Neill Blomkamp to direct new 'Alien' movie (1 Viewer)

[dpippel]

Blomkamp tweets some new concept art:


http://www.scified.com/site/alien5/neill-blomkamp-releases-new-alien-5-concept-art-says-production-is-going-very-well

 

[Sam Favate]

Alien 5 has been put on hold due to Prometheus 2:


https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/659897245353951236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


This is really too bad for those of us who were looking forward to Blomkamp's Alien movie more than the next two or three Prometheus projects by Ridley Scott.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I didn't think this was new news - hadn't they been saying for months that Ridley's film would come first, and then Blomkamp's afterwards?

 

[Sam Favate]

This is new. They've gone from saying Blomkamp's film will come afterwards to saying it's on hold, which means it's not moving forward at all now, and he's looking at other projects. In other words, Alien 5 is currently stalled.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Ahh, gotcha, thanks for clarifying. I wonder if it's due to a request from Ridley, lack of faith in the project as a whole or in the director specifically, or something altogether different.

 

[TravisR]

^ My guess would be that they don't want to sink a bunch of money into Alien 5 in case Prometheus 2 doesn't do well. If Prometheus 2 doesn't make money, they'll just let the series sit on the shelf until the inevitable next reboot. If it does do well, they've got Alien 5 waiting on the bench and they can get that to the screen faster than Prometheus 3.

 

[Sam Favate]

I think the (strange) decision to name Prometheus 2 "Alien: Paradise Lost" makes another Alien movie (set after Aliens) too confusing for audiences. That said, I think audiences would be far more receptive to a sequel to Aliens with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn than they will to a sequel to Prometheus. It's likely Ridley's clout with the studio and Hollywood in general that made the decision.

 

[Johnny Angell]

While I seriously doubt Fox will actually go with it, I am very intrigued by the idea that his personal script treatment served as an "alternate" sequel to Aliens.


While I can appreciate Alien 3 for what it turned out to be (despite the lofty goals of what it could have been - I much prefer the workprint version of the film, even though the theatrical version is "OK" in my book), I never really liked how Hicks and Newt were just killed off suddenly and the whole focus shifted away from everything that mattered in Aliens to just Ripley being in a(nother) hostile environment.


A throwback to Alien/Aliens done smartly (i.e. NOT Prometheus) is something I'd be really interested to see.

x

I always boggle that people elsewhere constantly seem to fixate on Newt and Hicks dying, when damn near everyone dies in those films, up to and including the main character of the entire franchise. As I wrote in another Alien 3 discussion recently on another forum, that movie's primary theme is about how we face our ends.


And one of the hard truths of existence is: sometimes, our end is cruel and senseless. You feel angry at Newt and Hicks buying it? Good. That's precisely the way Ripley feels, too, and your reacting to it in that way is a measure of the empathy the film rightly purchases. Loss is as much a major theme in the Alien series as nihilism is.

Alien 3 could have unfolded pretty much the same way with Newt and Hick's cryo pods too damaged to safely wake them until outside help arrived. And I was just as upset that Bishop wanted to be deactivated permanently.

I've had enough senseless loss in real life without paying to see it, and have the ending of Aliens undercut. There is such a thing as a movie being too damn depressing and bleak to enjoy, and 3 is it for me. Your mileage may vary of course.

Audience reactions to movies are personal and varied. I was outraged by the beginning of A3 when Newt, Hicks, and Bishop were all dispatched very quickly. This wasn't done as an illustration of life's cruelty, but was done because those 3 didn't fit into the script, IMHO. I've never been able to give A3 a fair shake on whether it's a good move or not. I don't plan to either.


Film makers don't criticize each other often, but in the commentary for Aliens, Cameron does comment on this plot choice and expresses his displeasure. If I recall correctly he commented that fans of Aliens had emotionaly invested in Ripley and Newt, in particular. That describes me to a T. It still pisses me off.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think the (strange) decision to name Prometheus 2 "Alien: Paradise Lost" makes another Alien movie (set after Aliens) too confusing for audiences. That said, I think audiences would be far more receptive to a sequel to Aliens with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn than they will to a sequel to Prometheus. It's likely Ridley's clout with the studio and Hollywood in general that made the decision.

How could Weaver and Biehn do a sequel to Aliens now? They are much older. Who would believe it?

 

[Sean Bryan]

How could Weaver and Biehn do a sequel to Aliens now? They are much older. Who would believe it?

I'm not sure how they would plan on ignoring A3 and Resurrection, but as far as a sequel to Aliens with older actors, there's a pretty simple and obvious way to handle that.

The characters have returned home and this story is set 30 years later.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'm not sure how they would plan on ignoring A3 and Resurrection, but as far as a sequel to Aliens with older actors, there's a pretty simple and obvious way to handle that.
The characters have returned home and this story is set 30 years later.

One of them (preferably Sigorney) steps out of the shower and says "I had the strangest dream."

 

[Sam Favate]

Michael Biehn says Alien 5 will focus on adult Newt


http://www.gamesradar.com/alien-5-still-happening-and-will-feature-adult-newt/


Biehn says Alien 5 is still happening, but only after Ridley's Prometheus 2.

 

[dpippel]

Er, Alien: Covenant.

 

[Sam Favate]

Sigourney Weaver is talking about this movie as though it is still happening.

There will be much to discuss at Comic-Con, since not only is it a look back at a sci-fi classic, but Weaver is working with District 9 filmmakerNeill Blomkamp to create a new Aliens sequel, one that picks up where Cameron’s film left off and somewhat de-canonizes David Fincher’s Alien 3 (1992) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection(1997). “It’s just as if, you know, the path forks and one direction goes off to three and four and another direction goes off to Neill’s movie,” Weaver says.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/06/aliens-30th-anniversary-comic-con-event

http://movieweb.com/alien-5-ignore-franchise-canon-sigourney-weaver/

 

[WillG]

Sigourney Weaver is talking about this movie as though it is still happening.



http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/06/aliens-30th-anniversary-comic-con-event

http://movieweb.com/alien-5-ignore-franchise-canon-sigourney-weaver/

Yep saw something like this on another message board. My response: "In other words, no chance this movie is ever getting made"

 

[Johnny Angell]

I would be happy to see Alien 3 removed from the Alien storyline.

 

[Sam Favate]

I suspect Weaver and other involved cast members will talk up Blomkamp's movie at ComicCon in an effort to boost public support for it and encourage the studio to let it film before Ridley Scott finishes his other 2 prequels after Covenant. If Blomkamp has to wait until Scott is finished with three films, it's unlikely it will ever happen.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I suspect Weaver and other involved cast members will talk up Blomkamp's movie at ComicCon in an effort to boost public support for it and encourage the studio to let it film before Ridley Scott finishes his other 2 prequels after Covenant. If Blomkamp has to wait until Scott is finished with three films, it's unlikely it will ever happen.

Fox was high on Blomkamp before his Chappie came out and flopped - with two of three of Blomkamp's films considered critical and commercial failures, will the studio have interest in him as "the guy" anymore?

 

[joshEH]

I'm pretty much the asshole who thinks Alien³ (the Assembly Cut, especially) is actually better than Aliens, so take this with as many grains of salt as needed, prepare pitchforks, etc.

Everyone gets mad that the film unceremoniously kills off Newt and Hicks. Good. You're supposed to be angry. That's precisely the point. It's supposed to sting. Ripley’s entire existence in these films is one of random, senseless loss, and David Fincher absolutely nails this theme in his film.

In Alien, she loses her work-friends. They probably weren’t BFFs or anything, but there’s definitely a sense of camaraderie among the Nostromo’s crew. Each of their deaths has an impact to some degree.

In Aliens, she loses her family-life. Having been adrift in space for decades, anything she might have hoped to return to is long since gone.

In Alien³, she loses her last hope for rebuilding a family. It might be enraging to have Hicks and Newt die off-screen, but it’s also very thematically appropriate. Alien³ is a long, meditative funeral in the same spirit as The Grey.

I mean, I get why it doesn't connect with a lot of people. But the movie isn't even close to being the flaming cinematic car-wreck that many of its critics love to claim it is.

 

[dpippel]

Yeah, well, it isn't even close to being better than Aliens either.