Ever since a Deadline New York report last month, there has been a lot of confusion about Ridley Scott's newest "Alien" film, which marks the director's return to the franchise more than 30 years after he brought the first "Alien" movie to the big screen.
After word of the project first broke in the summer of 2009, the new report suggested the film was in fact not an "Alien" prequel but rather a film born of "Alien DNA" that is "unique, large and provocative." Yet at the same time, contrary to this new spin, we were hearing that the film — titled "Prometheus" — was in fact a prequel to the franchise. Now, this all might be a matter of semantics (not to mention movie marketing), but there's no doubt that confusion has surrounded the exact nature of the production.
So when we had the chance to speak with one of the stars of the new film, Michael Fassbender, while he was promoting "Jane Eyre," we asked him to shed some light on these conflicting judgments. And as he told us, "Prometheus" is most definitely an "Alien" movie.
"Absolutely," he said. "There's a definite connecting vein. You realize you're part of something else. But it's definitely in keeping with the old ones."
What's more, Fassbender said the new film is more closely related to the slow-burning "Alien," which Scott directed, than James Cameron's more action-oriented follow-up, "Aliens."
"It is more sort of the original one," Fassbender explained. "There's things happening and building, and the intelligence of the first two-thirds of the film gets you ready for the action ... it's creeping, it's sinister, things are happening and building, all the different intrigues and politics going on between the different relationships onboard."
That's not to say Damon Lindelof, who worked on the script with Scott, was blowing smoke when he said things to Deadline like, "In a world flooded with prequels, sequels and reboots, I was incredibly struck by just how original Ridley's vision was for this movie."
Fassbender told us that while "Prometheus" fits squarely within "Alien" mythology, the film delivers "a whole new revelation."
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