&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/91569?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Prometheus%3A+what+on+Earth+has+Ridley+Scott+created%3F%3AArticle%3A1640973&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Ridley+Scott+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CScience+fiction+and+fantasy+%28Film+genre%29%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Sep-30&amp;c8=1640973&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Week+in+geek+%28Film+series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FRidley+Scott&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The origins of mankind, space jockeys, androids ... the clues are out there for Scott&#039;s next sci-fi film. But how far will it reach beyond Alien?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#039;m still not quite sure what to make of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/22/ridley-scott-comic-con-prometheus&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Prometheus&lt;/a&gt;, Ridley Scott&#039;s forthcoming film &quot;set in the universe&quot; of Alien, but in no way a prequel &ndash; no, no, no. Everyone from Scott to writer Damon Lindelof and star Charlize Theron have been claiming that this is going to be a revolutionary experience. The prospect of an origins story for the sci-fi/slasher series is a tantalising one, but a small child-like voice deep inside me can&#039;t seem to stop crying: &quot;They mostly come at night. Mostly.&quot; Oops. Sorry. I meant: &quot;Where are the xenomorphs?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is the labelling of the film an attempt to lower our expectations, and is that a positive thing? Will it give the film-makers more room to craft a new universe that&#039;s not glued to the old one? Or will we emerge spitting and swearing from our first viewing, declaring that we&#039;ll never again be fooled by studio hype or watch another movie purely on the basis that it is &quot;set in the universe&quot; of something we really once loved?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first proper official synopsis for the film, released to the public earlier this week, offers few clues, though it does confirm some of the plot rumours that have been flying around the web.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Blade Runner, returns to the genre he helped define. With Prometheus, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;The suggestion that mankind&#039;s origins are somehow tied to the events of the series is intriguing, while at the same time utterly outlandish. Scott has long hinted that the new film will shed light on the dead &quot;space jockey&quot; from the scene in the first movie in which the crew of the Nostromo land at the doomed planetoid after receiving a distress signal. Are these creatures somehow our creators? Because &hellip; you know &hellip; I remember reading something in the school library about monkeys. It&#039;s been suggested that the space jockeys may have created the xenomorphs for terraforming purposes &ndash; they certainly seem like a utilitarian choice if your aim is to wipe out all intelligent life in a given area in quick-sharp time. Does Prometheus revolve around some sort of three-way encounter between the space jockey race, humans and a nascent form of xenomorph?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are more hints about the film this week in the form of an &lt;a href=&quot;http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/09/28/prometheus-damon-lindelof/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;MTV blog interview&lt;/a&gt; with Lindelof from Comic-Con back in July. I&#039;m not sure quite why the site decided to publish it three months down the line, but it gives us a little more insight into some of the crew members on board the new ship.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We already knew Michael Fassbender plays an android (a &quot;robot&quot;, according to Lindelof), but what kind of android will he be? The benevolent Lance Henriksen type? Or the devious Ian Holm model? And why is Lindelof referencing Blade Runner, beyond the obvious fact that that&#039;s Scott&#039;s only other venture into sci-fi to date?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;He plays a robot,&quot; says Lindelof. &quot;One of the things that evokes the idea of Blade Runner is, &#039;What does the movie look like from the robot&#039;s point of view?&#039; If you were to ask him, &#039;What do you think about all of this? What&#039;s going on? What do you think about these humans who are around you?,&#039; wouldn&#039;t it be cool if we found a way for that robot to answer those questions. When you cast a guy like Fassbender, who&#039;s going to bring a lot more to it than [makes cliched robot movements].&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Theron? We know she plays a corporate figure named Meredith Vickers, but there may be a twist on the series&#039; usual attitude towards such types.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;That&#039;s another one of the familiar things from the Alien movies &ndash; that there are corporate interests in play,&quot; says Lindelof. &quot;I feel like Charlize brought a new spin on that old variation. It&#039;s a remix &hellip; I don&#039;t think she&#039;s slimy [like Paul Reiser&#039;s character in Aliens]. She&#039;s not the fast-talking, snake-oil face of the company. By the way, &quot;What company is she a face of? I think is a big part of the fun. As we were developing the script, she had some really cool ideas that made [the character] not the suit you&#039;re used to.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So far, so Alien prequel, so why the &quot;same universe&quot; fuss? My money&#039;s on xenomorphs being around, on the crewmembers all being killed off one by one until (this time) it&#039;s only the android left standing, and on plenty of icky body horror in amongst the scares and screams. More of the same, in other words. I&#039;m hoping to be proved at least partly wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/ridley-scott&quot;&gt;Ridley Scott&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/sciencefictionandfantasy&quot;&gt;Science fiction and fantasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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