Despite attracting the absolute best talent, the Aliens franchise has been on a bit of a rough patch for the last, oh, 30 years or so.
Ridley Scott’s Prometheus prequel? It sucked. Alien: Resurrection, a joint written by Joss Whedon and filmed by the director of City of Lost Children? It blew. Alien 3, directed by multiple Academy Award winner David Fincher? Well, I’ve personally always thought it got a bum rap, but the general consensus is: It’s terrible.
Now Neil Blomkamp, the talented South African director behind District 9 and the upcoming Chappie, has been hired to film the next Alien movie. And thanks to Blomkamp, we have a pretty good idea what the movie will be about.
Back in January, Blomkamp began dumping a large volume of concept art for an imaginary Alien sequel to his Instagram account that he said he hadn’t been hired to film. It was the result of spitballing with Sigourney Weaver on the set of Chappie, and the art he showed brought back Ripley (in some sort of Alien-inspired biomech suit, no less!) and Dwayne Hicks, the marine corporal whose face got half burned off in Aliens (and who was killed at the beginning of Alien 3).
Since both Ripley and Hicks are officially dead, this would seem to suggest a return to the cloning concepts of Alien: Resurrection. But time will tell: Perhaps this will be a side-quel of some sort, in the same way Prometheus is a side-prequel to Alien.
Anyway, it’s now all official, with 20th Century Fox announcing last night (and Blomkamp confirming on Twitter) that he’ll film the next Alien movie. Personally, though, I’m not quite ready to get excited. Blomkamp’s a talent, but we’ve seen better directors fall beneath the Alien curse.
Um… So I think it's officially my next film. #alien https://t.co/QO5WrH2d6x
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) February 18, 2015
Source: io9
