Nine months ago, District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp released some concept art for a new Aliens movie that collectively broke the internet’s mind. The images featured Ripley and Hicks battling new and terrifying forms of aliens on a colony that looked a lot more populated than the typical settings for the series.
Unfortunately for everyone, Blomkamp’s vision for the Alien franchise (which reportedly may have involved rolling back the series as if Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection never happened) was derailed due to Ridley Scott’s plans for more Prometheus movies, which have served as soft prequels for the franchise. But now it sounds like Neill’s work may end up getting used after all. The only question is when.
At a recent VMware appearance, Sigourney Weaver confirmed that the project was still alive.
“Well, I think it is,” she said, according to Slashfilm. “Ridley asked Neill not to make our Alien ’til after Prometheus 2. He wanted his movie to shoot and be released first.”
“But it’s an amazing script, and Neill and I are really excited about doing it. We’re doing other things until we can get going on that. I’d be really surprised if we didn’t do it, because it’s such a great script, and we love working together. So, it’s just going to take a little bit longer to get out to you, but it’ll be worth the wait.”
Those comments from Sigourney Weaver are hot off the press, but we have to wonder whether she knows that Ridley Scott plans to turn Prometheus 2 (now renamed Alien: Covenant) into the first part of a trilogy. Why? Because he has the itch to tell an epic story? Maybe. But when asked, he simply said “Star Wars will be a juggernaut. Why do you think I’m doing sequels?”
So we’ve got a visionary new director with an amazing script being blocked from making his Alien movie by a visionary old director who just seems sick of trying to greenlight and make money with movies that aren’t sequels, prequels, or reboots. That didn’t seem so terrible when we only had to wait a few years for Ridley to get Prometheus 2 off his chest, but if his plans to make a trilogy kill this product, we will be very sad. It doesn’t help that Prometheus was a mess of a film that spent way too much time poorly answering questions no one ever bothered to ask in the first place.
We just have to hope Sigourney Weaver is in the loop on what’s been going on with the Aliens franchise. Considering she pulled co-producer credits on the last two installments she appeared in, she certainly has enough of a financial stake to keep on top of the news.
(Via Slashfilm)
