Back in August Bloody Disgusting reported that Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 (or 3.2) was being held back due to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel. Blomkamp took to Twitter a few days later and reported that wasn’t quite true. However, according to the latest Tweet from Blomkamp Alien 5 is actually “kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2“.
alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things… as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley
— Иeill BlomkΛmp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015
Ridley Scott and Ian Whyte on the set of Prometheus.
To what extent Alien 5 is being held back is unknown but it may appear to be a significant delay considering that Blomkamp is moving his energies elsewhere in the meantime. So I would expect to see less news on Alien 5 and more on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Paradise Lost which starts filming early next year.
The Queen was cool. The Dog-Alien, I loved. The stuff in A:R I liked, in concept, alone. The Newborn looked bad, Ripley 8 was cool if she was actually weirder and not shoehorned into being an Action-hero, the clones were cool (I really wanted to see what was cut out of Ripley 7), I hated the amphibian webbed feet on the xenos, the Predalien looked cool but made zero sense, the Engineers in the beginning of Prometheus are cool but once they wear those suits and have glowing holograms coming out of the Giger-esque tech, I hate them. Also, their suits would have been cool if they actually merged with their flesh and I got to see that, the snakes were cool, the Fifield-mutation was lame, the Trilobyte sucked, and the deacon was too big when it chest-bursted from the Engineer, it didn't look right coming out. I wish we had never seen a chest-burster in Prometheus at all. However, I liked it (the Deacon and Prometheus) overall.
Pretty much this.
We'll learn more in the upcoming months.
Nah. We don't know enough about either film to make those sort of assumptions yet.
As for what Ridley's sequel looks like, they're just getting other näive and innocent goo-touching explorers or something.
As opposed to Blomkamp literally hitting the reset button...?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of either proposed Alien-verse movie, but this argument seems a little hypocritical.
Yeah, new characters that are either cannon fodder for the xenos, or that they're going to abandon right away, just like they did with Shaw from Prometheus, since whoever is writing doesn't know what to do with them next.
At least Blomkamp's would give us the pleasure of having back two of our favorite characters, also they would be seasoned xeno hunters most likely, so they wouldn't be "fooled twice" and that makes it more likely to not repeat the same plot as the past movies...
Neil Blomkamp isn't famous for making some innovative stellar masterpieces out there. I haven't seen his other films besides District 9 and from what I heard, that's basically his best film.
So how do you know Alien V won't just be Colonial Marines (with Hicks, Ripley and Newt again) vs Aliens? I mean, Blomkamp isn't exactly Steven Spielberg here, no offense to the guy at least he's no Uwe Boll.
At least Covenant has the decency of introducing new characters instead of bringing back old ones.
I mean, I loved the movie, it was a great nostalgic throwback to the original Alien, but doing it just once again becomes unacceptable this time...
The only difference with this one is going to be that this time it will actually tie in with Alien, but that's just bad planning, Prometheus could have finished with the Jockey crashing on LV-### (whatever number it was the Alien derelict ship) and then there wouldn't be any need for this movie.
Just greenlight Blomkamp's sequel, god dammit :/
I see what you mean.
I do love it when new things get introduced, my favourite things about Prometheus is them introducing the Engineers and how they seed life. This has introduced the possibility of there being more life out there, and some being as intelligent as us too.
So I understand why you are cautious about Covenant re-treading on old things and repeating the cycle.
To me however, Covenant feels like it will introduce new things like Prometheus did with the Engineers while Alien V (from what I've mostly been hearing) seems to want to re-do what Aliens did and with the same characters to boot. The only "new" stuff I've seen is some strange monolith like structure from the concept art.
In the end though, so long as the films are good, I won't be too bothered. But I'm with you on hoping that new things get explored like finally meeting the Arcturians. It's like a breath of fresh air. Best thing is wait and see how it turns out.
Covenant I guess it's going to be just the same as that, more cannon fodder expedition members, another variant of the xeno, probably Fassbender giving some exposition in the middle... it's like either Scott only likes to do that, or Fox wants to keep the same formula to ensure good box office... and we all are going to watch it.
What do you base this assumption on?
Prometheus was nothing like Alien save for including some aesthetics and the Deacon at the end.
What if Blomkamp's film turns out to be another Aliens? Let's see, it's got Hicks, RIpley, Newt, Colonial Marines and Xenos.
What else had all of that? Aliens did.
Needless to say, this was a step in the right direction, Covenant looks like it will at east explore more of the Engineers and other NEW things Prometheus introduced.
While all Alien V seems to be promising is a confusing timeline and dead characters being resurrected without explanation.
and thus ending up at the first Alien.
Anyone who can confrm this?
They prided themselves on hiring relative unknowns for all of the movies to that point. Scott had The Deulists and Cameron was given the director's chair before The Terminator was widely released. They saw in Fincher someone with potential and vision, like they had the last two times.
Blomkamp has a track record and although D9 was successful and well received his other two films haven't been at the same level. They're not taking a chance on an unknown, they're gambling on an inconsistent known quantity.
You're forgetting that Blomkamp is a massive weapons buff and loves to have things like that built practically ahead of time. There were a huge number of alien weapons built for District 9 that never even made it into the film. This kind of thing is his forte.
Pretty sure the vast majority of people would disagree. CHAPPiE was wildly uneven whereas District 9 was infinitely more consistent.
I liked Chappie too but only because of Chappie himself and I like Die Antwoord for some strange reason. Critically, financially and general opinion have this being another Elyisum for him.
I'm expecting it to all go to pot if his next film is a tank too.
Critically and financially yes, its been down hill since District 9. I also admire that he had the integrity to acknowledge the flaws in Elysium. Time will tell if he learned from his mistakes. It all depends on how this new film turns out.
good point.
Well, exactly. You can have as many directors on set as you want, but they won't be doing anything if the budget's not being managed.
That side of things is generally done in computer, these days.
You see a "downward spiral". I don't. I liked 'District 9' and 'Chappie' equally. The only exception is really 'Elysium' - and he's done the mature thing, stood up and very publicly acknowledged its flaws in a way which heavily implied he's going to try and rectify what led to them on future projects.
I won't care if it's not made, but all this prophetic doom-mongering feels hysterical, man. :/
That'd be the same studio which prided itself on taking someone who had helmed nothing but adverts and music videos, for the sequel to 'Aliens', right?
You're "calling" the most blatantly obvious observation ever?
Empire has a slightly longer article: http://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/neill-blomkamp-talks-write-direct-gone-world/
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To be honest, I'd rather he do District 10, Marvin or some other original IP of his own invention.
Hopefully basing his new movie on someone else's story might help iron out the wrinkles in Blomkamp's script-writing abilities.
Hell, being the Alien(s) fanboy he purports to be, it might just be one he's owned himself for years, and has nothing in particular to do with the new movie.
But they had a script (even if they ultimately ditched it).
They hadn't just turned in a first draft a couple of weeks previously. Ward's script had been under development for months.
As for being enough into preproduction to machine prototypes, that really doesn't mean anything. That prop wouldn't have been expensive or time-consuming. Alien3 had sets constructed when they scrapped their entire script and brought on an entirely new director, not to mention direction, for the film.
When the director walks away from pre-production of a movie to work on entirely unrelated projects, that is worrying, even with the pretense he'd be back. If the film was a sure thing they'd continue pre-production for as long as possible and use the time extension to their advantage, not disband and send their energies elsewhere. If Alien5 does happen down the line, there's now a very good chance that Blomkamp will no longer be confirmed as director without a fresh negotiation, leaving the project open for others.
The Eighth shall remain inscrutably enigmatic, as always.
That being said, what kind of fan boy are you? Retcon or wet-my-undies?
Oh, I'm sure Ridley Scott's the one who had the ultimate say in it.
Except Blomkamp's film has already been green-lit and is far enough into the pre-production phase for actual props to be getting machined and fabricated.
There reason he wrote 'pending' really wasn't cryptic. There isn't any need to go searching for hidden meanings. Scott's the main producer. That's the single most important person on a film set. The moment the 'Prometheus' sequel is wrapped, then things will be full steam ahead. At this point, the project can afford to be that way - they won't be losing money by simply pausing for a while.
If they were already filming, it would be a very different story.
Nah, if you add those words it would still be within Twitter's 140 character limit. Go on, count 'em rabbit! You know you want to.
Xenomorphine was quoting from interviews conducted with Blomkamp, how can it be "just conjecture"?
The only other way would be if he did one of the Prometheus sequels (which would be cool as he is pro the psycho-sexual Giger aesthetic) or if he took an element from the Prometheus series and made a continuation of it set sometime beyond Resurrection. I just don't see the A3 retcon ever happening now.
https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/659897245353951236
The omission of the words "in the meantime" in that tweet is quite interesting actually. One could interpret it as, "he's done with Alien, he's moving on, not going back".
But it could also just be a way of putting pressure on the studio again. I think they realise that they would need Blomkamp to make it happen. It's their IP but Blomkamp's story. Would he allow them to develop his story under a different director if he were to leave the project?
Posting facts makes him neither an admirer nor a critic.
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Oh and the reason I feel he wants to redue alien³ is because that is what he has hinted at since he made the announcement. You know, to make the sequel to aliens that he wants too. It is what it is. Not an alien movie persay, but his version of the sequel he wanted to see ~25 years ago. I don't think he needs to do that nor do I want them to go into that direction and yes that is where I think the movie was headed. However I'll take whatever he gives us to be honest.
Go Neil Bloomkamp. *waves xeno-flag™ in the air. Go team NB.
For the record, I was one of the loudest critics against the spontaneous outpouring to champion getting the project green-lit, based on nothing but some pretty concept art being dumped into the public domain. I was very mindful that 'Colonial Marines' had some nice pictures when that was in development, too.
However, I'm also a big believer in giving a film a chance, so long as it's being helmed by competent talent. Some of the interviews have given me hope it won't be as superficial as some were fearing, certainly. Especially when he was very open and up front about acknowledging the flaws of 'Elysium' (which is more than can be said for Ridley Scott, in regards to 'Prometheus').
Until we get some concrete news, either way, I'm content to just sit back and hope for the best. I just don't see the sense in hyping or bitching about it, when we're cruising along in an absence of information.
To do so, he will need a great script and a completely fresh cast to fill the necessary roles of pitching the USCM against Xenos. It would be the bomb!
I want to see that movie get made. The presence of Ripley and Hicks just complicates the entire situation. Needlessly.
-Windebieste
He has lots of admirers; I'm one too.
But neither is Blomkamp.
When have you seen him interviewed and express seething anger over Hicks, Newt or even Ripley dying? Never has.
Again, his original story was going to take account of 'Alien 3'. If you want to blame anyone for switching that around, then Sigourney's your girl.
The same actress who repeatedly spoke of appreciation and admiration of the third and fourth films in successive interviews, down the years, when virtually nobody else had wanted to.
It suits your prejudice to imagine Blomkamp as some kind of hate-fuelled fan-boy type, who's doing this purely to resurrect Hicks/Newt (let's not lose sight of how Newt hasn't featured in any released material and, for all we know, might be dying in this film's story, too), but that's not the slightest bit accurate to the real guy. He's doing this because he loves the original two films and the work of HR Giger, in particular. He loves the first one more than the second. He's also been influenced by 'Alien Isolation' to try and make this project look and feel very like it. He wants to bring back the psychosexual stuff which was completely, utterly absent from the third and fourth films.
So, please, people... Let's relax and stop building up this false ideal of what his motivations are. None of us want to see 'Pitchford - The Motion Picture' and there's not so much as a hint of anything close to that. So far as I can see, this is going to have the visual tone of 'Alien Isolation', the action sequences of 'Aliens' and a legitimate stab at replicating the nightmarish horror of 'Alien'.
If it succeeds in that, how could it possibly be a bad thing?
Let's just hope it does and that we're entertained along the way.