Lawrence of Arabia's influences in Prometheus

There were early interviews where Lindelhof mentioned David Lean's influence on Prometheus. I believe he had remarked on how he and Scott had been speaking about Lawrence of Arabia at length during the reworking of the script. O'Bannon and Shussett reference the writings of Joseph Conrad in Alien, seems fitting something would crop up in Prometheus.

One big nod is the fact that the background plates for the alien planet were filmed in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Lawrence marshalled his forces here before he launched his attack on the fort at Aqaba. Do you remember the scene in the film where the arab proclaims, "Tonight we dine in Wadi Rum!" I also think it's important that a quote from Lawrence of Arabia is spoken both by Weyland and David. I have heard that the movie is about defiance, and also that David is treated as a glorified Butler. Perhaps if Weyland's conciousness or some part of it is in him, David also has inherited some of Weyland's ambition.

The links are only slightly tenable, at best.

I was going to mention that the mountains in Arabia looked very much like the scenery in the Prometheus trailers (I mean its vastly different from Giger's world) but I thought people would think I was clutching at straws

Personally I figured that what they meant by Lawrence of Arabia's influence would be in the visual style and the epic feeling that Lawrence of Arabia has. Maybe even meaning that Prometheus will be a fairly long movie with the time to flesh out an awesome story the way David Lean did with T.E. Lawrence's story.

Bio/Tech transfer, going to happen. No brainer.

Lawrence was a foreigner that marshalled forces in a foreign land.David may well turn out to be the Hero of mankind,or perhaps we might be the savior of the last few engineers.Maybe the SJ and engineers fought a war to near extinction for both races and we have found the last few.

Seeing is how Lawrence of Arabia is one of my all-time favorite movies, and my dedication to the subject matter on this site... I could only hope. Love the comparisons. I also think you will see more elements of the Prometheus myth than just the ship's name. Good call

So there will be a uncomfortable bit where David is whipped by Turkish guards? (We watched the movie in school, and I think that bit terrified each boy in that class more then most scary movies put together.) But David DOES have a bit of the look the Lawrence of Arabia.

Also, Lawrence signed up as "Private Shaw" And Vickers was a type of machine gun...

Also Peter O'Toole and Michael Fassbender both Irish actors

hehe, and another odd note, the publisher of one of Lawrence of Arabia works was A. C. Fifield....

Even suggesting the genius of a movie on the scale of a David Lean epic is, well, epic itself. Ha! Since the time the Coen brothers made such a different, ingenious movie in 'O Brother...", so original and hilarious, but also DIRECTLY BASED ON Homer's 'The Odyssey.' I think really changed the potential for making good movies. The classic archetypes still work.

It was nice touch using this in the film on large curved screen. Was David watching it in 70mm with five screen front Dolby SR? lol [img]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/DemolitionMan3417/AlienPrometheus1.jpg[/img]