"I want to keep it on hyper-lockdown. It’s early yet. It’s ‘Chappie‘ time," Neill Blomkamp stated when EW pressed him for details on his "Alien" movie. But the director only has himself to blame if he’s bombarded by questions about the movie in the run-up to his sci-fi flick. After dropping "Alien" concept art at the beginning of the year, chatter started going into overdrive about the possibility of the "District 9" director stepping into the world created by Ridley Scott. The rumors became real a week ago when it was confirmed Blomkamp overcome his reservations about doing a studio project and signed up to direct an "Alien" flick. Aside from that details are scarce, however, one key character is back.
"It did have to do with having Sigourney [Weaver] on ‘Chappie.’ It’s just something that I’ve always wanted to one day be a part of," Blomkamp told the magazine about the genesis of his movie, his concept art, and now his movie came to include Ripley.
"Over the years, I came up with a story for a film in that universe that I wanted to make. And then when I talked to her about her experience making those films and what she thought about Ripley and everything else, it informed and changed the film I wanted to make into something different," he added. "It just sort of stuck with me. A year later, when post-production was winding down on ‘Chappie,’ I started fleshing out the idea for a film that would contain Sigourney. Fox never knew. I just worked on it when I could. Before I knew it, I had this really awesome film with a lot of artwork and a lot of backstory. And then I didn’t know whether I was going to make it or not. So I just kind of sat on it for a while."
Well, it’s no longer sitting around, and the movie is now going forward. There are lots of questions remaining, but at the top of our list? Michael Biehn, aka Hicks, was also seen in the concept, does that mean he’s back to? And if so, how? He died in "Alien 3." However, the video game world, he lives on with a careful fudging/retcon of the timelines as this video from "Aliens: Colonial Marines Stasis Interrupted DLC" explains. Or maybe we can just pretend "Alien 3" never happened.
This doesn\’t involve any retconning. Ignoring prior sequels isn\’t retconning. If in Alien 5 Ripley wakes up from hypersleep and describes a nightmare about Hicks and Newt dying in a crash and her getting implanted with an alien and then killing herself and being \’cloned\’ 200 years later, blah blah blah, then that would be retconning. Or someohow rewirting the beginning of Alien 3 so that Hicks somehow survives. But simply disregarding two sequels and picking up after Aliens isn\’t retconning.
Really? Fincher himself disowns the third movie. And for good reason. A mundane mess with an ending that\’s bearable, but not worth sitting through two hours. Plus Alien 4 is on the same level as the AVP movies.
Aliens was the only worthy sequel to the franchise. Cameron knew how to tackle the story right and take it into a direction that\’s different than the sci-fi horror of the first film, but still have the movie maintain the feel as the first.
I have faith that Blomkamp will do justice with a retcon third film.
Retcons are just gross.
And to the people who said "Nothing can be worse than 3&4" are the exact idiots who lead things to AVP & AVP: Requiem.
There\’s always something worse. At least 3 & 4 have artistic version & a real sense of personality.
I actually like 3 & 4 quite a lot, but the story decisions made in Alien 3 were all wrong. Everyone felt that way in 1992 and I don\’t think time has softened anyone\’s view on it. Giving the story of Ripley, Hicks and Newt a different ending in itself makes this project worthwhile (assuming a fifth Ripley film is worthwhile as a general idea – this one is certainly more worthwhile than an Earth-set Alien 5 with the xeno-hybrid Ripley clone, which is where Resurrection leaves off).
Nothing can be worse than 3&4.
Grown up Newt played by Juno Temple?
Dumb. Blomkamp is about to create a whole new film term – pulling a "Blompkin". It\’s where you retcon a series so you can make a direct sequel to two of the greatest movies of all time & then you churn out an unremarkable film that may be worse than the films you "erased".
Or search "sky movies aliens sequel news"
Blomkamp explicitly says he\’s disregarding Alien 3 & 4 in this interview (I can\’t post a Youtube link, but just put this after the = sign in the URL): Th8os-IfZhg
The obvious and only reasonable way to do an Alien 5 featuring Ripley and Hicks is to disregard the events of Alien 3 & 4. And who wants to see a followup to Resurrection set on Earth anyway? They wrote themselves into a corner there. An alernate sequel to Aliens is the best possible option. Also: grown up Newt?