资料求翻。。 Prometheus — Jon Spaihts’ Original Draft Finally got my hands on the original script for Prometheus, John Spaihts’ Aliens Prequel version. Interesting to see exactly what was changed and speculate about the why of it. Although I can’t argue that the original would have been a better movie, the majority of the more annoying problems from Prometheus aren’t in Spaiht’s draft. Specifically, the Spaihts’ draft has cause and effect that makes sense: — Fifield and Milburn getting lost works despite the deployment of the mapping drones — Nobody willingly removes their helmet in the alien atmosphere — Milburn’s initial interaction with the Alien worm/centipede is not nearly so ridiculous — We understand why we can see the Engineer’s memories/visions via his head — We are told what the complex is for / The Pyramids are defined — The Engineers are (more) defined, including why the last one is so angry — We understand why David goes insane / see his programming escalated by Vickers — David does not poison Holloway with the goo, rather something happens to him in the pyramid — Indeed, hardly any “goo” at all — There is no old man Weyland hiding on the ship And most importantly: — It’s clear who the main character is from the beginning, and it’s clear Vickers is the antagonist. It’s true that the original draft is more “Alien”, though I think there are only two significant changes to the story thematically in the Lindelof script that are particularly interesting (ignoring all the structural changes that make the story rife with the mistakes above). Firstly, in the original, the film is quite clearly debating the nature of god and idea of evolution, with both being mentioned numerous times in the dialog, and the suggestion that Christ was an Engineer being made explicit. From a production/development angle this a possibly contentious debate to get a movie like this involved in (and I’m not sure that the original script was actually “debating” it so much as using it as a backdrop). Secondly, the original draft tends to explain everything. While I like that it’s much more logical and coherent — and I disliked just how vague and inconsistent the final version of Prometheus was — there is something to be said for leaving some things unknown and instilling a sense of mystery in a story. Lindelof clearly loves that, often at the expense of tying up his plots (ie, Lost), and I do respect that instinct, to a degree…. As I said, it’s hard to know after the fact if this would have made a better movie. The reality, though, is that the way arbitration works with the WGA, it is in the best interest of a screenwriter who is rewriting a script to change more rather than less. That ensures them screen credit and more money, though it doesn’t ensure a better script….