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

Sean Bryan

Sean Bryan
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http://www.thewrap.com/neill-blomkamp-to-direct-alien-movie-for-20th-century-fox/

Neill Blomkamp has signed on to direct an untitled movie set in the “Alien” universe that will take place after “Prometheus 2″ for 20th Century Fox
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Sam Favate

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Here's hoping. His production artwork that was leaked a few weeks ago certainly looked great.
 

Jason Charlton

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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.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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Will it be called 5LIEN or ALIEN to the 5th Power or ALIEN vs. ALIENS or...


I know! It will be about everyone who was ever killed by an alien resurrecting in an alternate universe where THEY are the "alien." Our former heroes pop out of eggs, then go running around on the walls drooling and terrorizing the xenomporphs, who are now the good guys. It will be called HUMAN.
 

joshEH

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You know what's ironic? A video game managed to make the Xenomorph scary again. Fucking Alien: Isolation, it gave what was missing back.


So, the Xenomorph is just misunderstood, and the subject of oppression. And 3 & 4 were mostly a cryo-nightmare...mostly. I guess I just don't see the point. Alien 3 is not a bad movie at all (especially the Fincher cut). I think it produces a fine symmetry to the story of Ripley. I just don't see the need to negate that for more Hicks.


Little of that fan art tells us whether the story will have some radical departure from what we have already seen, and a Hicks/Newt mulligan regarding their deaths is several decades too late.


I'm all for a good Alien movie. Prometheus is an interesting film that goes in some unexpected directions. And Blomkamp is an intriguing filmmaker (we'll see how Chappie turns out). But I just don't see the need to further explore the character of Ripley at this point, though I'm more than willing for Blomkamp to shock me, here.
 

joshEH

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All I want is a scene where the characters, in a junkyard, are having a deep philosophical discussion about how the Alien and human biology are intrinsically linked, and how it relates to the creation of all life.


Meanwhile in the background, Ron Perlman's character from Resurrection is using Fassbender's severed robot head from Prometheus as a sex toy and says, "Guess there's no way we'll ever know."
 

TravisR

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I know I'm a minority but until the crappy ending, I think Alien Resurrection is far superior to Alien 3. I'm a huge fan of David Fincher but while Alien 3 is a good looking movie and has interesting ideas, it's ultimately not that good of a movie. At least, Alien Resurrection has some exciting sequences.
 

Sam Favate

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I think Alien 3 was ambitious, but still a failure, and Alien 4 was just not good at all. I seem to recall the comic book writer Peter David once writing a lengthy piece about how, logically, Alien 3 could be a dream. That's the premise they should start with.


Here's the piece, found with 3 seconds and Google:


http://www.peterdavid.net/2009/05/25/alien-3-people-nothing/
 

joshEH

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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.


Keep Ripley and friends far away from this, and I’m pretty excited. Give me a weaponized Xenomorph being dropped on some slummy mining planet to quell a violent uprising, or something. Blomkamp could do this in his sleep.


Ah, well. Sharlto Copley will get to play an android in the new movie, I'm sure. Or the son of Paul Reiser.
 

Malcolm R

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joshEH said:
Ah, well. Sharlto Copley will get to play an android in the new movie, I'm sure. Or the son of Paul Reiser.

Blomkamp seems unable to make a film without him.
 

Bryan^H

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TravisR said:
I know I'm a minority but until the crappy ending, I think Alien Resurrection is far superior to Alien 3. I'm a huge fan of David Fincher but while Alien 3 is a good looking movie and has interesting ideas, it's ultimately not that good of a movie. At least, Alien Resurrection has some exciting sequences.
I would have loved to see the movie Whedon invisioned with Resurrection.
I thought it was pretty good, but I remember Whedon said he cried when he saw the screening he was that disappointed. His quote
"The next person that ruins my scripts will be me"
 

joshEH

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According to reports that are starting to come out, the reason why it took a few months to finalize a deal for Blomkamp is because Blomkamp was negotiating some serious artistic-protection clauses into his 20th Century-Fox directorial contract, which caused a few delays.


Blomkamp just mentioned in an interview today that the major holdup was with him, specifically because he doesn't like studios trying to control him, especially after the fubar clusterfuck that was his Halo experience at Universal...so I doubt he's agreed to do this without some massive provisions in place. And with Fox already having Prometheus 2 on the horizon, I can see them being much less precious about a significant, tentpole, jizz-whizz Comic-Con-ready fantasy-sequel dreamed up by a notorious filmmaking geek.


To be honest, with the main, Sigourney-driven Alien franchise being dormant like that, I can only see two approaches. Either some new blood tries to jolt it back into life, or they put it nine feet under. Blomkamp is as good as any, and a better choice than most for the former.
 

SilverWook

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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.


I do find it hilarious that George Lucas of all people did essentially the same thing several years earlier in the second Ewok tv movie. I often refer to it as the Alien 3 of the Star Wars franchise. ;)
 

joshEH

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I hope Blomkamp includes an after-credits Easter egg of a robo-Alien bursting out of Chappie's chest at the end.


Another thing is people always say, "the Alien isn't scary anymore," which I find odd, since if you plop anyone down, turn out the lights, and show them the first Alien whether they've already seen it or not, they're going to be scared. It's just that the sequels (which the exception of Aliens, but even that movie is somewhat guilty) treated them more like movie monsters, rather than the abstract Freudian nightmare Scott did.


The Alien "isn't scary anymore" because he's treated like Jason or Freddy Krueger. It's all in the way it's handled -- part of the brilliance of the first movie, like Jaws, is that it racked up the tension to insane heights before finally showing the beast well into the second act. Whatever Blomkamp has in mind, I hope he goes back to what made it scary in the first place.
 

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