alienex plorations

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Origins of The Orrery

Posted on 3:40 AM by thoms
The Orrery in Prometheus
a) In the trailers for Prometheus we are introduced to a display of floating galaxies as if the chamber in the alien environment was designed as some sort of a planetarium what is known to be an Orrery. Much discussion has gone on about what this was supposed to represent. Soon in one trailer, David is seen to be holding a hologram of the planet Earth. Before the film was release, Jonathan Spaihts  revealed through Twitter that this strange place was called "The Orrery"


Jon Spaihts: "From my notebook: Ridley's first sketch of the Orrery.
#Prometheus #RidleyScott pic.twitter.com/Ud6rDKtaOr"
Jon Spaihts: "From my notebook: Ridley's first sketch of the Orrery.
#Prometheus #RidleyScott pic.twitter.com/Ud6rDKtaOr"
b) In a conversation that Jonathan Spaihts and Ridley Scott were about about star maps and the story necessity for the navigation instrument that the viewers would see, Ridley started talking about a painting that he had in his mind, he could not remember the title but described it as "Circles in circles with a candle lit image."

Spaihts suddenly thought of the Joseph Wright painting and did a Google image search on the internet and showed the image to Ridley

"Yes, that's the painting," exclaimed Ridley Scott "Scientist, scholars and children"

c) What they had done was made a leap from star map to an Enlightenment painting and then back into the far future. This was a very exciting moment for Jonathan Spaihts the self proclaimed "illuminatus" on Twitter (no! no! We're trying to get away from Illuminati conspiracies here) on the internet whatever that might mean, getting involved in this kind of interplay with Ridley Scott and the way his mind would leap from one level to another.

 Quote sources
  1. Jon Spaihts via Twitter said to @PrometheusxNews "We called this "The Orrery".(Twitter, Jan 17th, 2012) 
  2. The Orrery as it is on the cover of Cinefex 130
  3. Forbes.com published an article with an interview featuring Jon Spaihts where they discuss the Orrery
    "Here’s an example: if you’ve noticed a point in the Prometheus trailer when a 3D alien star map fills up a huge room, that owes its visual inspiration to a 1766 painting by Joseph Wright, called “A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery.” The painting is of a scientist showing a mechanical planetarium to a group of enthralled adults and children, and by dramatic candlelight.
    A Philosopher Giving a Lecture
    on
    the Orrery, 1776, Joseph Wright



    “In a conversation we were talking about star maps and the story-necessity for the navigational instrument we would see, and Ridley Scott started talking about a painting he had
    in his mind,” Spaihts remembered. “Circles in circles with a candle lit image,” Scott had said. Spaihts thought of the Wright painting and did a Google image search.
    “Yes, that’s the painting I mean,” Scott exclaimed. “Scientist, scholars and children.”
    That was Scott, “making the leap from a star map, to an Enlightenment painting, and then back into the far future. His mind just multiplexes in that way,” said Spaihts. “For a writer it’s like riding a f***ing bronco. That kind of interplay is one of the great joys of screenwriting.”" (Forbes.com 1st of May 2012)
  4. Read about A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery 
  5. During the filming of the scene where David steps into the orrery, Ridley had Dark Side of the Moon playing on loud speakers. Read: The Dark Side Of The Moon  

    a replica of the actual orrery itself
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Mythology behind tomb lid of Pakal Votan
    leading from:   Prometheus - The Return of the Space Jockey and Pakal Votan tomb lid   The  accepted interpretation by archeologists is that...
  • Giger's Xenoerotica drawings
    leading from H R Giger's Art For his Xenoerotica Portfolio from 2005, HR Giger drew simple drawings like cartoons of his familiar biome...
  • Farzad Varahramyan's Predaliens
    leading from   The Evolution of the PredAlien Farzad Varahramyan was hired by ADI to create concept art for the Predalien. We find several s...
  • Clock Head from Dark City inspired Prometheus Head?
    One curious film that came out in the 1990s was a movie called Dark City. The movie featured a race of pale skinned bald humanoids known as ...
  • Sigourney Weaver photographed by Helmut Newton during Alien 3
    Leading from Alien 3 Stills of Sigourney Weaver during the photographic shoot  as seen in the documentary "Helmut By June. " Sigo...
  • Harboring the remains of Li Tobler
    leading from Alien Li II a) Rumours about a skeleton There were horrible stories being handed around where it was made know that HR Giger k...
  • The "Independence Day" biomechanical suit
    Leading from   The "Space Jockey as a suit" question and Origins of Carlos Huantes babyhead and Patrick Tatopoulos a) The concept ...
  • The Derelict
    Leading from    Alien   The abandoned ship containing the remains of a dead alien pilot  at his control seat soon became known as The Dereli...
  • The discussion on Terraforming
    leading from: Prometheus - The Return of the Space Jockey MTV asked Scott if Weyland-Yutani (the name of the Company in the movie series)...
  • Ling Chi execution photos
    leading from development of Giger's art victim of ling-chi method of execution When Giger went to art school in Zurich, he saw photos t...

Blog Archive

  • ►  2014 (6)
    • ►  January (6)
  • ►  2013 (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ▼  2012 (114)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (9)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (11)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (13)
    • ▼  February (45)
      • Dr Zecharia Sitchin
      • Zecharia Sitchin's Space Rocketfrom an Egyptian Tomb
      • Erich Von Däniken
      • Von Däniken's Concepts used in Prometheus
      • Skeptics in for the attack on von Daniken
      • Von Daniken's Point of view
      • Another Mayan Rocket Man
      • Pakal Votan tomb lid
      • Prometheus - The Return of the Space Jockey
      • Variations on the year it's set.
      • The discussion on Terraforming
      • Space Jockeys renamed Engineers
      • Unveiling the Space Jockey
      • Empire Magazine report
      • Ridley's design criteria for the engineers' world
      • The doorway to the next chapter
      • Spaihts musings on the Space Jockey
      • Origins of The Orrery
      • Pyramid in the Prequel
      • Planet Zeta 2 Reticuli and beyond!
      • A New Beast
      • Introducing the Hammerpede
      • Chihuly - Chihulien - Chihulybite
      • Alien DNA
      • "Alien Prequel" becomes "Prometheus".
      • Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye talks to Ridley
      • Prometheus Q & A at CineEurope
      • Ridley Scott interviewed by Wall Street Journal
      • Ridley Scott article by Fettatiminn
      • The New Weyland
      • Prometheus' Production Crew
      • Designer: Daniel Simon
      • Scriptwriter: Jon Spaihts
      • Scriptwriter: Damon Lindelof
      • Cinematographer: Dariusz Wolski
      • Ridley Scott at the Hero Complex Festival 2010
      • Ridley Scott at the Hero Complex Festival on Youtu...
      • Los Angeles Times video of the Hero Complex Ridley...
      • Prometheus' Cast and Characters
      • Noomi Rapace plays Elizabeth Shaw.
      • Origins of "Elizabeth Shaw"
      • Michael Fassbender is in Prometheus
      • Ancient Sumerian Engineer 'Star-Map' Tablet
      • Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers
      • Production Designer: Arthur Max
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2011 (1)
    • ►  June (1)
  • ►  2010 (5)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  May (2)
  • ►  2009 (3)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  April (2)
  • ►  2008 (1)
    • ►  August (1)
  • ►  2007 (21)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2006 (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2005 (7)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (5)
  • ►  2004 (18)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (1)
  • ►  2002 (1)
    • ►  September (1)
  • ►  2001 (3)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (1)
  • ►  1999 (1)
    • ►  May (1)
  • ►  1998 (1)
    • ►  November (1)
  • ►  1997 (27)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  September (13)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (1)
  • ►  1996 (1)
    • ►  May (1)
  • ►  1992 (12)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (2)
  • ►  1986 (9)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (3)
  • ►  1983 (1)
    • ►  December (1)
  • ►  1982 (2)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  1979 (262)
    • ►  December (16)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (9)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (21)
    • ►  June (47)
    • ►  May (33)
    • ►  April (37)
    • ►  March (15)
    • ►  February (22)
    • ►  January (32)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

thoms
View my complete profile