Guy Pearce delivers futuristic TED talk for Ridley Scott's Prometheus
Pearce stars as the founder of Weyland Industries
We appreciate a well-thought out viral online campaign here at List HQ. We're also fans of the inspirational TED talks, where the leading lights of culture, technology and industry come together to deliver presentations based on their chosen field of expertise. So naturally, we're doubly happy when those things come together.
The hype surrounding Ridley Scott's Prometheus – his kind-of-but-not-really prequel to Alien – has kicked into overdrive with the appearance of a TED talk delivered (in the future) by Peter Weyland, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Guy Pearce. If the name 'Weyland' sounds familiar, it's because (a) you're a bit of a geek, and (b) Weyland Industries is the sinister corporation that lurks in the background of the Alien series. In the talk – which is dated 2023 and delivered to a massive stadium full of on-lookers – Weyland declares that mankind in its current (future) form is equal to the gods. It's the same sort of chat that got the mythic Prometheus chained to a rock to have his liver pecked out by eagles for eternity, but it's also the kind of rhetoric powerful space-exploring conglomerates are built on, so fair enough.
Setting the talk in 2023 is a neat trick: the Alien story doesn't really kick in til the year 2123, so Weyland Industries still has 100 years to develop space travel technology and explore planets like LV-426. Meanwhile, Scott also gets to mention the advances that might get made during the eleven years from now, while realistically retaining details of what exists today (TED talks, the internet, tweed-suited Englishmen). There's also a bit of snake-eating-its-tail time-loopery: while Weyland delivers his talk, a screen behind him shows the kind of response he's getting on Twitter (or something similar), with one respondent saying, 'Where's Weyland going with this? Thought fire was for all mankind. He's probably franchised using it now. #TED http://bit.ly/tgwQvj' - a link that takes you to the Prometheus trailer.
Have a watch of both the talk and the new full length trailer below, and then check out the Weyland Industries website – there's a bit in the top corner that says 'CORPORATE COMMUNICATION FREQUENCY: OFFLINE', but we can't help but feel that might change sometime before the film's release on Fri 8 Jun 2012.
If you fancy going to a real, much less apocalyptic TED talk, there's one on at the CCA, Glasgow on Sun 4 Mar.