While Prometheus 2 is not due to hit the theaters until May of 2017, buzz on pre-production alone have been bursting out across the newsfeeds faster than even a Xenomorph chestbuster.
Continue reading Prometheus 2: What We Know So Far About Alien Paradise Lost and Covenant
The title of Prometheus 2 has been officially announced by director Ridley Scott in a recent interview. The sequel will be named Alien: Paradise Lost. Check out the interview below, which also contains a bit of news on Blade Runner 2.
Continue reading Prometheus 2 Title Revealed as Alien: Paradise Lost
There are many things to take away from the first viewing of Alien, Ridley Scott’s now iconic creature feature. For some it was the raw, used and lived in feel of Scott’s universe, a far cry away from the shining, gleaming future we saw in most of the sci-fi flicks of the 1970s. For others it was the claustrophobic and intense atmosphere that the film created. Regardless the reason for loving (or hating the movie); no one can argue that it isn’t a visually stunning film. H.R. Giger’s designs were perfectly displayed on-screen and turned into horrific visions of a future, where we are simple prey, or worse yet hosts.
This attention to visual detail was certainly what caught my eye when I saw the movie so many years ago. That first visual from Alien that’s now burned into my brain, is not the famous Xenomorph, but the huge, imposing figure of the Space Jockey. A mysterious thing that at that time had no back story, leaving us to the wonderment of our own imaginations. Simply a sign that what is about to happen, has happened before. Prometheus (unnecessarily) attempted to answer some of the questions that had long surrounded the Space Jockey, and now the talented sculptors at Sideshow Collectibles have created a superb version of the Space Jockey which can now be yours.
Sideshow Collectibles is proud to present the Space Jockey Maquette from Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror classic, Alien.
Long before Prometheus uncovered the origins of the Engineer and his species, the mysterious ‘Space Jockey’ captured the imaginations of movie-goers around the globe. First encountered by the doomed crew of the ship Nostromo, the haunting discovery of the enormous lonely star gazer remains one of the most memorable moments in the Alien franchise. Based on the iconic bio-organic industrial designs of Swiss artist H. R. Giger, Sideshow’s artists have faithfully captured every detail of the fossilized sentinel, a tragic traveler who fell victim to his own lethal cargo and was forever frozen, trapped in time and space.
Intriguing so far, but how does the piece fare under close inspection? Pretty darn good – that’s how! Below is a gallery of the piece so you can see for yourself.
The Marquette looks incredible, with an attention to detail that really brings the piece to live. If you had some tinted lighting and a smoke machine, you could be the crew of the Nostromo yourself! This craftsmanship does come with a price however, and the almost $600, it may be too rich for some collectors. Fear not though, as Sideshow Collectibles have their own $60 a month payment scheme you can sign up to if you really need this piece on your shelf at home.
This is not Sideshow Collectibles first venture into the Alien franchise. They’ve also created a piece for the Alien 35th anniversary ($399.99 and limited to 2000).
In addition to the piece above, they also have an upcoming Aliens Warrior bust which is due to be shipped in March / April of this year ($359.99 and limited to 1750).
Something else that really caught our eye is the upcoming April/May release of the Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, a collaborative creation between Sideshow Collectibles and Insight Editions. This piece is part sculpture, part book and chronicles the rise of the Xenomorph with some incredible visual illustrations to top it all off, all for $325.
Quite the collection of Alien related paraphernalia for fans to be getting on with, but with all these pieces having a limited run and only so much cash to go round, collectors may have to decide what is more important, the Space Jockey or a Xenomorph?
If you like what Sideshow Collectibles has on offer then you may also like some of the fantastic work NECA has done with the Alien franchise too. Keep checking with Grizzly Bomb for all your collectible news as it arrives.
Images: Sideshow Collectibles, Insight Editions.
Assassin’s Creed is one of those magnificent games that manages to pack together a high concept, dense, and intricately woven story, with heavy mythology and symbolism, and still manages to be a commercial success. I suppose the difference between games and other mediums, is that with a game, you can skip the story if you like, and focus solely on the killing and whatnot. You’d be doing yourself a huge disservice, as the AC storyline is one of the better science fiction stories being told in gaming, or any media today.
The first game is initially about you being the descendant of an ancient league of assassins, reliving your genetic memories via a virtual reality machine that can access historical details otherwise obscured or lost to time. The repercussions of your discoveries, and the true intent of the scientists putting you through these experiments is what soon becomes captivating, along with the seemingly anachronistic parallels between the past and the present. Eventually the back story becomes the main story, and in the games sequels it’s expanded greatly, and really makes you wonder just what the hell is going on.
So with much optimism, I’m glad to say that Michael Fassbender, who some of you might recognize as David from Prometheus, or Magneto from X-Men: First Class, has been cast in the lead role for the film. It’s not confirmed if he’ll actually be playing Desmond Miles, the lead from the game, but one could presume so. Speaking briefly on the casting of Fassbender is Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet, via Coming Soon:
“Michael Fassbender was our first choice. Michael (Fassbender) is an extremely smart, talented, versatile and committed actor.”
For me, even though the game is a lot of fun, I’d rather just watch the brilliant story play out, which is why a movie is such a great idea. Historical fiction is fairly popular right now, and even though The Da Vinci Code, National Treasure and films of that ilk are gaining years in age, all it would take is something like Assassin’s Creedto blow up and get everybody excited about how awesome history is again. I can’t wait to see this thing, and I should really get around to finishing the last 2 games in the series, before 3 comes out, and so should you!
Prometheus is a good Sci-Fi film with great acting and an interesting plot, but sadly it wasn’t a great Sci-Fi film and definitely wasn’t this generations Alien. But I would love to see a sequel which could easily fix the problems I found with this film. The best advice I can give to anyone going to see this film would be not to have your expectations to the level that the hype has put it.
Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Blade Runner, returns to the genre he helped define. With Prometheus, he creates a ground-breaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
To start off let’s talk about the acting. The acting was very professional and you could feel the emotion but the main flaw I found with the characters and the film in general were that you couldn’t connect with the people. The main character Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) was the exception to this with a realistic but strong character who survives at all costs (credit goes to her with a great performance). Sadly the characters you start to like get very little screen time and the one’s you don’t really care about (Charlie) get time that was more boring than interesting. Then there’s my main fault with this film. The crew don’t really mix very well and you get the feeling their all in their own little worlds, rather than experiencing something as a group. So in that respect it loses some of its authenticity.
Think I have moaned enough about the characters for now, so let’s talk about something more fun like the visuals. The special effects, physical props and visual landscape shots where both excellent viewing and brilliantly immersive to the universe that Ridley Scott’s created. There’s nothing quite like being four rows from the screen of an IMAX 3D showing of Prometheus and I would definitely recommend that experience. At one point the spaceship felt like it was landing two feet from your seat which was a little shocking because I have never sat that close at an IMAX. The best thing I felt about this films look was the way that the ships interiors and the alien building where all real and built in the Pinewood Studios which gave everything a realistic touch which helps to bring you closer to believing you’re in that world.
The plot is very much its own. If nothing else this film is not like any other and for that Ridley Scott has made a great addition to his Sci-Fi resume. My favorite scene without giving anything away would be the end scene of the film and if you have seen alien you will know why, but the other would probably be anything involving the Android David (Michael Fassbender) because he was such a great character and played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender who was being great as always. So if there is a sequel which after watching the film I would be expecting one, then I hope that they keep David but give him more face time and a better physical presence.
Finally I would like to address the question of whether Prometheus is a prequel to the Alien film. In my opinion it certainly was a prequel and the film does nothing but leave clues to the original films plot and origins. The end gives you the strongest connection to the original; they couldn’t have made that last scene more revealing to the alien origins if you saw the crew of the Nostromo land at the end. Simply put though this film needed to be more like alien and have a more structured and sensible plot that wouldn’t confuse viewers, I did feel that the film alienated (pure coincidence I used that word) people who wouldn’t get some of the more subtle and complicated plot strands. So go watch it because the film is a great viewing pleasure and will keep you thinking for a long time after about what happened.
grizzly rating 4.5
Multiple shots from trailers and clips have shown the plot to be centered in some fashion around the ubiquitous “Space Jockey” from the original Alien. Now, originally, it was just called The Pilot in the script, and was put there as a one off bit of foreshadowing towards the decidedly gory death that would befall the crew of the Nostromo. Anyone who’s watched Alien multiple times, has probably had questions about that weird elephantine looking pilot, who is surrounded by so much mystery and awe in the first film. Ridley Scott had also given thought to who this character was way back when the film first came out, and spoke of how it was “Really just a suit”. This of course lines up with some of the SPOILER images shown from the film, which depict a large bipedal creature, and not the elephantine enigma we’ve all come to love and enjoy.
Granted, he’s only made two before this, but they were single handedly two of the most influential and captivating science fiction films of all time. Alien itself brought to the forefront the idea that science fiction CAN be taken seriously by a mainstream audience, and damn scary as well. Blade Runner, while not as critically appreciated in it’s time, is nonetheless regarded as a modern classic, teeming with philosophical, moral, and societal themes that all serve to rally around a singular question: What does it mean to be human? Both films revolutionized how we view aliens, artificial intelligence, body horror, fear and of course, being horribly mutilated by monsters and/or replicants. Both were also amazing, quintessential examples of their genre, and another entry by Mr. Scott is something to always be on the lookout for, regardless of its heritage. Its a damn, damn exciting heritage.
Charlize tells us how brilliant Ridley Scott is. Fun Fact: if you flip the D in Ridley Scott’s first name 180 degrees it turns into RIPLEY. COINCIDENCE? CONSPIRACY? You decide.
Along with his proposed sequel to Prometheus, he’s mentioned getting a TRUE sequel to Blade Runner up and running, written by the original writer, giving us perhaps some finality and closure on the long running question of Deckard’s humanity, or telling an all new story entirely. It’s supposedly going to have a female lead, but I wouldn’t discount old Mr. Ford showing up in a cameo, and personally it’d be badass if it was ambiguous as to whether or not Deckard was old because his replicant time clock is running out, or if he’s just old because people get old and are old. Either way, if it’s got Scott behind the helm I’m all in for the ride, because trying to remake or reboot it just wouldn’t work without the OG crew in tow.
I know what you’re thinking. “Whoa, what? How could that even be? They’re like two different things entirely Cheesebadger, you’re just making stuff up.” BUT YOU’D BE WRONG. BEHOLD!
That’s a screenshot of Mr. Malcolm Reynolds’ POV shooting a Weyland-Yutani cannon at Alliance cruisers. Go pop in your copy of the Firefly dvd DVD if you don’t believe me. It’s one of the first scenes in the first episode, where you see Mal lose hope as the battle of Serenity is lost. So what does this mean, other than horrific fan fiction where we see the fallout of weird alien sex clones made from River and Ripley? Nothing probably, but maybe… just maybe, if enough people see it… FIREFLY WILL GET PICKED UP FOR A NEW SEASON AND COME BACK, STRONGER THAN EVER!*
*Warning, may be entirely untrue and a horrible lie.
I cannot tell if I am getting lazier with my posts, or if any sort of exposition from myself just does not do what I am covering any justice. So we will go straight to the new trailer and then I will deliver my thoughts:
This looks goooooooooddd…..I have to say, this is going to be one helluva summer. With all the trailers and the kick-off being Avengers this weekend for the summer movie season, I am just pumped. I mean, you get Charlize here, creepy Fassbender, the dude from the Wire, the dude from 24, and a friggin’ Alien prequel. And it has a freakin’ Cobra/Alien hybrid. I hate snakes due to two things:
1.) Watching Indiana Jones as a kid. Completely screwed me up from childhood.
2.) Watching Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure when he runs out of the pet shop with all those small snakes. I saw that AFTER Indiana Jones. That effin’ ruined me for life.
So yeah, this movie will creep the bejesus out of me and it’s about damn time. Now watch the trailer again to figure out if the foreign Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is going to hack her way out of this mess.
Creeeeeppppyyyy….
I led off with the video because it has to be seen so that we can start off with a chills going down your back when David (Fassbender/Magneto) describes his emotions and his probable ignorance of the Three Laws of Robotics when he explains that he can carry out tasks that might be “distressing” or “unethical” to his human counterparts. Regardless, this viral marketing has done it’s job that I am now starting to get afraid that the hype machine in about a month might raise expectations so high.
But in Ridley and Sci-Fi I trust.
You want more? Fine, I got more several more pics after the jump just so that you can get your fix for the week. Pics are via /Film and Empire Online and Gamma Squad.
We’ve already taken a look at a some Prometheus trailers and what not, but if you missed them…
– Prometheus: Hi-Res Images, Interviews and Teaser Trailer
– Prometheus: New Poster and Trailers! (Teasers 1 & 2)
– Some Stills & Speculation on The Hobbit and Prometheus
– International ‘Prometheus’ Trailer: Giddyness to Follow
– Prometheus: New Video Gives Us Our ‘ALIEN’ Link (Peter Weyland Video)
– New Extended Trailer for ‘Prometheus’: Connection to ALIEN Now Undeniable
But fear not, there is more! I thought it was time we collected everything in one spot. If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited for this movie. For almost my whole life I’ve wondered what was up with this dude – the space jockey from the original Alien film, now we’re gonna find out.
Let’s start with the videos. Here is one we haven’t posted before, part of their viral marketing. In the same vein as the Peter Weyland video, this is more about the company and deals with the creation of androids, in the footsteps of Ian Holm and Lance Henriksen.
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Next is the new UK Trailer, which takes a totally different approach from the American spots, and adds in some footage we’ve not see yet…
UK TRAILER:
Continue reading PROMETHEUS – New UK Trailer, Pictures, and Interview with Theron and Fassbender
Despite Director Ridely Scott’s claims that his upcoming Prometheus is only vaguely related to his Sci-Fi/Horror classic Alien, the more footage that comes out, the clearer it becomes the films are unmistakably related. Last month we saw the clip of Guy Pierce‘s character ‘Peter Weyland’ giving a speech and hinting towards the technology that would make possible the later space exploration. Now we have an extended look…
So, we have the music from the original, the ship from the original, the space jockey, LV-426, and the Weyland Company.
Yup, clearly not a prequel.
Grizzly Bomb 