Noomi Rapace was always one of the names considered up for the lead role of Ridley Scott’s assumed Alien prequel, but things have taken a turn, a turn for the better if you ask me.
Deadline reports the Alien prequel idea has morphed into something more original, a film officially announced by 20th Century Fox as Prometheus with Scott directing and Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sherlock Holmes 2) set to star.
Word is the film has five major roles to be cast with Rapace the first to sign as a character referred to as a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw. Deadline also reports Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron are both circling the other big female lead, a character named Vickers. Theron recently turned down a role in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar and decided on the title role in Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman (although I’m now hearing her participation still isn’t 100%) while Jolie’s name has been bandied about in relation to a potential Cleopatra feature with Paul Greengrass possibly directing, Nevertheless, the other roles in the film are expected to be cast soon.
As for Prometheus, Scott along with screenwriters Jon Spaihts (The Darkest Hour) and Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” Star Trek) have come up with something that has reportedly taken the Alien prequel idea and expanded the story into new directions. Scott is quoted by Deadline saying, “While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien‘s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative. I couldn’t be more pleased to have found the singular tale I’d been searching for, and finally return to this genre that’s so close to my heart.”
The synopsis is being kept under wraps, but as Wikipedia reminds us, Prometheus is a name out of Greek mythology. The son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius, Prometheus was a champion of mankind who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. His myth has been treated by a number of ancient sources, in which Prometheus is credited with — or blamed for — playing a pivotal role in the early history of mankind.
Of course, this isn’t Scott’s first round with such a character idea. Comparisons to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” have often been made to Scott’s Blade Runner as the two stories revolve around the idea of creating artificial humans in an attempt to usurp God’s creative control. How this may or may not play out in Scott’s new film is completely up in the air, but you have to admit it’s more interesting than just another Alien movie.
Prometheus is already set to hit theaters on March 9, 2012, ironically the same weekend as Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.
