Jon Spaihts

New Featurette for Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: April 30th, 2012 at 11:34 am

On the heels of last night’s new trailer (which is loaded with new footage), Fox has released a new featurette for Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi, Prometheus.  There are bits and pieces of new footage scattered throughout the clip, interspersed with interviews featuring some of the cast, Scott, and screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts.  I was already sold on this film a long time ago so I’m trying to stay away from a ton of new footage, but Fox seems to be shedding a lot more light on what’s in store for us come June and they’re making it very hard to stay in the dark.  That said, if you’re still not convinced that Prometheus is worth checking out or don’t care about seeing new footage, then this clip is worth a gander.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Rafe Spall, Sean Harris, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. Prometheus opens in 3D on June 8th.

Screenwriter Jon Spaihts Talks PROMETHEUS, WORLD WAR ROBOT, CHILDREN OF MARS, GEORGE AND THE DRAGON, and More

by Christina Radish    Posted: April 9th, 2012 at 4:55 pm

Quickly becoming the go-to guy for space adventures, screenwriter Jon Spaihts turned a a conversation about returning to the universe of Ridley Scott’s seminal film Alien into a job writing the highly anticipated summer blockbuster Prometheus, out in theaters on June 8^th.  Many established writers had taken stabs at the idea with little success, but Spaihts offered a take, during a meeting at Scott Free Productions, that interested not only the studio, but Ridley Scott himself, who signed on to direct it.  Five drafts later, screenwriter Damon Lindelof (Lost) came on to rebalance the story and elaborate on some character relationships and mythology while leaving the characters in place and the infrastructure of the story standing.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider (which was done just before the announcement that he would be writing a reboot of The Mummy franchise), Jon Spaihts talked about what it was like to collaborate with Ridley Scott, blocking out expectations when you’re writing a screenplay for a film with so much interest, why all of the secrecy is crucial for the viewing experience, remaining true to canon whenever possible, that he read Lindelof’s draft which he says has a new energy and some new ideas but is still a story that he feels a lot of ownership of, and more.  He also talked about completing work on the graphic novel adaptation World War Robot, an original story he’s doing for Jerry Bruckheimer that’s a romantic action-adventure with a sci-fi hook, the original feature Children of Mars that he wrote for Scott Rudin (that is currently circling in development, as it’s not the best time to make a big sci-fi movie about Mars), a rewrite he did of George and the Dragon, and whether he’d ever consider trying his hand at directing.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

PROMETHEUS Co-Writer Jon Spaihts to Reboot THE MUMMY Franchise

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 4th, 2012 at 1:04 pm

Because The Mummy franchise has shriveled up and died, Universal has decided to bring it back from the dead again.  Variety reports that Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts has been tapped to pen the screenplay for a reboot.  Says Spaihts, “I see it as the sort of opportunity I had with Prometheus: to go back to a franchise’s roots in dark, scary source material, and simultaneously open it up to an epic scale we haven’t seen before.”  I can only hope Spaihts is referring not to the Brendan Fraser movies, but the 1932 Boris Karloff picture.  I’m not sure how Spaihts plans to incorporate an “epic scale” to The Mummy, but it sounds like he’s trying to find a new angle on the franchise rather than simply do another goofy adventure tale like the previous Mummy movies.

Spaihts is also writing an untitled space adventure for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the sci-fi script Passengers starring Keanu Reeves, and an adaptation of the graphic novel World War Robot (no connection to the upcoming zombie film, World War Z).  He previously wrote the script for The Darkest Hour.

Possible Synopsis for Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 30th, 2011 at 11:08 am

A synopsis for Ridley Scott’s mysterious sci-fi flick Prometheus may have leaked online.  Details on the film have been kept under wraps to the point where there’s still confusion over how much of it is an Alien prequel and how much is its own beast.  At this point, the consensus seems to be that it is a prequel to Alien, but it’s outside the mold of the franchise to date.  This synopsis sheds some light on how Prometheus could be both an Alien prequel and not an Alien-prequel.  Keep in mind that that this could just be elaborate fan fiction from a guy (or gal) with too much free time deciding to take what disparate elements we think we know and build it into a convincing synopsis.

Hit the jump to read the synopsis and my thoughts on it.

Jerry Bruckheimer to Produce Space Adventure Film

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 4th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

Uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has just launched development on a “space adventure” film pitched to him by screenwriter Jon Spaihts. Spaihts, who wrote the first draft of Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel before subsequent rewrites by Damon Lindelof spun the project off into a wholly original film entitled Prometheus, will write the script for the sci-fi film. Variety’s report on the matter gives no further details, as Bruckheimer is keeping everything under wraps. Spaihts also wrote the upcoming sci-fi thriller The Darkest Hour 3D set to be released this August. That film stars Olivia Thirlby and centers on an alien invasion in Moscow. Bruckheimer is currently finishing post-production on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strangers Tides which hits theaters May 20^th.

Does the Title of Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS Refer to Name of a Terraforming Ship?

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 19th, 2011 at 11:21 am

Last week, we reported that Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel wouldn’t be a prequel at all but a new sci-fi film called Prometheus.  Keen fans will recognize “Alien‘s DNA”, but this evolved version creates “a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place.”  But what does Prometheus means?  The name itself comes from Greek mythology.  Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to mankind.  Zeus punished Prometheus for his crime with one of the more gruesome and creative punishments in mythology: Prometheus was chained to a rock and forced to have an eagle eat his live every day, only to have it grow back that night.  Rinse, repeat, eat liver, regrow liver.

Since Prometheus the movie is sci-fi and not Greek mythology/torture-porn, the folks at Scriptflags think they know what the title means.  They noticed that Jon Sapihts, who wrote the original script for the Alien prequel before Damon Lindelof was hired for a re-write, also penned a script called Shadow 19.  And Shadow 19 has a terraforming ship named…Prometheus.  Hit the jump for more on why they believe elements of Shadow 19 have been incorporated into Prometheus.

Fox to Make ALIEN Prequel by Hiring Ridley Scott. AS THE DIRECTOR.

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 30th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

A few months back, we reported that Ridley and Tony Scott were attempting to resurrect (if you’ll excuse the term and forget your enmity towards the fourth film in the series) the “Alien” franchise by bring Carl Rinsch on board to direct a new installment in the franchise. While Tony Scott confirmed that the fifth film would be a prequel, he offered no details on the story.

Hit the jump to find out how it fell apart and how Fox is trying to put it all back together.

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