Movies
‘Alien’ Prequel (Xeno)Morphs Into ‘Prometheus’?
Even with all the speculation and behind-the-scenes gossip that has been making headlines since last year, it’s still heartbreaking to learn that Ridley Scott’s Alien Prequel is officially dead. Whether it was Scott’s ego, casting issues, the budget spiraling out of control, or something completely different, Fox has given the franchise prequel the axe… well, sort of. In the wake of its ashes rises Prometheus, which seems to be the same premise, slightly retooled, and devoid of the Alien universe.
This move seems to have relieved a source of supposed tension between the studio and Scott, as Noomi Rapace, the director’s choice for the lead, is sticking with the film during the transition, presumably in the same capacity. I think in the coming months, it’ll be interesting to see if the actors rumored to be circling the project show up in its reincarnated state – including Michelle Yeoh, James Franco, and Michael Fassbender.
According to Scott, the project shifted gears because it took on a life of its own, growing far beyond the constraints of the already established universe. “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.” Only time will tell if it was because of Damon Lindelof’s (Lost) involvement, since it was previously reported that when brought in for a rewrite job “the exchange of ideas between [Lindelof, Scott, and Fox] sparked a take that could well turn out to be a free-standing science fiction film.”
The studio has so much faith in it that they’ve already given it a release date: March 9, 2012. With all the conflicting reports over the past few months, one can only hope that Prometheus‘ DVD special features will include a massive documentary explaining the transition and what exactly Scott had to say or do for Fox to change courses in reviving one of their most popular franchises.
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
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