Lindelof:Hero or villain

"I don't know what idiot wanted to make a prequel series about the Space Jockeys and make it move AWAY from Alien. How is that even possible???"

That would be Ridley Scott.

^ that was gold XD

My apologies Neomorph to my previous statements about whether Lindelof is a good guy or not i  ment no offense.

I know, no apologies needed, there was simply a case of minor misunderstanding, it happens. 

I think many of the concerns here can be mitigated by removing the term 'prequel'. In reality, Prometheus is in the same universe as Alien - that's it. End of story.

It would be very achievable (and I suspect, very well received) to  explore the Space Jockey concept, moving away from Alien. There are connections between these things, but they do not exist to co-exist. Alien was about introducing the Xenomorphs, which happened to be found in a ship with the Space Jockey. Until Prometheus, that was the only connection. There are numerous paths/stories that could explain the Space Jockey, Derelict, eggs and how it got on LV-426 - from random bad luck through to the idea that Space Jockey = Engineers who made the Xeno.

Saying that every movie in this universe needs to be all about the Xenos/aliens is pretty blinkered. Who was the Space Jockey? Who are the Engineers? They are not defined by the Xeno, or the events of any film. That's like saying Weyland's story is only valid from the start of Prometheus onwards, given this is the earliest 'contact' with a potential Xeno connection. There's a massive back story there (the Company, Yutani, David's history, Vickers) that would be very interesting, irrespective of seeing any Engineer, Deacon,Neomorth, Facehugger or Xeno.

So rather than a Superman movie all about Lois Lane, it would be more like a movie about Krypton that may touch on aspects connected to Superman

Spaights.... Spoon Fed Robotic Script..... basically read like reading a AVPR Draft.

Lindeloff == Genius.. great ideas... sometimes does not think how going for Clue A.. link with or contradict clue B, E or F etc... but to be fair the Alien Franchise Contradicted a number of things prior to Lindeloff... its maybe hard to have a movie carry on and connect and allow new Director and Writers to be expected to make sure every element will link together.. so a  lot is oversight..

Lindeloffs draft also added a bit to many Goofy moments..

Bottom Line.....

Lindeloffs draft needed someone else to come in and tidy it up and maybe add few elements from Spaights, make it have some ambiguity but add a bit more spoon fed clues of Spaights and we could have had a Winner..

I think anyone who reads Lindeloffs draft, then watches Prometheus would see his draft is actually not as bad as the movie turned out to be.

So Bottom Line....

Lindeloff is someone to go to get maybe some great ideas off...  Maybe like FOX could do off Me lol

But then he is not the guy to then Pen the Final draft, it needed someone else.. but sure having Lindeloff to throw some ideas around is good.

Paglen seems to be kind of similar to a Lindeloff... were as Green seems to right more Robotic Spoon Fed Action Fodder... which is not far off Blomkamp to be honest.

Where as a Paglen and Lindeloff can throw you curve balls and ideas like Space 2001....   Blomkamp and Green give you a nice TMNT 3 or Gremlins 3 LOL

I think AC would be interesting because Logan is very good script writer....

I just felt they needed someone like him to had worked on Lindeloffs draft before we got to Prometheus.

As his draft has a habit of being a bit incoherent... where as a Spaights writing was more straight forwards and coherent.

So Spaights can give you a TMNT 3 movie thats straight forward and links up......  Lindeloff could give you a Space Oddesy 2001 with unnecessary goofy scenes and plot holes.

Logan gave us Gladiator and Skyfall - but he also gave us The Time Machine and Star Trek : Nemesis...

Don't forget he kind of blew Spectre.But for more redemption there's Hugo and The Aviator.I do trust Logan,as you pointed out,he's already worked well with Ridley Scott on Gladiator.Don't know much about Paglen.I know Green was responsible for the Green Lantern(never watched it myself,i haven't bothered with D.C. movies except for the Dark Knight Trilogy)but Ridley seems  trust him since he's involved with Blade Runner 2049 and that seems to be on the right track.

I preferred the spaights script but maybe his script gave too much away too soon for ridleys liking. I got the sense that lindeloff really felt unappreciated by the fans for his work and I cant say I blame him. ridley did what he could to get the die hard alien fan NOT to watch this film and start moaning it 'wasn't an alien movie' yet initially there was this huge backlash of disappointment for that very reason. I enjoyed Prometheus and putting the film into context of what ridley was trying to make it is a very good script and a good movie 

Lindelof took a huge beating and still does(thus this thread).I think almost immediately he said he wasn't going to be involved with this way back when it still was Prometheus 2.

yea, in an interview soon after the released of Prometheus and after they had a chance to gauge viewers opinion, he seem very downbeat about getting involved in any sequal

I got the impression that the Paradise script is not something he would've written if he was on board at the start.  He seemed to be a writer for hire taking what they liked from Spaihts script and moulding it to what Ridley wanted.

Yeah that's basically what happened, Ridley didn't want to make another pure Alien film but instead move away with a parallel universe with a much larger scope, and so Spaiths Alien script was eventually changed.

He got the job i believe while he was "celebrating" the lost finale,at least that is what I've read.

Yep, I remember him stating something like that he received the call on the highway and had pull the car over because he was so shocked that Ridley called him. 

He signed a 3- part contract if I'm not mistaken, being super excited to be given the opportunity to work with Ridley on an Alien film.

After Prometheus however, he left, NOW stating he was busy with other projects. Hmm...I don't think that was the case.

I don't want to bash the guy but I think the true reason he left was obviously because of all the criticism towards him on social media, where he was pretty active in replying to criticism himself (rarely a good idea) before eventually leaving twitter as well. Had he ignored the hate he I'm sure wouldn't be as affected. 

Maybe it was the best thing considering how downright hateful and harrassing some people were, and I sincerely, absolutely dislike such behaviour.

That being said legitimate criticism is something a professional writer has to take into consideration in his/her mind, as no writer's work is loved by everyone. 

wrote a decent sized reply but damn works computer froze when I posted it so heres short version:

lindeloff unfortunate

criticism to be expected no matter how good a job he did

though some criticism was way OTT and personal, criticism comes with the job

don't blame him one bit for walking away

he gave us what ridley wanted and remember we r here asking to see more on the engineers, theyr civilisation, reasons for wanting to destroy us. regardless of ppl admitting or accepting this, these facts are in part down to lindeloff due a lot of his changes to spaights' original script

I'm thankfull we got Prometheus instead of an Alien prequel, because Alien doesn't need a prequel, so if Lindelolof played a part in making it possible I'm thankfull of him as well.

I have nothing against John Sphait however and I hope he gets to do something that makes up for this experience.

Well an Alien prequel is still coming in the form of Alien  Covenant.It's also the first in a planned trilogy.

I think Guys i gonna have to sort out and finish off my Prometheus Re-write that i was working on but then stopped...

Its a bit more Lindeloffs draft 75% bit of Spaights 10% maybe 12.5% and then 10-15% my own added bits and bobs.... to give us a Lindeloffs with more clues and explanations for any silly parts.