, and then the final shots.

Fuel also looked after the set extensions in the pilot’s chamber, the particle-like ‘tunnel effect’ that gets activated in the catacombs, and the 3D holographic screens in Vickers’ suite.

How many people did you have working on the project?

Over the course of the production we had about 70-80 people work on the film.

Did you manage to visit the set, and if so what were your impressions of what you saw?

Fuel’s VFX Supervisor Paul Butterworth went to set for a few weeks when they were filming the ‘Engineers Running’ sequence. I know the scale of the sets blew him away but he was most amazed with how focused and calm Ridley was on set. We were creating look frames for the Orrery at the time and Ridley had the headspace and energy to work with Paul on those in between takes. That time Paul was able to spend with Ridley was invaluable for us.

Did you have any particular technical challenges that had to be overcome?

To realize the complexities of the Orrery design we needed to rebuild and extend our deep image pipeline. A wide shot of the Orrery has 80-100 million polygons and these tools gave artists the ability to reach in and manipulate millions of points in an interactive way, reducing or removing the need for expensive 3D rendering for minor changes.

Without these tools, the entire Orrery would have comprised about 200 traditional layers that would have had to be re-rendered for even the smallest change, requiring weeks to turnaround each time. That sort of lag time would not be possible on any show.

Are there any shots you worked on that you are particularly proud of, and that our readers should look out for?

The sequence where David activates the Orrery is probably my favourite out of Fuel’s work. It is a beautiful, other-worldy sequence that looks amazing in 3D.

Is there anything else you would like to mention about your work on Prometheus?

Our work on the holographic Engineer characters was really involved creatively and technically. Ridley was very particular about the look of these and it was a challenge for us to get these right. The characters are made from light yet had to be mysterious and eerie, and we also had to be able to control their appearance from moment to moment – dialing in glimpses of details at times, and devolving into more abstract noise at others. Then depending on the angle and lens of each shot, the volume of the Engineers sometimes didn’t read so well. Given it’s a stereoscopic film that really jumped out. So different parts of the Engineers were turned on or off depending on the shot to ensure their volumetric shape looked great.

Finally, can you tell us anything about what’s lined up next for Fuel?

We’re on the cusp of being confirmed on a few shows so I won’t jinx them by mentioning them! We’ve been getting some really nice early attention due to our contribution on Prometheus so are also bidding a number of exciting projects at the moment. Hopefully more doors will continue to open for Fuel as people get to see the full scope of our work on the film.

Many thanks to Jason, as well as Anna at Fuel and Samara at Fox for helping arrange this interview!

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is now on release around the world.

“In The Beginning” Prometheus article from The Australian

The Australian has a new article up on Prometheus, which you can read here if you have an account with them, or below if you don’t!

CINEMA’S fascination with the end of the world has a banal predictability. “Yes, they’ve got to stop that,” British director Ridley Scott says. “That and vampires, right? What is this obsession with vampires?”

Scott, of course, flies against cinema orthodoxy. As far as anyone can tell, his upcoming Prometheus will be a beginning-of-the-world film. He says “no one’s seen anything” of it, his first science fiction film since Blade Runner in 1982.

“We’ve kept it pretty much under wraps because I like to do that. You’ve got nothing to gain by showing it.”

Not in this instance, anyway. The anticipation – cruelly stoked by an inventive viral marketing campaign of associated clips, including a TED conference talk from 2023 by Guy Pearce’s Peter Weyland character – for Prometheus is intense.

Scott, 74, made his mark early in the genre with his seminal 1979 sci-fi thriller Alien. Then there was Blade Runner, before he promptly left the realm for historical epics and contemporary dramas. The desire to see how a lauded visual stylist envisages the genre 30 years on is palpable, particularly when there is the promise of a connection to Alien, which spawned not only one of cinema’s most viscerally unattractive villains but three subsequent films and two more spin-offs.

Prometheus, which opens in 2089 in a cave in Scotland, was pitched as a prequel or sequel to the Alien series, at least initially. Scott says he started conversing with writers and “seriously looking” at the series only two years ago. Jon Spaihts then wrote the original screenplay and Lost’s Damon Lindelof was brought in for final rewrites.

Scott says he and the writers began with a “direct connection to Alien” but, as he surmises one would with a book, their plan easily drifted from original moorings. “So the film in connective terms to the original has the DNA of Alien but that’s about it,” he says before explaining, perhaps anti-climactically for some, DNA “for a start is microscopic”.

For those who can’t wait, he hints – and look away now if you wish to maintain some mystery – “about the last 12 minutes of the film” has a connection to Alien. “It’s not so much a revelation as [about] where you’re going to go next,” he says.

“Assuming nothing, but if there were to be a sequel to this, which makes sense, you’ve got the next step, the next place to go, which is a new, completely new land, a new venue.”

But first things first. Prometheus appears to take us to the beginning of our existence. It’s not sci-fi apocalypse but sci-fi birth. Nevertheless, the portents are ill if you appreciate that, in Greek mythology, Zeus punished Prometheus for stealing fire and giving it to mortals by having an eagle hack at his guts each day.

Scott shares my tiredness of Hollywood’s facile end-of-the-world scenarios wherein if it’s not aliens, asteroids or the environment itself threatening our existence, it’s our own boneheadedness. The trope is even emerging in dramas such as Lars von Trier’s Melancholia and unlikely romantic dramas and comedies this year with Steve Carell and Keira Knightley’s characters befriending each other in Earth’s last days in the coming Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and Seth Rogen preparing his own comedy, The End of the World.

“I think we need something new,” Scott says of the apocalyptic genre. “Cinema is like writing books and I always say to myself, are we making too many movies? Can there be that many good movies? Can there be that many good stories, because you look at the book world, how many really, really great books occur in each year? The top line is always really, really limited and I think it’s the same for movies.

“In the movie year there’s a few good films, then there’s a lot of mediocre potboilers and there’s a lot of dreck.”

Yet people still flock to the cinema, Scott muses, half-bemused, half-enthused. “So I really, really try every time to make it different, try to make it fresh, try to make it new, [present] a different slant on things,” he says. “It’s what we do.”

Prometheus is different. It is a grander visual spectacle, not as claustrophobic as the original Alien. It is in 3-D and, well, more plausible as sci-fi goes. The Alien saga – we’ll ignore the risible Alien vs Predator spin-offs – lurched through hundreds of years and occasional implausibilities in the hands of James Cameron (Aliens), David Fincher (Alien 3) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien Resurrection).

Scott, like most, thought the series was flat and finished. Every gram of acid blood had been squeezed from the alien, every possible offspring mutated and every Ripley resuscitation attempted. “Having seen four films completed on the Alien thematic, the game was up, it was done really,” Scott recalls thinking. Yet he realised none of the Alien films, not even his own, had contemplated following an early, and key, plot point in Alien.

“I sat and thought about it for a while and thought none of the three films following mine had ever asked one of the most obvious questions, and that’s what really started it all off,” he says.

After Ripley and her crew discover a derelict spaceship and, in the pilot’s chair, a giant humanoid being with an exploded chest, all hell breaks loose. But after four films, the questions remained: who was in the pilot’s chair, why did the spaceship land there and why was it carrying such “wicked biotechnology”? Essentially, how did this malarkey begin?

The question “gestated in my brain as I was doing other things”, Scott recalls, including reuniting with Russell Crowe in Robin Hood – he directed Crowe in Gladiator, for which he and Crowe wons Oscars – and continuing an ever-expanding production business. But Scott itched to return to science fiction. And who would deny the director of an Academy Award best picture if he were to return to the genre of two of his greatest triumphs?

That’s when Scott’s imagination started racing. Not for him a glib alien-creation premise set on a faraway planet or creatures being propelled from their galaxy. Scott has shown a touch more complexity, pulling from all angles to develop a “grand new mythology” that is equal parts religion, science and pop culture.

And he’s hard to stop once he starts divulging his inspirations. He begins by citing Erich von Daniken’s hit 1960s book Chariots of the Gods and the notion of primitive, huge earthworks such as the Nazca lines in Peru being communication with alien visitors.

“These drawings in the desert are miles long, so to draw them you’d have serious knowledge of theodolite work because you’re doing the work of an ordinance surveyor, right?” he asks, before talking of the storied alien sightings, and supposed storage, in the Mojave desert of the “marvellous Mayan carving of a being lying on his back in a frame and the frame underneath the frame is fire and above the frame is the universe and the person is helmeted”. Then there are the UFO and alien sightings or, at least the “phase and a fashion for sighting” in the 60s.

Before you think you might next see a dishevelled Scott on a street corner waving a naive placard, he is quick to note these examples provide a context for alien contact that may be driven by intuition rather than fact.

The hokey alien fascination of the 50s and 60s represented something collectively, Scott argues, and now we combine that with the recent “general ease across to acknowledging that . . . we are definitely not alone”.

Certainly sectors of science point that way. With the discovery of water on Mars, and speculation Jupiter’s moons Europa and now Ganymede may harbour water, if not life, Scott could sense a merging of pop history with real history.

“It’s entirely arrogant to believe we are in this galaxy alone, and I’m not saying we’re necessarily talking about people walking around with two arms and two legs and eyes,” he says.

“But is there life form out there? Of course there bloody is. There must be. It’s ridiculous to think we are it, we are the selected ones? F . . k off!”

Scott asks if there is something as elementary as bacteria on Mars, what happened elsewhere? And it’s all thrown into the sci-fi majesty of Prometheus, which asks the basic question in a big-budget entertainment: Where are we from?

It visits what is now emerging as what may be considered an existential middle point. There is increasing empathy for the notion that it is illogical for life on Earth to have emerged without a nudge from some source.

“The evolution of where I can be talking to you right now from me being a piece of carbon three billion years ago, the logic and likelihood of that being done by pure evolution without help is almost mathematically impossible,” Scott says.

“Why did f . . k all happen until about 70,000 years ago?” he asks. “Or did it, and was it destroyed a billion years ago by a cataclysmic event? There’s no one there to argue that except people like us who think these things up and think it’s feasible.”

Again, he halts his fervour. “I’m not some religious nutcase, but I’ve got a fairly serious imagination and I think when you do have that, you can read all you like. But then there’s a point where you start going off on a slight tangent believing what you have to believe.”

Scott mentions “that thing Tom Cruise follows”, Scientology and its “loose belief” we are related to aliens. Everyone laughs and chides those who accept that belief, he says – before quickly demurring that he is not a Scientologist and hopes he is not asked to become one – but isn’t Darwinism’s tenet just as incredible?

Scott cites what he considers an amazing path: the movement from all fours, to ape, to hominid, to standing, to losing our hair, to caveman who burns fire, then realises a dead antelope tastes better cooked, and from that meat comes grease from which can be made a candle, and from charcoal you can draw pictures on a ceiling, which is the first form of entertainment.

“That’s what I think: bang, bang, bang,” Scott says enthusiastically. “But that movement of a man who’ll pick up a lump of charcoal, and look at the limestone roof that is getting a bit dirty with the fire at night to keep them warm, and decides to entertain or to draw is bigger than f . . king Newton with an apple dropping on his head.

“Imagination is everything. Imagination is the fundamental basis of all things, including mathematics.”

I feel as if I’ve been on a wild journey with many paths, but there is some sense to the ride if one is not satisfied by the mystery of religion or the big bang to explain existence. Scott brings it back to Prometheus, a film that asks, fundamentally, who created us? “Were we created on a petri dish by a superior lot, or was it God?”

Two characters in the film represent the philosophical divides. The first, and expected to be Prometheus’s recurring Ripley type if it becomes a series, is Noomi Rapace’s space archeologist with faith, Elizabeth Shaw, who discovers a 35,000-year-old cave painting that draws her to a distant world. The colder, rational types are represented by Charlize Theron’s corporate executive, Meredith Vickers, and Pearce’s interplanetary corporate titan, Peter Weyland.

Where Scott sits in defining our source is a little unclear, but what is clear is that, as any artist should be, he’s open to possibilities. He was struck by his own evolution only recently when he stumbled across a documentary about Blade Runner.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was staring at someone who was very familiar and it was me 26 years ago,” he says.

Scott, who was knighted in 2003, says he hasn’t evolved much. “With me it’s entirely creative. I’m creatively driven; from the days of art school right through my life. I’m fortunate in that respect because I see the world in a certain way and there’s beauty everywhere, there’s beauty even in the industrial areas where I lived, Hartlepool, and its steelworks and things like that. So you have to see things in that particular order.”

He believes his mind was “pre-set” that way and evolved through study, design and then directing, which “fought me a bit because critics would say the film is too beautiful! I would think, go f . . k yourself because I’m actually dealing with a medium which is almost entirely to do with pictures, so why shouldn’t the film be visual, right?” he rails.

Time has been his greatest validation. The Duellists, Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down and American Gangster excuse him his Hannibal and A Good Year.

“Whether you’re a writer, a journalist, a book writer, a sculptor, a painter, only one opinion really counts, and that’s yours about your own work,” he says. “That’s how you stay with your head above water. If you listen, it’s dangerous.

“You’ve got to believe that what you’re doing, for you, is correct,” Scott adds. “My films for me are my canvases. And that’s not being pretentious, that’s just a good parallel to explain it. You walk in every morning and look at a canvas and think f . . k me, I hate that, why did I do that yesterday. And you start to adjust it. It’s the same for film. It’s essential that you’re self-critical.”

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

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Charlize Theron talks Vickers in a new video

IMDb have posted a new video featuring Charlize Theron talking about her Prometheus character, Vickers:

You can save the file in 720p format by right-clicking here.

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

Interview with Prometheus VFX Data Wrangler Nikeah Forde

The Michael Fassbender fansite Fascinating Fassbender has a nice interview with Nikeah Forde, a VFX Data Wrangler who did a stint of uncredited work on Prometheus.

Here she talks about what a Data Wrangler does, and how she fuond the experience:

Veronica: Who do you work for and what do you do?
Nikeah: I am freelance, and a visual effects co-ordinator. On Prometheus I was a replacement Data Wrangler.

V: What does a data wrangler do?
N: A data wrangler takes all notes and measurements on set that the visual effects companies will need to recreate the scene virtually later on. I would take camera notes; height, tilt, distance to subject as well as lens details, what sort of set up the camera was on.

V: You’ve been on the crew for several other films and a TV mini-series including The Pacific, Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and, more recently, the Tim Burton film Dark Shadows. Was there anything unique about working on Prometheus compared to other films you’ve worked on?

N: Prometheus is the only film I’ve worked on that shot in stereo, which means that for each shot there are two cameras side by side, so stereo means it will be in 3D. If you have two cameras they act like two eyes and depending on the crossover angle and the distance between them you create depth. You can shoot with one camera and later on cut each frame into depths to create 3D, this is called Post-Conversion, it’s not as good though. It’s super time consuming, but there are companies whose sole job is post-conversion. Each frame needs to have the work done to it, that’s the same with all VFX. That’s why our section of the credits is so long!

V: Speaking of credits, you told me that your name won’t be in the Prometheus credits, despite working on the film, why is that?

N: I just stood in for two days when their Lead Wrangler was sick. There is usually a minimum amount of days that you need to work on a film before you get listed in the credits.

V: Did you get to work with any of the stars of the film? With whom and what did you work on with them?
N: I did…I can’t really say. After the release [I’ll be able], but you will have to put a spoiler label on it. We all sign non-disclosure agreements when we come on board.

V: What was it like working with Sir Ridley Scott?
N: He is an amazing director, he knows exactly what he wants. Which is perfect on set. It’s the best trait a director can have.

V: What’s the best part of working on a film?
N: The crew, you are working such long and hard hours that you really bond with everyone.

V: What’s the most challenging part?
N: The hours, you have no time for a social life once you are on set. It’s pretty hard, but if you reality check yourself every now and again and realize that you have a pretty cool job it’s easier.

V: Any perks from working on Prometheus?
N: I got to explore the sets which were amazing.

V: Do you plan to see Prometheus when it hits theatres?
N: Absolutely. It should be incredible. And the visual effects team were top notch.

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Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

Jon Spaihts talks more Prometheus

While much of the early Prometheus publicity focussed – perhaps unfairly so – on Damon Lindelof’s contribution to Prometheus, it often seemed that the film original writer, Jon Spaihts was being overlooked.

Thankfully as the release draws close we are now starting to hear more from Spaihts, including the second part of Forbes’s profile, which is now online.

Here are a few highlights:

Spaihts got the job of writing “Prometheus” thanks to a one-off meeting in late 2009 with Scott at the offices of his Scott Free production company. As Hollywood meetings go, it wasn’t unusual. Spaihts and Scott got into small talk, tossing around ideas and flitting between gossip and general riffing. There was a rapport. About an hour in, Scott mentioned off hand that he was thinking of making a prequel to “Alien.” Did Spaihts have any ideas?

“I hadn’t thought about it,” Spaihts remembered in an interview earlier this week. But once Scott had posed the question, Spaihts began offering a stream of opinions about what a prequel could look like. “It was a magical, fertilizing question.” For the better part of an hour, Spaihts laid out a mythology and “bridge” that would tie together the long-running “Alien” saga to “the human story,” along with set pieces and character turns that would remain in the finished film. Spaihts reckons his “bridge” is what piqued Scott’s interest. Till then, the 74-year-old movie-maker had reportedly turned down other script ideas for the Prometheus story, but this time he ended up giving Spaihts the job.

[There's] a point in the Prometheus trailer when a 3D alien star map fills up a huge room, that owes its visual inspiration to a 1766 painting by Joseph Wright, called “A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery.” The painting is of a scientist showing a mechanical planetarium to a group of enthralled adults and children, and by dramatic candlelight.

“In a conversation we were talking about star maps and the story-necessity for the navigational instrument we would see, and Ridley Scott started talking about a painting he had in his mind,” Spaihts remembered. “Circles in circles with a candle lit image,” Scott had said. Spaihts thought of the Wright painting and did a Google image search.

“Yes, that’s the painting I mean,” Scott exclaimed. “Scientist, scholars and children.”

At one point when Spaihts was writing full-time out of Scott’s LA offices, he’d find himself in a room with the film’s production designer, Arthur Max, and four other full-time artists, talking about scenes late into the night between sips of wine.

“I’d go home, then come back the next morning, and on the wall there would be a four foot-wide painting of the scene I had talked about the night before,” he remembered. “That’s the luxury of working at the level at which Ridley Scott works.”

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

New Prometheus interview with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof

The New York Times had a chat with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof, as well as posting what look like a couple of new images.

On the phone from London, where the film was mostly shot, Mr. Scott described it as “ ‘2001’ on steroids.” He said he liked Stanley Kubrick’s notion of “a police agency in the universe that will give a ball of dirt a kick.”

“God doesn’t hate us,” Mr. Scott added ominously. “But God could be disappointed in us — like children.”

Behind the Prometheus legend is the idea that “the gods want to limit their creations; they might want to dethrone God,” said Mr. Lindelof.

In keeping with its Promethean theme the movie is laced with generational conflict, Mr. Lindelof said. There is, for example, the robot David. “Hey, a bunch of humans seeking out their creator,” Mr. Lindelof explained. “David knows exactly who created him, and he is not impressed by his creator.” He can see, hear and think better than humans and is stronger than they are too.

Thanks again to seeasea!

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

A new Q&A with Prometheus actor Logan Marshall-Green

The Reelbits website have received a new Q&A from Fox with actor Logan Marshall-Green, who talks about his role as Holloway in Proemtheus.

What can you tell us about your character?

I play Charlie Holloway, who is a scientist and the love interest of Elizabeth Shaw, Noomi Rapace’s character. They are a team. If she’s the brains, he’s the legs. I wouldn’t go so far to say muscle, but he’s the legs. He’s the one who leaps before he looks, and sometimes it hurts them as a team but a lot of the times it’s helped them. He takes a lot of chances and so far so good. This mission is one of the chances. The beautiful part is Noomi and I are teamed, but we actually differ in our philosophies as to exactly what we want or what we believe. She’s the believer. I’m the scientist. I’m the skeptic. I’m the atheist, if you will. But we complete each other, for lack of a better word. We make a whole in that sense. I think its what’s drawn the characters together romantically as well. It’s just this kind of respect, full respect but my skepticism matched with her beliefs, her faith.

How do you react to a call saying Ridley Scott is interested in talking to you about a sci-fi project?

One word, “Sure.” And then, “Sign me up.” It’s funny, the story for me is – without giving too much away – I auditioned for the scene that I had understood to be a science fiction scene. So that was already exciting knowing it was the scene for a Ridley Scott movie. He hasn’t done a science fiction in 30 years. So I’m reading the scene, I’m doing the scene and I find out that they might want to offer me this role and I say to myself, “Well, I need to read the script.” Even though I know it wouldn’t take much for me to sign up. So I’m reading the script, and I have to go back to the office to read it, it’s a super secret script. I realise it’s this great script. This character is really good. This is a science fiction and all of a sudden I get to – I won’t say what, but something happens – and I couldn’t believe it. My jaw hit the floor. At that point it was, where do you sign me up? Where do I get in line? Because I’m a fan boy. Ridley is really one of the reasons not only that I act but that I love cinema. He defined modern science fiction. It was a very easy choice. If he says, “Jump,” I say, “How high?”

The story deals with some pretty big themes, which is quite rare of a blockbuster of this scale.

Rare definitely for most cinema, but not so rare for Ridley. I think Ridley, he’s a man who deals in detail and spirit and in big questions. He’s not just going to make another ALIEN movie. He’s not going to make just another GLADIATOR movie. He’s going to ask the bigger questions as well. It’s all in the detail with the man. It’s just astonishing to see the detail in the world. How truly realized his future is. It allows you just to sit in it and then get to know the characters.

The crew of the Prometheus all have their own reasons for being on the ship. How has the interaction been to play with the other actors?

It’s been kind of beautiful. Like you said, everybody is kind of there watching everyone else. But there are these really beautiful duos where you have Noomi’s character and my character who really hold on to each other because they are surrounded by people who don’t believe in them and want to destroy them. And then you have Rafe Spall’s and Sean Harris’s characters and you have Charlize Theron’s and Idris Elba’s character. All the pairs are kind of watching the rest.

How have you enjoyed working with Noomi?

The experience with Noomi has just been a dream. I rate my experience with working with actors on their work ethic. Nobody has a better work ethic than Noomi. We got kind of thrown into it together. We had to really show our history of being romantically linked, professionally linked. I just couldn’t have asked for a better actress to dive in with and get physical and do little idiosyncratic things. I think she and I both had our eyes on the exact same prize, and hopefully it shows. Without giving anything away, the relationship is essential for the story. Instead of showing the relationship, we try to attack it with idiosyncrasies that are innate in strong relationships. Did she just feed him a frozen space raspberry? Yes.

Does it raise your game when you’re working with such talented co-stars?

You want to play with the best. Hopefully, you want to learn from the best and steal from the best, and do your best. Ridley is one of those guys who is an A guy. Ridley gets A people. B people get C people to make them feel like A people. Ridley surrounds you with a cast of A people, a crew of A people, designers of A people, and also he needs you to help him tell the story. The collaboration that’s happening in this massive motion picture, where we have the time to find these scenes and work the script so that it’s right and not just so that we make our day, I had never been a part of that before. It starts with Ridley and then it ends with us. I have never been part of the cast that is so cohesive; socially as well as professionally.

You talked about Ridley’s attention to detail, is he a precise director?

My big thing is I need a director I trust. The way I trust directors is when I’m sure that they know what they want. No one knows what they want more than Ridley. He has that beautiful attribute of being able to let some decision-making go to the actor. Again, allow the crew and the cast to help him tell the story. He knows what he needs in any given moment. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. He’s working not just on a different plane, he’s working on 15 different planes. While he’s talking to you, he’s storyboarding for the camera, he’s watching 10 screens. He’s an octopus.

Can we expect a lot of action from the film?

Yeah. It’s not going to bore you at all. It’s not going to trick an alien through 80 pages and then deliver the alien. It’s not going to do that. It’s going to trick a philosophy and a world. Once chaos happens, it happens. That’s kind of the beauty which has always been inherent in these kinds of movies. We’re doing something different. No one is going to be bored in this movie.

Have you been enjoying the chaos?

Yes! So far we’ve never been hurt. It’s chaotic, there is no doubt about that. We’re not CGI-ing the storm later. You’re being blasted with storm and chaos and it’s wonderful. It’s just ideal to act in.

Thanks again to reader seeasea for the link!

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

Jon Spaihts talks space – “humans will never reach another star”

Forbes had a long chat with Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts about his interest in science that fuels his sci-fi work.

This is the first in a two part interview, the rest of which will be online tomorrow.

You can read the full thing here, but highlights include:

“Science fiction has taught us to see the universe as vastly smaller and less energetic than it is. Space travel involves such mind-boggling distances and high energies that I think most people have no idea how difficult it is. My personal belief is that as much as I love science fiction, human beings will never reach another star.

“Most of my stories are attempts at compassionate understanding of human flaws and human failings. I think in my stories you tend to see human beings falling down, but you love them anyway. You understand you too might fall down in that way.”

It’s well worth a read, and nice to see a writer take such an interest in the real world theories behind his fantastic tales. We’ll let you know when part 2 is up.

Thanks again to seeasea for the link.

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.

New Ridley Scott video interview with Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher

The LA Times’ Hero Complex blog has taken to Youtube, and the first episode features an interview with Ridley Scott.

It’s a nice chat, and covers more than just Prometheus, including his work ethic and early career. Check it out below!

Prometheus is directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Patrick Wilson and Kate Dickie, and is due for release on June 8th 2012 in the USA, and June 1st 2012 in the UK.