So the bad news is that Neill Blomkamp’s Alien film — the one featuring the concept art that generated enough excitement online to will it into existence — might never see the light of day. It stems from the news that the film is on hold due to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel, with conflicting reports popping up now that Scott’s take on the Alien universe will span three more films.
There’s no official word, but putting something on indefinite hold and adding more movies to the bufffet doesn’t fill anybody’s heart with hope.
This troubling news doesn’t mean we can’t have a little bit of fun with the possible film, though, or have a chat about the possible direction the film would want to take. Michael Biehn has been spreading some information regarding the possible plot for the film, bringing the focus back on the smallest member of the Aliens cast: Newt.
According to The AV Club, Biehn chatted with Icons of Fright and said that plans included a return for himself and Newt at this point in the suspended production:
They were excited. They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old. I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that’s what the bottom line is now: money.
Money is indeed the king (or queen, whatever you want to choose). That’s why we ended up with three extra Pirates films, two Transformers trilogies (one in the making), and a slew of bad Alien movies. This includes the plans for three more Prometheus films to tie in with the original Alien.
Biehn also dropped his thoughts on Fox putting the brakes on the production:
I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.
We all like to work, so who can blame Biehn for saying this. If anything, given the excitement that preceded the announcement of Blomkamp’s film, the real shame would be getting that close to making an idea a reality and seeing a legendary director want to return to a series at the same time. No real bad guy, but a lot of bad timing.
(Via The AV Club / Deadline)
