Movies

Read The Original Script For 'Prometheus,' And See Ridley Scott's 'I Am Legend' Creature Tests

By Russ Fischer

Once again, it's time to tip my hat to Prometheus for having a particular longevity online. Whether you loved the film or hated it, or had very mixed emotions (perhaps relating to the beautiful cinematography versus the particular actions and motivations of the characters) there's no question that Ridley Scott's vague Alien prequel remains a viable topic of conversation months after its release.

And now you can read the version that might have been. It was only a few days ago that a fake version of a Damon Lindelof draft was being sent out to editors in a lame trolling attempt, so the first reaction to this early draft of what became Prometheus was skepticism. But the author has verified it, so now you can examine the early DNA of the movie that traced the early DNA of Alien, and of humanity.

And, as a bonus, you can also see early effects tests for a Ridley Scott movie that didn't happen: his version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.

So while there was reason to wonder about the legitimacy of this script, the screenwriter, Jon Spaihts, tweeted a thumbs-up of authentication:

So the script online now is definitively the pre-Damon Lindelof draft of what became Prometheus. As we've reported in the past, this script is a lot more explicitly related to Alien, with facehugger and chestbursting alien forms that would be familiar to any viewer of Scott's 1979 movie. This isn't the 'Alien Harvest' script you might have seen — Spaihts says that one is "utterly fake" — but it is something that might give fresh ammunition those who didn't much care for Scott's final film.

Here's a script embed:

Alien Engineers

Thanks to ScreenCrush for the heads-up.

Meanwhile, here's your bonus video for the day: a conversation with Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis of Amalgamated Dynamics, who show off the creatures they designed for Ridley Scott's version of I Am Legend. In 1997, well before Francis Lawrence and Will Smith got to the property, Scott was developing the film with Arnold Schwarzenegger set to star . Budget concerns and studio dissonance killed the film, but these effects designs are still kicking around.

[via Movies]

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