Prometheus: The Art of the Film
Written by Mark Salisbury
Published by: Titan Books
Hardcover | 192 Pages
Release Date: June 12, 2012

Mark Salisbury is the former editor of Britain’s distinguished movie magazine, Empire, and author of a number of books about film, including Alice in Wonderland A Visual: Companion and Burton on Burton. His latest book is Prometheus: The Art of the Film, a gorgeous 192-page hardcover companion to Ridley Scott‘s return to science-fiction, Prometheus

Published by Titan Books, Prometheus: The Art of the Film includes a foreword from director Ridley Scott and two essays: A Return to Science Fiction, in which Scott summarizes why he wanted to revisit the universe he created in Alien and how the progression of a story that was originally conceived as an Alien prequel mutated into an original science-fiction story.

DISCLAIMER: This feature contains specific plot details and spoilers regarding Sir Ridley Scott‘s latest film, Prometheus. By now you’ve no doubt dedicated hours to scouring the darkest corners of the internet in hopes of finding answers and explanations to the film’s numerous questions and mysteries.

This feature isn’t an attempt to assuage geeks and enthusiasts who demand answers from their speculative science-fiction, but it will discuss the ending of the film so reader beware. But first, let’s start with tonight’s viewing: Ishirô Honda’s 1962 film, King Kong Vs. Godzilla, starring Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara and Yû Fujiki.

Mr. Tako (Ichirô Arishima), the chairman of a pharmaceutical company, learns the bizarre tomato-sized berries that grow on Farou Island are a miracle cure. The natives of the island worship a god called King Kong, a colossal ape whose size can be attributed to the berries.

Tako leads a scientific expedition to the island to retrieve the berries and capture the monster. Meanwhile, a crew of American pilots discover Godzilla has escaped from the glacier that sealed his fate back in 1955. From there, King Kong escapes his captors and goes toe-to-toe with Japan’s King of the Monsters in an epic battle royale that manages to throw a giant octopus creature in for good measure.

Prometheus
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Damon Lindelof, Jon Spaihts
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green
Twentieth Century Fox | Rated R
Release Date: June 8, 2012

“Some of you may have figured out we’re not home yet. We’re only halfway there. Mother’s interrupted the course of our journey.

She’s programmed to do that should certain conditions arise. They have. Seems she has… intercepted a transmission of unknown origin. She got us up to check it out.” – Captain Dallas, Alien

In Ridley Scott‘s seminal 1979 film, Alien, the crew members of the Nostromo are awakened from hypersleep to investigate a mysterious beacon on LV-426, a natural satellite orbiting a ringed planet in the binary star system Zeta Reticuli [Yes, this will be on the quiz]. The year is 2122.

In Prometheus, Scott’s first science-fiction film since 1982’s Blade Runner, the year is 2089. Archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) have discovered a star map within the pictographs and ideograms of several otherwise unconnected civilizations.

They interpret the star map as evidence of mankind’s forerunners, an open invitation to meet our makers. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the elderly founder of the Weyland Corporation, funds the construction of the scientific vessel Prometheus to follow the map to a distant world – one in the Zeta Reticula system.

After weeks of non-stop casting announcements and analysis of its possible plot, the Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios film Iron Man 3 has commenced principal photography in Wilmington, NC. We have the first behind-the-scenes image from the production. You can check it out here below.

The film’s plot is reportedly based on “Extremis,” a six-issue story arc from Marvel Comics’ The Invincible Iron Man written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Adi Granov, which would introduce nanotechnology into the character’s ongoing adventures. Shane Black is directing Iron Man 3 from a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce. Returning to the cast are Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, and Jon Favreau (a good indication that not much bad blood exists between Favreau, who directed the first two Iron Man films and had originally planned to direct the third and complete his trilogy, and Marvel Studios). New to the cast are Rebecca Hall (Frost/Nixon) and Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs), and playing the heavies of Iron Man 3 are Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, and Ashley Hamilton.

It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, but its still nice to get a confirmation at least. When it was announced that Ben Kingsley was cast as a villain in the Shane Black-directed Iron Man 3, many had speculated that he would be playing the villainous Mandarin. Of course Disney and Marvel denied these rumors and said that the villain would be behind a nefarious plot of releasing a nanobot technology-based virus.

Latino Review has confirmed that Kingsley will actually be the Mandarin, and that there is a power structure that will make the Iron Man 3 story the most complex in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Again Disney and Marvel continue to deny these rumors, but as cameras start to roll today, the site said that can confirm that the Mandarin is indeed in the movie.