Director Ridley Scott tends to attach himself to a ton of projects at once, and while invariably a number of these don’t pan out, he still works at a quick clip, especially considering he’s 77-years-old. His space adventure The Martian doesn’t come out until October, but he’s already hard at work on his next film, and we now have confirmation that will be Prometheus 2.
Talking to Empire about The Martian, Scott and star Matt Damon, who plays an astronaut stranded on Mars, talked about the rapid pace at which the director works. Damon made a quip about the film being finished two weeks after shooting, and Scott agreed, revealing:
I was already on to my next movie! I was starting to look for locations for my next movie, which is Prometheus 2.
Ridley Scott making back-to-back sci-fi movies is an idea we will always get behind, even though there are a great many detractors when it comes to 2012’s Prometheus. It’s a flawed film, to be sure, but it’s still gorgeous, and I dig it despite the issues. And Scott has even recently stated that he’s found a renewed passion for the genre, which, when you’re talking about the guy behind Alien and Blade Runner, is always awesome to hear.
Prometheus made money ($400 million worldwide), but wasn’t the massive success the studio hoped, and it disappointed many fans and critics hoping for a triumphant return to the Alien universe. As a result, the sequel has been a will-they-won’t-they proposition. Scott has been talking about it for some time, but only recently has it become concrete that it will happen—shooting on Prometheus 2 is slated to begin in January of 2016.
After the debacle that was the faltering biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, which was not awesome, we’re glad to see Scott returning to science fiction. With the production scheduled to begin relatively soon, you have to assume that they’re closing in on a script, or at least a solid idea for Prometheus 2. They’re not just going to throw something together last minute, as this has been a topic of conversation for some time. Scott once said that there were 15 drafts of the script making the rounds, and given the end of the first film, there are a ton of potential trails the follow up could blaze.
As far back as 2013, star Noomi Rapace talked about meeting with Scott about the future of the franchise. She even suggested at one point that the God and the Devil should be the primary antagonists of Prometheus 2. Given her character’s faith, and the themes and ideas the first film kicked around, that, or at least some form of that, is a very real possibility.
Transcendence writer Jack Paglen was working on a draft last we heard. Scott has also indicated that, whatever the final plot, it will most likely follow Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and the android David (Michael Fassbender) as they continue what is essentially a search for God, trying to find the Engineers, the beings that created, and later tried to wipe out, humanity.
We’ll have to wait and see how things come together on that front, and even though Scott said we won’t see a traditional Alien Xenomorph, we’ll get a fun third act surprise that will introduce a new extraterrestrial menace. Can’t wait. Prometheus 2 likely won’t open until 2017, but until then we have The Martian, which opens on October 2, to tide us over until then.
