Prometheus: Ridley Scott interviewed by Wall Street Journal

leading from:  Prometheus - The Return of the Space Jockey

a) Barbara Chai interviewed Ridley Scott for Wall Street Journal about Prometheus

In the article that she wrote, she mentions:

– The central metaphor of “Prometheus” is about a “higher being” who challenges the gods, and the gods don’t want to give him fire. “Fire is our first form of technology,” Scott says, and so by taking fire, the higher being is punished “in perpetuity in a horrible fashion.” Much like the story of the mythological god, Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and for his actions was bound to a rock with an eagle eternally devouring his liver. (Let’s hope things turn out differently for our higher being…)

In the article it's mentioned that Ridley said that:

"– The last eight minutes of the “Prometheus” story evolve into “a pretty good DNA of the ‘Alien’ one.”"


1. Ridley reiterates his statement from brief conversation with Baz Bamigboye of the daily mail when he jokingly said "It's the story of creation, the gods and the man who stood against them. It's not a small film.' However here the reference to the man who stood against them is now replaced with "higher being."  In Barbara Chai's article the phrase higher being is used and we might wonder how directly she is paraphrasing him.

2. Ridley uses the phrase DNA in relation to the story, but we don't actually have any idea what he is talking about unless it's some sort of LA filmscriptwriters talk that would be meaningless to the rest of the fans of the film.

b) Another version of the article by Barbara Chai is found on the Wall Street Journal website for subscribers


In the article, she states in relation to what Ridley said about the film's story:

"Mr. Scott's just-completed film "Prometheus" represents his first sci-fi release in nearly three decades. The movie, he said, is about "a higher being who challenges the gods" and is punished for his temerity."

"The screenplay for "Prometheus" was written by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. While Mr. Scott refrains from calling it a prequel to "Alien," the last eight minutes of the "Prometheus" story evolve into "a pretty good DNA of the 'Alien' one," he said."

1. Ridley here is actually quoted as referring to the character that was once talked about as being a "man who stood against them" now as "a higher being who challenged the gods". When questioned on Twitter about whether "Higher being" was actually said by Ridley Scott himself, Barbara Chai graciously responded "@wmmvrrvrrmm He did say "higher being," yes." With this information we can also look back to the interview for the Swiss German magazine Blick where from English translated into German and back into English, Ridley is found to have mentioned Higher Beings

2. The references to "a pretty good DNA"  reveal nothing more at this point