Well, that turned around pretty fast. A month ago, “District 9” and “Elysium” director Neill Blomkamp posted concept art from the “Alien” franchise started by Ridley Scott. What was that all about? Was he just having fun? Nope, it was Blomkamp’s dead-serious idea for an “Alien” film he actually pitched to 20th Century Fox.
"Basically, what happened was, when ‘Chappie‘ got heavily into post-production, I could take my foot off the gas a bit. I was thinking about what I wanted to do next and I’ve been wanting to make an ‘Alien’ film for like years and years," he said about the genesis. Apparently, Fox loved the idea and wanted to make the movie. The director even picked Sigourney Weaver‘s brain about it, "I was like, ‘As the person who knows Ripley more than anybody else, tell me some things about how Ripley feels,’” he told Yahoo recently. “So she walked me through a bunch of stuff. There was some stuff that I secretly wrote down that I may use one day.”
But given Blomkamp’s poor experience with studio franchises (he wasted several years developing a “Halo” video game movie adaptation that never came to pass), he seemed very hesitant and reluctant to jump into those waters again. “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," he said. “I’m the problem. Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it."
So it sounded maybe like Blomkamp would take a few months or years of soul-searching, maybe do another self-generated original project before considering the “Alien” gig again. Well, nope. Tonight he posted on Instagram with an Alien xenomorph that you can see below. “Um… So I think it’s officially my next film. #alien.”
So is it a reboot, or a recalibration of the original series with a new direction or twist? His artwork did include Weaver (now 65) and Michael Biehn (now 58), but it’s unclear if they’ll be back or if his concept art was just discovery ideas. Variety reports "Prometheus 2" is still in development with Ridley Scott, so this will be a whole different ball of chestbursters. Though Scott will still produce this new film (he’s been a longtime fan of Blomkamp’s work). Log your excitement (or not) in the comments section.
Um… So I think it’s officially my next film. #alien
A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on