Prometheus

[TheBatMan]

Holy cow... ok, here it is again (with pretty colors even)

You said his greatest contribution to the series was being merely a matchmaker. I said it was the script that he wrote. That was his greatest contribution IMO.

Do you see the different points of view there? No? Still don't get it?


LOL sweet Jesus if I have to explain that one again. I don't wanna use pictures and shapes... but if I have to.

Jesus are you sure you are not rehunk88 in disguise?

Go on then, use pictures. PLEASE POINT OUT TO ME IN MY PREVIOUS POSTS WHERE I STATED DAN O BANNON DESERVES NO CREDIT FOR WRITING ALIEN.

That's all I ask.

I stand by my point of view that O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introduing HR Giger's designs to Scott. Yeah, he deserves credit for coming up with the original genesis of Alien, I never denied that, its just that his poor script was adapted, radically changed and made better by far superior writers which is ultimately what led to the film being a success. O'Bannon's contributions to the first film are overrated when it is looked back upon today.

The Alien itself is memorable, and O'Bannon deserves plaudits for introducing Giger's book to Scott who in turn looked at Necronom 4 and simply said 'That's it!'

[Pikminister]

So I say again... Where did I state O'Bannon deserves NO credit?

Holy cow... ok, here it is again (with pretty colors even)

You said his greatest contribution to the series was being merely a matchmaker. I said it was the script that he wrote. That was his greatest contribution IMO.

Do you see the different points of view there? No? Still don't get it?

LOL sweet Jesus if I have to explain that one again. I don't wanna use pictures and shapes... but if I have to.

[TheBatMan]

Ok... let's explain this again. Must be a hard one to figure out:

1. You said "I think O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introducing Ridley Scott to HR Giger."

2. I said: "No actually it was the 'STARBEAST' script".

And I went to explain why without the script nothing gets done. Nada. Zilch! Thus it was his greatest contribution, IMO.

That's it my friend. What was his greatest contribution? The script you hate so much.

So I say again... Where did I state O'Bannon deserves NO credit?

[Pikminister]

So I say again, where did I say O'Bannon deserves no credit?

Ok... let's explain this again. Must be a hard one to figure out:

1. You said "I think O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introducing Ridley Scott to HR Giger."

2. I said: "No actually it was the 'STARBEAST' script".

And I went to explain why without the script nothing gets done. Nada. Zilch! Thus it was his greatest contribution, IMO.

That's it my friend. What was his greatest contribution? The script you hate so much.

[TheBatMan]

No Mr. IQ, you said: "I think O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introducing Ridley Scott to HR Giger."

And I disagreed with that point of view. His script was the greatest contribution to the whole damn thing.

Because without that shitty script, nothing would've even got off the ground. Therefore, it was his greatest contribution. Introducing Giger to Scott happened later as a result of what his script sparked.

So I say again, where did I say O'Bannon deserves no credit?

I thought O'Bannon liked the Ash idea? Not initially, that much I knew, but I thought it was something that years later he looked at and accepted it.

As for everything else you stated, yeah I knew about all that. O'bannon wasn't the greatest screenwriter, but he did had a lot of good ideas and a good solid love of Sci-fi.

I do give O'bannon more credit than you do because no matter your opinions on his abilities as a writer, dude as the catalyst for the film. Cant take that away from him.

No, his interviews for Quadrilogy, Legacy and the unseen bits on Anthology all make it clear he's still extremely bitter about the re-writes and the Ash character being a android. Shussett did like the idea though and he even admits that the additions and changes Brandywine made were genius and made it all so much better.

But to me, when I think of the Alien series, I think of the Queen, the warrior, the evil company, Bishop and the androids, Ripley and the other strong characters, the facehugger and the chestburster and none of those things can be attributed to O'Bannon with the exception of the face hugger.

Of course I give the man his due for coming up with the genesis of the idea but I think the success of the first film and the evolution of its sequels has very little to do with him.

[Wrathborne]

I thought O'Bannon liked the Ash idea? Not initially, that much I knew, but I thought it was something that years later he looked at and accepted it.

As for everything else you stated, yeah I knew about all that. O'bannon wasn't the greatest screenwriter, but he did had a lot of good ideas and a good solid love of Sci-fi.

I do give O'bannon more credit than you do because no matter your opinions on his abilities as a writer, dude was the catalyst for the film. Cant take that away from him.

You're talking about him like he was Paul W.S Anderson

[Pikminister]

Yes, and again all that is obvious. I think with the exception of rehunk88 we are all of above average IQ not to have to point out that without STARBEAST, Alien would not have gotten made. And nor did I say O'Bannon deserves no credit.

No Mr. IQ, you said: "I think O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introducing Ridley Scott to HR Giger."

And I disagreed with that point of view. His script was the greatest contribution to the whole damn thing.

Because without that shitty script, nothing would've even got off the ground. Therefore, it was his greatest contribution. Introducing Giger to Scott happened later as a result of what his script sparked.

[TheBatMan]

Yes, and again all that is obvious. I think with the exception of rehunk88 we are all of above average IQ not to have to point out that without STARBEAST, Alien would not have gotten made. And nor did I say O'Bannon deserves no credit.

STARBEAST is a god awful script, bad dialogue, poor characters, poor pacing etc. It's only redeeming feature was the chestburster scene, which is credited to Ronald Shussett. O'Bannon stated countless times that he had written the first act of his script, which was humans receive a distress call and set down on the planet. They find the ship, then the pyramid, then the Alien. But he was stumped on how the alien life form would get onto the human ship. This was how they came up with the idea of the facehugger and the chestburster.

STARBEAST was name changed to Alien and was originally going to be a Roger Corman b-movie. O'Bannon even did sketches of his vision of the Alien itself which was basically a mass of tentacles akin to something out of The Thing, and the facehugger was a jellyfish.

So to give O'Bannon all the credit, STARBEAST/ALIEN would have been a one-off forgettable b-movie in space, nothing more.

It was only through Hill and Giler's re-writes and changes, Ridley Scott's infamous 'Ridleygrams' that doubled the budget and the design of the Alien itself that set the recipe for success. O'Bannon had previously worked on the cancelled Dune project which was how he knew of H.R. Giger's work. (Interestingly, his design for the Harnokken kingdom has been reused as the pyramid with the skull face in Prometheus.)

@Wrath, O'Bannon hated the Ash idea.

[Wrathborne]

O'Bannon doesn't get enough Credit I think. Problem comes down too that this really was a team effort, but the team didn't want to work together really. Walter Hill even tried to remove O'Bannons credit as a writer and list himself as the sole screenwriter.

O'bannon DID come up with the creature, but he didn't come up with the design.That was all Giger, the chest burster idea came from O'Bannons producer friend Ronald Shusett .

The script had characters written to be either men or women, which worked in its favor because that let Walter Hill have some free reign on his re-write. Ripley was written by O'Bannon and Shusett, and then expanded upon by Walter Hill. Hill was the one who ended up making the call that Ripley was a woman

Dan and Ron got the ball going and created the world, Walter Hill expanded that world by the inclusion of the Weyland-Yutani corporation and Ash the Android(Which O'Bannon and Shusett both agreed was a really great addition) and Ridley Scott and Giger brought the world to life visually.

The problem was really that Walter Hill was a douche about the script really, he hated Sci-fi and didnt like the initial script to begin with, or the characters, or even the characters names. But he was the one who was mostly in charge of the film, I mean fuck everyone who made the film what it was, with the exception of Walter Hill was just treated like awful shit by the studio suits.

It was a team effort but really, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Ridley Scott and Giger were the ones who I felt contributed the most, but Walter Hill is the one who tried to take all the credit for it. Which is a shame because everyone who added to the project was equally important.

[Pikminister]

I think he deserves credit for all those things existing and coming together in the first place. Because none of those things would've taken form if not for that script. No Ash, Ripley, Weyland, chestbuster or even the shitty spin-off movies. Absolutely nothing.

You take that script out of the equation, and nothing goes down. Regardless what an SOB he was and what he was against. He made that script and everything happened because of it.

So even if he likes it or not, he takes credit for making it happen. Unless he can go back in time and change stuff.

[TheBatMan]

No actually it was the 'STARBEAST' script. Without it, nothing would've been rewritten and no one would've been introduced to this guy or that guy. So he deserves a lot of credit for coming up with the spark that ignited everything that came after. It's a pretty big deal.

Well yeah that's kind of obvious. But I believe looking back at Alien and how it was made and what the series has evolved into O'Bannon got more credit than what he deserved in my book. He didn't come up with Ripley, he didn't come up with Ash, he didn't come up with Weyland-Yutani, he didn't come up with the chestburster, he didn't come up with the creature.

[Pikminister]

I think O'Bannon's greatest contribution to the series was introducing Ridley Scott to HR Giger.

No actually it was the 'STARBEAST' script. Without it, nothing would've been rewritten and no one would've been introduced to this guy or that guy. So he deserves a lot of credit for coming up with the spark that ignited everything that came after. It's a pretty big deal.

[TheBatMan]

You watched the making of featurettes on Youtube a few days ago too, didn't you?

Nah, but I've watched them countless times on the Quadrilogy DVD. Really fascinated by the making of the Alien saga. I've also read every Alien script I could get my hands on.
It's quite a cool notion that O'Bannon came up with the idea when he was broke, unemployed and living on Shussett's sofa. Same with The Terminator. Cameron had the vision of the Terminator walking through fire when he had a nightmare whilst suffering a fever. He then mapped out the film on his dictaphone when he was a truck driver driving through Italy on his own at nights.

[[STARS]TyranT]

First preview clip is out, and it's of Prometheus landing

The sets and style look fantastic, and there's a distinct 'Alien' vibe from the direction, similar shots.etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SL5DK7CdscI

[Wrathborne]

You watched the making of featurettes on Youtube a few days ago too, didn't you?