Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales http://1001tales.posterous.com tracing the roots & tendrils of storytelling today posterous.com Thu, 21 Jun 2012 06:30:00 -0700 “PROMETHEUS” SCREENWRITER JON SPAIHTS | Filmmaker Magazine http://1001tales.posterous.com/prometheus-screenwriter-jon-spaihts-filmmaker http://1001tales.posterous.com/prometheus-screenwriter-jon-spaihts-filmmaker
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Excerpt:

By Scott Macaulay in Web Exclusives on Monday, June 4th, 2012

"Telling the origin story of the creature that terrified us in Alien over three decades ago, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is one of this summer’s most hotly anticipated films. But somewhat surprisingly, the origins of the screenplay came as much from a screenwriter’s general meeting as the story material developed for that original movie. At a meeting in the offices of Scott’s production company, Scott Free, screenwriter Jon Spaihts was asked to riff on the possibilities of a film that would revisit the Alien universe. What resulted is Prometheus, with a script credited to Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Below I ask Spaihts to tell us his own origin story — his background, how he became a professional screenwriter, about his Black List hit Passengers, and his thoughts on working in today’s Hollywood.

Filmmaker: When did you start writing screenplays? How young were you, and how did you decide that was what you wanted to do?

Spaihts: I’d wanted to write stories for a living since I was a child, and for most of my life I expected to become a novelist. But in my twenties after college I had a production company in New York City with an old college friend, and we did documentary video, largely for museums and interactive media. For the first time I held a camera, edited video, scripted, directed and shot; I learned the vocabulary of film. Almost instantly, all my writing aspirations translated from prose to screenwriting.

Filmmaker: Tell me a little bit more about your work with this production company. What kind of video did you do?

Spaihts: We did a big contract for the Museum of Natural History in New York City on a project called Gist2, which is an ice-core project..."

Read the rest here:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2012/06/prometheus-screenwriter-jon-spa...

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Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:07:00 -0700 The Best 'Prometheus' Analyses So Far | Criticwire http://1001tales.posterous.com/the-best-prometheus-analyses-so-far-criticwir http://1001tales.posterous.com/the-best-prometheus-analyses-so-far-criticwir

Original post by BY MATT SINGER | JUNE 18, 2012

"The following post, along with every single link it contains, includes SPOILERS for "Prometheus." Like here's one right here: SPOILER -- alien gods from the ancient past have amazing abs. But they're as stingy with their dieting secrets as they are with the origins of life in the universe...

The Best "Prometheus" Analyses So Far (With Lots of SPOILERS)

1. Adrian Bott on "Prometheus"' Mythological Motifs

"We know something about the Engineers, a founding principle laid down in the very first scene: acceptance of death, up to and including self-sacrifice, is right and proper in the creation of life. Prometheus, Osiris, John Barleycorn, and of course the Jesus of Christianity are all supposed to embody this same principle. It is held up as one of the most enduring human concepts of what it means to be 'good.' Seen in this light, the perplexing obscurity of the rest of the film yields to an examination of the interwoven themes of sacrifice, creation, and preservation of life."

2. Jon Korn on the Film's Literary Ancestry

"Examining Lovecraft and Clarke's own takes on ancient astronauts also allows us to see where, in macro terms, 'Prometheus''s narrative stumbles. Both the older authors succeed by limiting our contact with the superior races they describe, rendering them fittingly unknowable. In contrast, 'Prometheus' tries have it both ways, giving the Engineers a lot of screen time while keeping their intentions frustratingly opaque. It becomes hard to parse their reasoning for initiating life on Earth, then returning often to the planet during early human development, and ultimately wanting to destroy the same beings they created. While it probably would have run counterintuitive to the studio notes, I think the film's plot would be vastly improved by an injection of the same mystery that Lovecraft and Clarke so artfully deploy. (And it would lead more organically to the sequel so artlessly implied.)"

3. Drew McWeeny on What Does and Doesn't Work About "Prometheus"

"Ultimately, my biggest question about the film is 'Why didn't Ridley just make the 'Blade Runner' sequel instead?' It's obvious watching the film that David is the character he's most interested in, and the questions he explores with David would work just as well in the 'Blade Runner' world. If Ridley wanted to play the game with a character who might or might not be a Replicant, as it appears he's doing with Vickers, then why not do that in the actual 'Blade Runner' world as well?"

4. Steven James Snyder Decodes "Prometheus"' Mysteries..."

Read the Original Post here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/the-best-prometheus-analysis-on-the-int...

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Fri, 18 May 2012 20:10:00 -0700 Weyland Industries http://1001tales.posterous.com/weyland-industries http://1001tales.posterous.com/weyland-industries

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Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:46:00 -0700 Nice Post - Life in a Day – Review « moviegeekblog - Grazie for sending! http://1001tales.posterous.com/nice-post-life-in-a-day-review-moviegeekblog http://1001tales.posterous.com/nice-post-life-in-a-day-review-moviegeekblog
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Excerpt from a welcome review! I'll be catching Life In A Day when it's released in July

"Last year (2010) YouTube launched a campaign, supported by executive producers Tony and Ridley Scott, asking everybody with a camcorder to record a day in their lives. Fast forward a year to 2011 and director Kevin Macdonald and editor Joe Walker (never an editor has been more crucial to the making of a film), release their documentary to the world and to the same people who actually filmed it.
Apparently 80000 videos for a total of 4500 hours were submitted from 126 different nations.

The result is a film that tells the story of a day on Earth, and precisely the 24th of July 2010: 24 hours in the life of ordinary people. Their stories, their images, their thoughts, all linked together by an incredible work of editing and a rousing soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.

You can argue that some of it might be slightly heavy-handed (a shot of a cow being killed on camera is then, non very subtlety, cut together with a man eating from a bowl of spaghetti), but some of the choices are absolutely inspired (montage sequences of people getting up in the morning or having breakfast or simply walking). It’s the amalgamation of all these little snippets of life that makes the film an incredible watch and in the end it ends up actually telling a story as the ordinary becomes extraordinary..."

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Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:00:00 -0800 Ridley Scott's YouTube Documentary ‘Life in a Day’ Streaming Tonight on YouTube 7pm http://1001tales.posterous.com/ridley-scotts-youtube-documentary-life-in-a-d http://1001tales.posterous.com/ridley-scotts-youtube-documentary-life-in-a-d
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