Last week we had the rumour that the Alien franchise could be hatching on a streaming service sometime in the near future, which one again prompted discussion about Neill Blomkamp’s abandoned Alien 5 retcon movie, which was shelved when Ridley Scott took control of the xenomorph for the divisive Alien: Covenant.
Now, hot on the heels of James Cameron’s praise for the idea, Sigourney Weaver has been talking about it during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When asked if we’d ever see Blomkamp’s vision, she said:
“We almost started to do it when I was working with James Cameron. But by the time we were put off by Fox, Neill had gotten so many jobs that we’d have to wait probably. I’m busy doing Avatar 4 and 5. I love working with Neill and I think he’d do a terrific job, and James Cameron really thinks it’s a great idea, so you never know. Right now, I think Neill’s got like three projects going at once.”
The District 9 director had come up with a similar idea to the phenomenally successful Halloween revival, which would see the franchise pick up directly after Aliens, ignoring the multitude of sequels and spin-offs. Sigourney Weaver was set to reprise her role as Lt. Ellen Ripley, with Michael Biehn, unceremoniously offed in the opening credits of David Fincher’s much-maligned, but really rather good Alien3, returning as Hicks.
There might be little to this story, but the Alien saga really is floating in cryogenic stasis at the moment, and with no commitment from Disney in terms of furthering the Prometheus saga, this could be the right way to go. Let us know what you think using the comments section…