The Prologue Scene From PROMETHEUS Was Set To Include More Ships!
Lone
MemberPraetorianJan-30-2017 2:32 PMIn Damon Lindelof's PROMETHEUS draft the Primordial ship was intended to be the Derelict-Juggernaut ship from A L I E N. How would we have known this?
The scriptwriters commentary from the PROMETHEUS Blu-ray set informs us that "Ridley Scott thought it would be cooler to show something else."
Steve Messing Juggernaut-Derelict Concept
Information from the Q&A session with Neville Page, Steve Messing and David Levy at Gnomon on 17th September 2012 was recalled by members of the AVPGalaxy forum.
A user by the name of Fangface recalled "Yeah, if I remember correctly, there were different classes of Engineer ships to be featured in that opening scene (with the elders getting out and milling around, etc.) one ship had a guitar-like design to it, before the content of the scene was trimmed down to a minimum."
He continued "However, Ridley & Co. felt it all looked too much like a Star Trek film, so they cut back on the ships and other Engineers. "
Below we find alien spacecraft designs by Steve Messing and David Levy. They're known to be alternative designs for the Juggernaut ship, before Ridley went back to Gigers original derelict concept. The scriptwriters commentary also confirms that these ship designs were ideas for the Juggernaut.
EDIT: I love how these Steve Messing concepts are Facehugger-like and Pretzel-like respectively!
Steve Messing Alternate Juggernaut/Primordial ship concepts
David Levy Juggernaut/Primordial ship Concept
Alex Kozhanov [GUTALIN] also designed these incredible and stunning, alternative Juggernaut ships. [see below] It would appear that Steve Messing based at least one of his concepts on these.
So there we have it folks, for those who didn't already know, the opening scene was originally going to show us different classes of Engineer ship as well as more Elder-Engineers being dropped off. Would it have had the same brooding intensity?
Whilst I feel that it would have been very interesting to see, I also like that Ridley decided to pare it down, and also change the whole idea from being a Juggernaut to what has become another of my favourite Sci-fi movie craft the trippy Pebble, otherwise known as the Noobernaut.
That scene was so amazing, Ridley contained the ship to a shadow moving over the landscape, until the mind blowing reveal. It had such incredible impact. Dark and foreboding, we only had glimpses of it rising, metamorphosing, and finally disappearing into the surrounding cloud.
How do you feel about these possibilities? Would you have prefered that scene to have had more ships of different design? Or even for it to have been the LV-426 Juggernaut?
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks go to Alien Explorations for the info.
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
Centauri
MemberPraetorianJan-30-2017 3:09 PMamazing @Lone
****
"Must be something we haven't seen yet.."__Bishop
http://www.alien-covenant.com/series/
Ati
MemberPraetorianJan-30-2017 8:20 PMI think that more alien and human ships, space stations, vehicles, robots should be used in the future Alien movies. And they should use more creative ideas and concepts. I like the Pebble ship but it is a little bit simple for me, and the Covenant ship looks simple as well.
I don't understand that 'Star Trek problem' concerning the Prometheus concept art. I think they are totally different. The Gutalin ships are awesome in my op. They follow the sea creature path - OK they don't look like a squid or a snake or a shark, but they are similar to a frog. A water creature more or less... :)
I have always had the feeling that this is a hammerhead shark:
Lone
MemberPraetorianJan-31-2017 3:55 AMI do think the paring down and simplicity of the Pebble ship was a masterstroke and worked very well in PROMETHEUS.
I agree Ati that it would be wonderful to see those different designs used in future films.
Another great aspect about Ridleys Alien Universe, is that he often revisits unused concepts and ideas, be it from O'Bannons Starbeast to unused creature designs.
I think AC will include some unused creature concepts from PROMETHEUS. The baby-head being one of them.
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
BigDave
MemberDeaconJan-31-2017 5:28 AMIndeed was interesting, but i feel the change worked well...
And while we may not see any ships in AC... apart from a LV-223 Ship that David and Shaw left on.... i would like to had seen them explore both the Pebble design and Aesthetic and hint at how come it was different to the LV-223 Juggernaught and Derelict.
I hope in future movies we get to see something of the Space Fairing Engineers... both from the Ancient Tech (Pebble) and Juggernaught styles which include maybe alternative Bio-Mechanical ones like some of the Art work in OT had.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
Lone
MemberPraetorianJan-31-2017 8:02 AMAbsolutely Dave, Ridley never totally discards anything. We may yet see these alternate ship designs incorporated in future sequels which explore the Elder/Engineer mythos.
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
Ati
MemberPraetorianJan-31-2017 1:38 PMI found a good hammerhead shark image:
Look at its mouth! And the rays of light. :)
Lone
MemberPraetorianFeb-01-2017 9:00 AMThat is uncanny Ati, nice insight! :)
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
Ati
MemberPraetorianFeb-01-2017 10:04 AMThanks, Lone! Do you want more? :)
Charlie's eye creature and tadpoles:
Lone
MemberPraetorianFeb-01-2017 10:31 AMHaha Tadpoles or sperm...
WOW like a frog skeleton... yeah!!!
Nice work Ati!
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
Ati
MemberPraetorianFeb-01-2017 10:44 AMEverybody knows that Shaw's baby looks like a squid which evolves into the trilobite looking like an octopus:
Ati
MemberPraetorianFeb-01-2017 10:47 AMAnd Alien Covenant will continue the tradition more or less. I'm going to post something later.