New 'Alien' Sequel Unleashed With Neill Blomkamp Directing, Ridley Scott Producing
Neill Blomkamp’s little art project was not for naught.
A month after the District 9 posted provocative concept art for an imagined Alien sequel, he has agreed to helm such a film.
Fittingly, Blomkamp confirmed the news on Instagram, the same platform where he released his sketches on New Year’s Day.
“So I think this is officially my next film,” he wrote.
According to multiple trade reports, 20th Century Fox has signed Blomkamp to direct the project with original Alien minder Ridley Scott producing. Scott will continue to develop a separate Prometheus sequel that will take place in a different time period from Blomkamp’s feature.
[Related: Ridley Scott Eliminates Xenomorphs From Next Prometheus]
Just last week, Blomkamp, the 35-year-old South African filmmaker best known for his Oscar-nominated District 9, explained to Yahoo Movies the genesis of his Alien artwork.
“I was in the end process of Chappie [his new film out March 6], and when my workload started to decrease, I could start thinking about what I could do next,” Blomkamp said “I started working on that [Alien] project without Fox knowing. That’s not a normal process.”
[Related: Exclusive Look at H.R. Giger Concept Art for Alien]
Blomkamp was inspired in part by Chappie co-star Sigourney Weaver, who played the Xenomorph-slaying Ellen Ripley in the first four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. (The complete franchise, counting Prometheus, Alien vs. Predator, and Alien vs. Predator — Requiem, has grossed nearly $1.3 billion worldwide.)
"I was like, ‘As the person who knows Ripley more than anybody else, tell me some things about how Ripley feels,’” he says. “So she walked me through a bunch of stuff. There was some stuff that I secretly wrote down that I may use one day.”
While Blomkamp’s art includes vivid imagery of Weaver’s Ripley, as well as a disfigured version of Michael Biehn’s heroic Hicks, there has been no word whether either actor would reprise their roles for the new sequel. Or in what form. Ripley sacrificed herself in Alien 3 only to be reborn as a Xenomorph-infused clone in Alien Resurrection. Based on Blomkamp’s wild renderings, she might be back as some hybrid creature.
"There’s a lot of franchises I’ve been asked about that I want nothing to do with,” Blomkamp told Yahoo last week. As for Alien, he’s all in.
More of Blomkamp’s concept renderings:
