Neill Blomkamp's Proposed Alien Sequel: "Fox Would Make It"
Director Neill Blomkamp talks about his Alien sequel concept, and reveals that "Fox would make it. Like tomorrow"...
The sudden reveal of a proposed Alien sequel directed by District 9's Neill Blomkamp was one of the more surprising news stories of the year so far.
Amounting to a few pieces of concept art posted on the director's Instagram feed alongside the casual words, "Was work working on this," the Alien prequel pointed to a reunion between Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and Michael Biehn's Hicks.
But while the imagery hinted at all kinds of ideas - aliens captured and modified by Weyland Yutani, a new kind of facehugger, a returning queen - the project appeared to be dead. "Don't think I am [working on it] anymore. Love it though," Blomkamp wrote.
In the US, Blomkamp's currently promoting his latest film, Chappie, and it's little surprise that interviewers' questions soon turned to this mysterious Alien project. Was it a serious proposal, or just something the director was playing around with for fun?
As it turns out, Blomkamp's been privately keen to direct an Alien film for years, and the strands of a possible project began to come together when the director spoke to Sigourney Weaver on the set of Chappie.
"She set off a bunch of thoughts in my head," Blomkamp told Uproxx. "I had come up with an idea that didn't have Sigourney But I spent all of the shooting time with her, it was like, holy shit, that could actually be really interesting."
As a result, Blomkamp worked on ideas for the Alien sequel - along with concept art, a small part of which appeared on Instagram - while Chappie was in post-production. This, Blomkamp admits, is a highly unusual way of working, since he hadn't been approached by Fox to produce an Alien movie. But Fox not only seem to like Blomkamp's ideas, but are willing to go ahead and let him make his movie:
"Fox, they would make it," Blomkamp said. "Like, tomorrow. They would make it."
So if Blomkamp has the concept, and Fox like it, what's the hold up? The sticking point, it seems, is that Blomkamp isn't sure whether he wants to direct another movie or not.
"I just wasn't sure if I was going to do another film, like, at all," Blomkamp revealed. "Sometimes Hollywood just sort of gets to me. I love movies, but Hollywood itself is a difficult animal to negotiate. So, then I was like, if I don't do any, I should put some of this artwork out and that's exactly what happened."
While we don't know exactly what happened on the set of Chappie, it sounds as though the experience of making it - and dealing with the Hollywood machine for his previous movie, Elysium - has taken its toll on Blomkamp. But if he does change his mind, then it could be that his Alien concept could become is next film.
"I don't know whether it's going to happen or not," he told Coming Soon. "We'll see."
Certainly, Sigourney Weaver seems attracted to the idea of returning - and with her onside, she's likely to be instrumental in getting an Alien sequel off the ground.
"If something happens from this," Weaver told Coming Soon, "it would be very organic and very original, and because of that, it would make me want to do it. If it was someone as talented as Neill, I’d certainly listen."
More news on this as it comes in.