Michael Fassbender already stole many a geek’s admiration with his rock and roll role in Inglourious Basterds, and with X-Men: First Class about to seal his badassdom (tag-team review on its way) his reign is about to become supreme. He’s already lined up to be in another target of geek attention Prometheus, the mysterious Alien-related film from Ridley Scott. CHUD brought you the scoop that Guy Pearce would be appearing in the film, but it’s a miracle even that info got out with all of the secrecy surrounding the shoot. In fact, when speaking with the Metro New York press (confirmed android cast-member) Fassbender was reticent to let slip any significant details about the plot or the nature of the film, opting instead to challenge us to consider the myth from which the title comes, and to apply that to the space setting…

Is Prometheus an alien?

Well Prometheus is basically a Greek god that stole fire from the gods so that he could give humans equal footing with them. And then he got sort of tied up to a tree or rock and then an eagle comes down and eats his liver each day and it regrows and he eats it, regrows so figure it out. How can you tie that into space?

That matches up with the vague details we’ve heard of a Space Jockey-like alien character developing some creation that may become the xenomorph. It could also imply a lot of other things. Clearly though, the film will be playing with the tried-and-true sci-fi film of inventors being punished for overextending their reach. Fassbender also commented on the Alien-related nature of the film. He doesn’t tell us much, but it does mark yet another person (who would know) definitively stating that this is something very different from an Alien prequel.

Regarding “Prometheus,” this was rumored to be an alien prequel but that has not been confirmed. Any comment?

Hmm shall I cause controversy? Um, no. The thing is, it’s not a prequel. It definitely is separate. It is a separate story, but there are threads that connect the stories.

That’s a distinction that many have been emphatically making over the months, and one wonder just what that actually means. If primitive forms of the xenomorph design show up, even applied to lesser species, and the movies somehow ends with an allusion to the future… that will pretty much make it a prequel in spirit. So will Prometheus push even farther away from Alien and avoid even those very simple references and prequel tropes? We’ll have to wait and see.

The folks at /Film also caught on to an extremely boring set picture from outside the London lot, though it came with commentary that the massive stacked shipping containers were put in to hide vehicles and other pieces of the set.

While the production was surely doing their best to cover everything they can from outsiders, I will dispel a bit of the mystique and mention that shipping containers are often used in that manner on blockbuster films. Shipping containers are the LEGOs of the $100m production design world, employed as multi-story braces for large set constructions, backdrops for green screens (as seen in the picture) and otherwise used as cheap, mobile structures. So nothing particularly notable going on there.

Moving past Prometheus and back to Fassbender for a moment, I also wanted to take note of his response to a question about X-Men sequels.

Oh they own me, dude. They’ve got me for two options so they definitely have the option to use me and to be honest with you, I’d be very excited to continue the journey with it. James [McAvoy] and I have been talking about it over the last few days, about where we could go with the next one. We definitely want to be involved from the ground floor up on that. I think that’s going to be very important if there is a sequel.

When you see how fucking great he and McAvoy are in the film, you’ll know just how great that news is to hear.

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