20th Century Fox has already had one viral marketing campaign result in box office success this year: specifically the high-flying antics used to promote the studio’s found-footage superhero flick, Chronicle. Now Fox is turning it’s viral marketing efforts toward Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel/spinoff film, Prometheus.
Better yet: through this new Prometheus viral vid, we’re finally getting a look at Guy Pearce’s character in the film, corporate tycoon Peter Weyland.
The viral video is disguised as a lecture on the popular TED conference series. If you are unfamiliar with the TED website: it is basically like a YouTube that showcases lectures and performances by scholars, intellectuals and artists from around the globe. If you ever wanted to challenge or expand your thoughts by taking on ideas from some of the most brilliant and/or talented people in the world, TED is the place to go.
For the purposes of Prometheus Fox has staged their own Peter Weyland TED lecture, in which the shrewd businessman recounts the myth of Prometheus, the wily and clever Titan who stole fire from the Olympians and delivered it unto man. For giving his stolen gift, Prometheus was punished by Zeus – chained to a rock while an eagle ate his liver, which regenerated every day so that the eagle could feed on it again.
Watch how Weyland spins that ancient myth into a metaphor about the future and technology in the Prometheus viral video below:
Rumored plot details about Prometheus have indicated that the film – about a team of explorers seeking answers about mankind’s possible origins on an alien planet – will deal with themes and events metaphorically related to the original Prometheus myth – i.e., the explorers steal something from powerful alien beings and incur their wrath. In an all-star cast that includes Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce has been the one famous face largely absent from the Prometheus trailers and other marketing materials, so it’s good to see him getting some air time in this way.
For those not well versed in the Alien universe: The Weyland corporation (later designated as the Weyland-Yutani Coporation) is the company that was behind many of the events that took place in the first two Alien films. It was the Weyland Corp. that ordered the crew of the Nostromo down to planet LV-426 to investigate the crashed vessel there; an investigation which gave birth to the dreaded Alien Xenomorph that killed everyone aboard the Nostromo, except Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Fifty-seven years later, it was again Weyland-Yutani that tried to terraform LV-426, resulting in the calamity of death and destruction featured in the sequel film, Aliens.
Basically, Weyland represents evil corporate greed that eventually puts the universe in grave danger, via the outbreak of xenomorphs. In this earlier time, Peter Weyland is simply chasing an ambition that will almost certainly set off the chain of events leading up to Alien. But what is this great ambition Weyland discusses in speech? Therein lies the mystery of Prometheus…
All-in-all, it’s cool to see this kind of viral marketing that is packed with fun Easter eggs for Alien fan. I admit, I geeked out a bit when Weyland was discussing ‘cybernetic individuals who will soon be completely indistinguishable from us’ – just as I shuddered a bit when Weyland made the foolish claim that humans ‘are the gods now.’ That kind of boasting is not going to end well…
Prometheus will be in 2D and 3D theaters on June 8, 2012.
Source: TED
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this gets me more excited for this film. but one thing. and its a tiny thing, but one thing i dont quite get is how its supposed to take place in 2023. does ridley really think we will have androids like that in 10 years time? i think it wouldve made more sense to have the film take place in like 50 years time or so. but like i said it was just a little nitpick. its not gonna take away from the experience for me i just thought i would bring it up
I was thinking the same thing.
Weyland also says that fusion was achieved in the first decade of the 21st century… that would mean… last year?
I’m also not comfortable with the time frame that Ridley Scott has chosen as a setting for this film.
It IS a minor detail, but how difficult would it have been to simply set the film, maybe 50 years later still?
There’s an interview, I really can’t remember where I read it, where Ridley Scott states that Prometheus occurs some 30 years before the events in Alien. So I’m confused about the information presented in this video.
This is a profound detail in my opinion. I guess I’ll just have to wait until the movie comes out and go from there.
well if thats the case then this should be taking place somewhere around 2100ish right?
Yup around that time or in the 2090′s, but this video confuses me with the dates.
I had the same thought when he mentions fusion.
Vic
Maybe this is set in a completely different universe (like Batman films are)
I am with you. in ten years we will all laugh at this movie. Set the future further in the future people!
“The future aint what it used to be.” DLR
Sounds like a younger John Hurt, from accent to pronounciation of certain words.
I’m not suggesting a connection. Just an observation.
that is so weird, i was thinking the exact same thing when watching it. i could close my eye and picture him (hurt) saying this instead of pearce. his character’s name in alien is just listed as kane. dont know if thats a first name or last, probably a last name, but yeah, i was wondering if there was supposed to be a connection there.
That was just chillingly good!
Definitely excited about this one!
So does this make AVP/AVP:R non-canon? Seeing as how Weyand-Yutani was seemingly founded in AVP:R, set in what, 2007??
i dont think they were ever considered cannon. because they dont exist. think of them as a what if series. what if there was a movie with both aliens AND predators? well that movie would suck, twice. the end
AVP and AVP:R were the ‘Freddy vs Jason’ and ‘Freddy vs. Jason 2′ (if there was a sequel). They are not canon; merely spinoffs.
Cannon or NON cannon, it’s still FOX and if they want it to connect, it will connect. charles Bishop Weyland could EASILY have been a predecessor of this character. It would not hurt the continuity what so ever to have all these movies connect. Feel free to ignore whichever ones you choose.
THIS MOVIE is non-canon, as it is NOT a prequel to Alien but merely exists in the same universe. PERIOD.
Would “spin off” be the proper term?
I completely understand, however they are usually referred to as prequels and actually do drop some seriously prequel-esque easter-eggs.
Draagyn….your wrong about AVP not mattering. Without the AvP graphic novels I don’t even think we would have gotten alien sequels. Maj of fans consider AVP cannon even if R. Scott doesn’t….& lets be real Aliens was a superior movie….so should we no longer consider it cannon either?
i dont know anything about the graphic novels. im just talking about the films AVP. if they were cannon then that would create a lot of problems with continuity. and wouldnt that then also make predator, predator 2 and predators all take place in the same universe as alien, aliens, alien 3 and alien resurrection?
I don’t find Aliens superior to Alien necessarily. I saw it as a great established sic-fi director taking the franchise in a different direction and it worked beautifully. And for that matter, David Fincher also accomplished the task of taking it in yet another direction, provided your watching the Director’s Cut and not the God-awful theatrical version that The studio forced upon everyone.
The AVP films cannot coexist with Predator, Predator 2, Predators, and then all the Alien films as well. It breaks continuity and the universes are simply contradictory. Therefore Predator, Alien, and AvP exist in 3 separate universes – just like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Freddy vs Jason exist in separate universes. If you choose to have them canon in your own mind, then you’ve really messed up the logic of the franchises.
I agree the films are stand alone from each other….but for that matter honestly none of the films follow continuity aside from the first
3 alien films…and that’s stretching it. I’m talking about the graphic novels in which the predators and aliens exist in the same universe so I do consider AvP graphic novels canon as well as millions of other fans who feel the same way.
Predator, Predator 2, and Predators follow continuity just fine. And of course the AvP movies are canon withing the AvP franchise.
Draagyn…..ok. thanks for clarifying. I agree the films weren’t cannon but they did take elements from the graphic novels. I would love to see a legit AvP movie though by the way.
IMDB, up until 2 days ago listed Patrick Wilson as Weyland… Now it says he’s “Shaw’s father”
Wow, that was great. I love Guy Pierce. In regards to the timeline: couldn’t it be he says this in 2023 and the actual mission will be sometime (much) later?
Also, didn’t the android in Aliens say he was modeled to look like Weyland?
No, you find out in Alien 3 that the android Bishop was designed in the image of a man named Michael Bishop who works for the company. However, in AVP, Charles Bishop Weyland looks just like the Bishop android as well, which, if you think about it, is downright silly.
If you watch AVP when charles Bishop is on the Icebreaker he does the Bishop Android knife trick from Aliens but with a pen…in the commentary he says it was a nervous tick and a great way to pay homage to Aliens.
This is obviously Fox Studios vs Ridley Scott trying to superimpose their own ideas and beliefs of what we should think about the Alien Franchise…it sucks that they cant be united.
I could be wrong but what would stop them from just fast-fowarding 20 or 30 yeas AFTER this speech?
I am amazed that Guy Pearce isn’t going to play a memeber of the Prometheu ship.
Still the video was good and it gives lots of information about Guy Pearce’s character.
I wonder who will survive because I think Pearce will only appear at the end of the movie as a surpirse twist.
I dont think the black guy will live…even though its Idris Elba.
That was great, Spot on John Hurt.
i hope bishop makes an appearance
I believe the lot of you are taking this viral campaign too literally. Obviously Ridley Scott knows fusion wasn’t perfected last decade. There’s so much of what Weyland says that doesn’t reflect what happened, or what is likely to happen so soon, in reality, that there’s quite obviously something they are leaving out of the equation in this video on purpose.
I’m also betting they knew you would catch up on this, I’m also betting they knew there’d be be people like me calling them out for it. It’s a viral campaign, made to create a buzz.
Someone said this film isn’t canon, since it’s not a direct prequel to Alien, but I don’t agree with that at all. Ridley Scott is the one who put the whole Alien series into motion, he’s the ultimate authority on what’s canon. If he’s making a film that takes place in the same continuity, it’s canon.
That said, I wonder if the Prometheus ship will have cannons?
Guy Pearce is usually good. This is ridiculous. Scene is too long. Zzzzzzzz. He and Fassbender should have switched roles. Fassbender is always sleezy. Also, Charlize Theron makes no sense at all. Doesn’t work. Sigourney worked well because she seemed like a scientist. Charlize can’t and won’t pull it off. She’s kinda boring.
Charlize Tgeron may be a hot actress, but she’s also a talented Oscar winning one. Also, Ripley isn’t a scientist. She was a warrant officer on a commercial towing ship and then worked as a consultant to the marines for the Weyland-Yutani company. She actually new very little beyond common knowledge in terms of science.