It's well known among geek circles that screenwriter Jon Spaihts took the first crack at writing Ridley Scott's Prometheus before LOST co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof was brought on board to rewrite it. The movie went on to become one of the most polarizing movies of the summer, and though many people were disappointed with it, on second viewing there's still a lot to like about Scott's amazing visuals and the deep questions the film asks of the audience.
But what might have happened if Scott and Lindelof hadn't have altered Spaiht's original idea? Empire has an interview with the writer, who gave some pretty interesting insights into his first vision for the sci-fi story.
I did have facehuggers in my original draft," says Spaights. "David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn't deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber, is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship."
"In my draft, he returns to his cabin, is embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love," he goes on to say. "And it's while they're making love that he bursts and dies. So that lovemaking sequence echoed my original lovemaking sequence where he explodes! It was messy."
Perhaps the biggest question that I still can't quite figure out regarding Prometheus is that the creation of what we know as the xenomorph from the Alien franchise seems to have been the direct result of the creature extracted from Shaw's uterus facehugging an Engineer, but earlier in the film there is an elaborate carving of a xenomorph hanging in a crucifiction pose engraved on a wall in the structure (or possibly a door, I can't recall). If the xenomorph came from this very specific Shaw-Creature blended with an Engineer, how did whoever created that carving know what it would look like?
If nothing else, Prometheus gave us a lot to talk about, and now that the movie is out on Blu-ray and DVD, the conversation will surely be sparked up again. Be sure to check out Empire's full interview, with more about the original planned actions of Michael Fassbender's David character.
Do you have an answer to my Prometheus xenomorph question?