Prometheus

Having been trodden into the ground by the likes of Paul W. S. Anderson and the Brothers Strause, it didn’t look as though the Alien (or Predator, for that matter) franchise was ever likely to recover from the disastrous Alien vs. Predator movies. That is, however, until Ridley Scott announced his intention to return to the series he once started, determined not only to return the franchise to health but create a new and largely original masterwork in the process.

It’s 2023, and with the ever-ambitious Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) looking to change the world, the crew of the Prometheus are dispatched to try and uncover the origins of humanity through the exploration of another, even more advanced civilisation. Captained by Janek (Idris Elba), archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), prototype android David (Michael Fassbender) and corporate figurehead Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) find themselves on LV-426 where shit starts to hit the fan as an infection spreads rapidly through the ship’s crew.

Although initial buzz indicated that Prometheus (then titled ‘Paradise’) was to be a stand-alone film, completely independent of the Alien mythology, later reports suggested that the two films – Pometheus and Scott’s original Alien movie – would in fact take place in the same universe. With H.R. Giger on board to design aspects of the alien technology and habitat, and Pearce’s Weyland providing an indelible link to the extant franchise, Prometheus promises to expand certain elements such as the state of humanity and the Space Jockey culture previously only glimpsed on the alien world while delivering an entirely new story (possibly even xenomorph-free); or, as writer Damon Lindelof of Lost sees it, the perfect prequel.

Prometheus will chest-burst into cinemas on June 1, 2o12.