As Ridley Scott continues in his quest to George Lucas-fy “Alien” into a big, unending, franchise property, what could’ve been with Neill Blomkamp‘s mooted “Alien” movie looks increasingly attractive. Granted, the director has a patchy track record, and even the string of experimental shorts he’s been releasing online have varied wildly in quality, but there’s no doubt that Blomkamp has a fertile imagination. Whether or not his idea for an “Alien” movie, which would’ve followed “Aliens” and ignored the rest of the canon, would’ve worked, it can’t be any worse than what “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” have served up so far, right?
READ MORE: Watch Neill Blomkamp’s New Short Film ‘Firebase’
In an interview with Funhaus, Blomkamp opened up about the genesis of his “Alien” flick and reveals that, initially, it didn’t have Ripley at all — until Sigourney Weaver became excited by his vision.
“I met Sigourney on ‘Chappie‘ and I had a different idea for an ‘Alien’ film I wanted to make. So I had this idea for a story set in the world of those two first films that was not a continuation of James Cameron’s,” he said. “It was just in the world of it and it had a totally different character that was the lead character. Because my assumption was that Sigourney would just never make another one. I told her about it on ‘Chappie’ and she was like ‘No, no, no! I actually would make another one because I felt like Ripley’s story didn’t end correctly.’ ”
From there, Blomkamp spent a year quietly working on the movie, hiring a concept artist, and getting a script together. Then he met with 20th Century Fox who loved it. Then Ridley Scott came aboard to produce. That’s when the trouble started, and while Blomkamp is trying to remain diplomatic, it’s clear that Scott pretty much kiboshed his movie.
READ MORE: Watch Neill Blomkamp’s New Short Film ‘Rakka’ Starring Sigourney Weaver
“It’s very difficult to speak about on several levels because Ridley created ‘Alien.’ It was something that inspired me deeply. I got into film because of it,” Blomkamp shared. “Everything that happened with my script and with the way the film collapsed – it’s hard to talk about it without it seeming like I’m bashing him which is like one of my idols to get into film. It’s a super strange psychological place but films go down in Hollywood all the time. That’s just essentially, I think, what happened and it sucks for me. It’s not that it sucks for Sigourney, it’s not going to make any difference to her, but I think she really did like the story because it allowed Ripley to… it really felt like a cool third film.”
For now, Blomkamp’s movie is dead, but all the pieces are there to make it if Scott can just get out of the way. [via Bloody Digusting]
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This makes me both mad and sad. I think what Ridley needs to understand is that for a lot of people the Alien franchise is Ripley. Ripley is one of the most iconic characters in movie history. The fact that Weaver wanted to make one more Alien movie to close her out her character the right way, and for Ridley to squash the project because he’s working on something completely unrelated to any Ripley Alien movie is–despite what Blomkanp says–an insult to Weaver and an FU to fans, who like Weaver–thought her character was trashed and would love to see the course correction that this story would have taken.
I really hope that Ridley allows this to take place. And that FOX realizes that if they want Alien to be a great franchise again, that maybe this is the story that they should be following. Launching with Ripley and continuing with Newt. That’s the Franchise. James Cameron said that he wants this movie to happen also because he was disappointed at how his work was disregarded in Alien 3.
This makes me very sad. Neill’s vision of where Alien needs to go sounds infinitely more interesting than Ridley’s miserable and pompous prequels. Prequels are a TERRIBLE idea most of the time as the audience know exactly where the story is being taken. I’d love to see Ripley again, and then have her pass the baton over to Newt – and I’m surprised Fox haven’t bought into that. If the movies are good then the franchise possibilities are limitless.
Really don’t get the hate for Prometheus. I loved the hell out of it. It was gross and fun. (Haven’t seen Covenant yet.) This is all just fanboys whining because they basically want an ‘Alien’ remake. Not gonna happen. Get over it. And it’s great that Blomkamp isn’t involved. He’s a terrible filmmaker. District 9 sucks. Elysium sucks. Chappie sucks. His stuff is ugly, soul-crushing and obnoxious af.
District 9 was fantastic. His others were good film, just different, same as Prometheus.
Yes, we need one more Prequel to make it 3 (Pro/Cov/Paradise or whatever), and only one more, then go to Neil’s idea to help fill in the universe.