As Ridley Scott prepares to start filming his PROMETHEUS sequel/ALIEN prequel ALIEN: PARADISE LOST in Australia in February, the script is getting a little extra touch-up work. Written by GREEN LANTERN's Michael Green and TRANSCENDENCE's Jack Paglen, the screenplay is currently receiving a rewrite by John Logan, who co-wrote the two most recent James Bond films, SKYFALL and SPECTRE, and earned Oscar nominations for his work on GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR, and HUGO.
Logan's revisions are helping Scott attempt to delve into answering questions about the xenomorphs at the center of the ALIEN franchise, specifically "why such a creature would be invented, and by whom," and questions that are much larger and more universal.
Says Scott,
I've met a lot of scientists who have whet my appetite for the technical possibilities of the future, but I’ve always wanted to get a group of them together and ask them if they’re religious. Because you’d be surprised how many dyed-in-the-wool astrophysicists there are who say that, yes, they believe in God.
"And I ask them how that relates to the profession of mathematics. Science will say we are random and biological. So if you go further than that, and say you believe in a higher power, are you saying you don’t adhere to the scientific plausibility of why, say, you and I can talk on this phone right now? Or is there a much larger connection that we can’t grasp yet? For me, that's the biggest question we have left to explore, and that will be the underlying discussion of the next Prometheus film."
I can't say the prospect of the movie dealing with those subjects is doing much for my hype levels.
The last time Logan wrote a movie set in space, STAR TREK: NEMESIS, it wasn't very well received, but that doesn't have to be a bad sign for his work on this sci-fi franchise. In the horror genre, he has written BATS and created the TV series Penny Dreadful, and those projects couldn't be more different from each other.
ALIEN: PARADISE LOST is set to reach theatres in May of 2017. Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace will be reprising their PROMETHEUS roles, and may be joined by Rebecca Ferguson.