Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland
If you’ve seen TED presentations, you’d know that they’re lectures and demonstrations from leaders in technology, entertainment, and design. But you’ve never seen a TED presentation like this one: it’s set in the year 2023, and it’s presented by Peter Weyland, of Weyland-Yutani, the infamous “company” that was behind the action in the Alien franchise, as well as the upcoming movie Prometheus.
This TED presentation, below, is “from the future as envisioned by Prometheus director Ridley Scott.” Guy Pearce plays Weyland, the swaggering, supremely confident CEO of Weyland Corporation (likely before its merger with Yutani). The topic of his discussion? Prometheus, who gave humans our first technology.
It’s jaw-dropping to see Ridley Scott lay out the connection between Prometheus and Alien, especially before the movie is released (which won’t happen until June 8, 2012). It’s especially wonderful to see a brief glimpse of the world of 2023, where TED presenters are the new rock stars.
Here’s the TED talk, eleven years from the future.
(Thanks to Dean Filipovich.)