"Alien Prequel" becomes "Prometheus"

Prometheus - The Return of the Space Jockey

 

a) The name game

The Alien prequel's name changes to Prometheus in 2011. 

 

The idea of having a name that wasn't anything to do with Alien comes from Tom Rothman, then the 20th Century Fox CEO.
 

Ridley talked about how he played around with the idea of Paradise but thought that it was telling the audience too much. 

 

But the idea of calling the film Prometheus came up Tom Rothman thought of the title as something ambitious relating to big ideas. 

 

Damon Lindelof recalled that they liked the idea because it made the film sound smart and also pretentious like the title of the film Inception which was a title that he liked. 

 

They could all say to each other "Yeah, that makes the movie sound really smart!"

 

Damon Lindelof claims that his original title was Explosion but if he meant that as a joke, well that's another thing to point out.

b)  The myth of Prometheus

There was the idea about the myth of Prometheus the titan who stole fire from the gods to give to man kind, and payed a serious price for his action. 

 

Since the gods would be worried about what would happen if mankind got their hands on fire, which translated into what humans were doing with technological innovation and perhaps exploration. 

 

Prometheus would be the name of the ship in the film and there was a general suggestion of ideas in the movie resonating with the idea of this mythological character. 

 

But a question in the film was about  whether there was a line that humanity should not cross.

1. Variety: "Ridley Scott will direct and produce the project along with David Giler, Walter Hill and Tony Scott. Project was originally billed as an untitled "Aliens" prequel until Fox named the project "Prometheus" in January."(Variety, Feb 11th, 2011) (N.B. Although the names remain on IMDB with their respective roles in the movie, shortly afterwards Variety removed the information about David Giler, Walter Hill and Tony Scott from their own website.)
2. MTV news Interviewer: Ridley said it was your idea not to include Alien at all in the title of the film
   Tom Rothman: Yes, and it's one of the things I'm excited about, because the easy thing to have done on the movie would have just make an Alien prequel, ahm, and that's where it started as an idea, but as we talked about it the last time, it evolved, and Ridley's ideas are much bigger than that, it really is a brand new film and this is the man who made Blade Runner and he hasn't made science fiction films in 30 years, and to tell you the truth, I didn't want to undersell it, I wanted, and Prometheus is an ambitious title, I hope everybody knows, Prometheus, big ideas, it's the name of the ship in the movie, Prometheus is also the god... the titan who stole  fire from the gods, gave it to man and payed a serious price for it, so it was be careful what you're doing, so a cautionary guide, Prometheus, so it's a big bold new idea movie and I wanted a new title because, we really wanted people to know, that A, this movie stands on its own, if you're a fan of Alien, great, but if you're not, the movie's entirely self contained and full of new ideas (Tom Rothman interview with MTV News, about Prometheus Could be R Rated, Apr 26, 2012)
3. Ridley Scott: I started off with a title called Paradise. Either rightly or wrongly, we thought that was telling the audience too much. But then with Prometheus – which I thought was bloody well intellectual – that wasn’t my idea. It was Fox’s notion, It came from Tom Rothman, who’s a smart fellow. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a good idea. This is about someone who dares and is horribly punished. And besides, do you know something? A little bit of an education at the cinema isn’t such a bad thing. (www.movies.com/movie-news/ridley-scott-prometheus-interview/8232)
4. Question: How does the name Prometheus fit into the story? Is it related to Greek mythology, or is it the name of a ship?
   
   LINDELOF: We’re not going to talk about specifically how it connects into the movie, other than yes, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the Gods because they were keeping it to themselves and they were worried what mankind would do, if we got our little paws on it. So, that theme is a resonating idea – what humans are doing that we probably shouldn’t be doing, in terms of technological innovation and, perhaps, exploration. Is there a line that shouldn’t be crossed? Part of the fun of the movie is understanding exactly why we called it Prometheus. And also, it sounds really pretentious, like Inception, so we were just like, “Yeah, that makes the movie sound really smart!” It’s so much better then my original title, Explosion. Well, there might be an explosion in the movie. (http://collider.com/prometheus-interview-charlize-theron-damon-lindelof-comic-con/)