Following on from her recent update regarding Neill Blomkamp’s on-hold Alien 5, Sigourney Weaver has stated that Alien 5 is the “most satisfying” end of the Alien story! As part of yesterday’s Alien Day celebrations many cinemas were running showings of the films.
One such showing, at The Town Hall in New York, had the pleasure of Sigourney Weaver’s attendance where she fielded questions from the audience. Inevitably she was asked about Alien 5. Alien vs. Predator Galaxy member CainsSon was in that audience and provided us with the details!
“She speaks of the script as if – as far as she is concerned – it’s happening already, and in her mind is the “most satisfying” ending of the story. When first asked about working with Michael Biehn, and their flirtation/romantic relationship in Aliens, she added “you will see a lot more of that in the next one.”
She continued to say she just wrapped something else with Blomkamp which she can’t talk about, in South Africa. She stated how expansive the Alien 5 story is, and mentioned that, like the other films, Blomkamp’s film has a very particular new vision.
Talking at a Q&A at The Town House in New York, Sigourney Weaver says that Alien 5 is the “most satisfying” end of the Alien story! Picture courtesy of Aswad Corneliu via the Weyland-Yutani Bulletin.
Weaver also talked about Alien 3 and Resurrection and how Blomkamp’s sequel relates to them, stating that the new film wouldn’t “wipe out” those films but “run parallel” to them. This continues to support the current belief that Blomkamp’s project will be an alternate Alien 3 – which if Ripley is returning as the original Ripley and Hicks and Newt are back, it couldn’t be anything other than an alternate.
CainsSon also talked about a response to a rather innocuous question, where someone in the audience asked about the fate of Jonsey the Cat, perhaps hinting that a certain artificial person who also survived Aliens would be rejoining them as well: ” Her response, to paraphrase was: That she imagines that Ripley found her a good home with a friend on Gateway station (musing) but she added “when all that is over they, I imagine the three of them, or maybe the four of them now, will go back and pick up Jonesy.”
With Sigourney on board and it quite likely Michael Biehn as well, how would you feel about seeing Lance Henriksen return as well? Thanks to CainsSon for representing us and passing on the details.
At the end of the day, that is what matters
A juicy lemon will eventually give you only one drop or two by being squeezed too much. It is ok for a lemon but not for an actor !
In other words, too much of something is a lack of something. Meaning that a fresh start with new characters would be very welcomed.
I'm willing to put aside my mixed feelings about 'Alien 5', set in an alternate universe, only because I hope it will be an exceptional thing in every sense of the word. It really should be the last time we hear about Ripley in an alien movie. If it is the case then I'm all for it.
When it comes to mainstream Alien products (movies effectively) we are only getting Ripley in Blomkamp's film. Other inclusions are only on our hardcore fan radars, so virtually non-existent. Keep in mind that Out of the Shadows was written before the Blomkamp announcement, so at that time Fox was probably thinking this is the last opportunity for an Alien story. With Sea of Sorrows, the inclusion of her descendant was forced for sure, but even then it was fairly isolated because Blomkamp's film was not yet announced (if I remember correctly). So that's basically it for Ripley. For a core character it is not a lot.
When you start to factor in Amanda Ripley, that could be seen more as a departure from Ellen Ripley rather than a focus on Ripley. That was a pass-the-torch moment.
Anyway, I think we feel like we're getting Ripley overload because we keep talking about her. In reality, she's being lightly sprinkled.
Not at all. It's from the noticeable inclusion of a Ripley into a lot of entries recently - and sometimes towards their detriment. It just happened to work for Isolation but I groaned when it was first announced.
You have to keep in mind that we on this site are certifiable hard-core fans. We are able to make the jump into a rich EU with ought Ripley, but in order to bake the series a viable franchise, it has to appeal to casual fans and also to the general public. These people relate more to humans than to the monsters. Ripley IS the core of the franchise for them.
It's why franchises like Knight Rider fail. The studios think it's only about a talking car and a dude. It's about David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight for the casual fans and general public really.
You should be able to see my head in the bottom right in front of Sigs when she is standing up.
For sure. I mean, I seriously hope so. I have a lot more faith in Blomkamp's movie w/ Scott as a creative producer... Say what you want about PROMETHEUS, it certain had some seriously great Production Values.
He's probably planning to be more hands-on with Blade Runner 2 and Alienkamp than some random TV show. It's his legacy after all.
All I can think of is that without Weaver's star power behind the scenes; the movie would never get off of the ground. Aside from fanboyish reasons, that's the only logical reason I can think off. Unless they think the situation is so desperate that the only way to get non-serious fans into the seats is by drumming shit up. They'll sell it as the movie we should have got but didn't... nearly 30 f**king years too late guys.
Of course Alien:Covenant tells us otherwise.
I have to agree with this. While I am fascinated with what Blomkamp might have planned, getting rid of two whole movies in a series is arrogance and disrespect at its height. The AVP films can be treated as non-canonical fluff, but you don't dump the main parts of a series unless you have a really good reason to.
I personally would absolutely love to see another Aliens film, with Marines blowing up hundreds of Aliens and zingy one-liners and the like. But why must it include the older characters? Let's create some new characters for a new generation, and keep the franchise intact as a whole.
This is the dying of a franchise everyone has been crying about since alien 3. But Alien 3 while not flawless as with Prometheus were fine entries. ALIEN3 wrapped it up in a nice dark bow, the death of useless characters like near and hicks was quite brave bold and great direction to go. Shoe horning them long with Ripley in another movie because some people got their feelings hurt is a pathetic attempt Doing something fresh as I've heard some of you call it.
He is also producing Brain Dead TV SERIES which is filming right now and during my time in the same building as a Feature I just wrapped on named Cortex and also another film in prep called Felt... Never saw the guy once. At his scale, you don't need to be present to produce, unfortunately. Also not that imdb is terribly reliable but he is lined up to produce Blade Runner AND Alien 5 in 2017... Its entirely possible.
I'm hoping, that the strength of the dailies on COVENANT pushes BLOMKAMP's film from limbo into the design phase, during POST on COVENANT. That way when A:C is released, BLOMKAMPS film will be well into prep and gearing up for production.
They really need to strike sooner rather than later for that.
See ya in 8-12 years, Sigourney.
I did. And I think that it's a legit way to do it.
But I think more so, that there is a lot to consider about the Company's involvement in the background. So much so, given Prometheus and the 57 years after the Nostromo disappearing, that there was clearly some sort of cover up and I think if fans give that some thought, it seems rather silly now, to take anything at face value during a viewing of Aliens. There was more going on and the Company knew. Somebody did. Now we have COVENANT as well. So it's not really even exploiting to add to the story there because you have to assume something else is or was happening that isn't being addressed during Aliens.
To me, once Ripley shows up in the beginning of Aliens, it goes without saying that her information would have triggered some kind of response - more than Burke - by those IN THE KNOW.
So it is VERY easy to make sense out of the beginning of Alien 3.
Ive said it over and over again, regarding the beginning of Alien 3... The phantom egg.. To me, that just always meant that we didn't know something and I assumed we would find out in some other sequel.
I don't understand why everyone attacks the plots of the films as if they only have the information IN THE FILMS to work with. The whole idea of writing is to come up with new things that build on the old. So, I guess I'm saying, your idea with Bishop works, but it isn't even totally necessary, to come up with it because to me, you can just start a film, somewhere before Alien 3 and carry into the beginning of it so they run parallel. It doesn't need to use the same characters and events because there is clearly more happening we don't know about.
Maybe the company sent another ship before Burke, because they were like "Oh shit they found her..." or "Now we know what to do there because we know where that ship is" ... Another thing is, it's entirely possible the Company already has the Alien at the beginning of ALIENS. -You just need a reason to explain why they aren't revealing it.
To me: The idea that the company left the events alone after ALIEN, and PROMETHEUS, is far more absurd than extrapolating something like we are.
I do think that if they went a cloning route, in that timeline, it should be something WY is doing and not this sort of 'cloning is totally normal and it happens all the time, but we haven't mentioned it till now,' kinda thing.
In fact, if Ripley effectively destroys all their cloning research or whatever, it coould even add more weight to the fact that they operate outside regulated space in A:R.
DUDE - They CLONE Ripley to harvest the Alien inside of her, for the same reason they do it in Alien Resurrection, only this was an earlier attempt by WY itself, and they are successful (Ripley is not a hybrid but still a clone) and the egg in A3 was on the ship and it impregnated Ripley. That's why they clone her. To get the Alien. Why they clone Newt and Hicks? I dunno? Maybe they don't? Maybe they were ALL impregnated and they do? I don't know. The point is simple and you're reading further into it than is necessary.
The idea is very simple: I'm just saying, why do we all assume in A:R that this is the first, or last time that anyone tries to clone Ripley to get the Alien? And Im saying, this could factor in here. You see? The rest of the details aren't the important part. I'm just saying BECAUSE of ALIEN 3 and the cloning in AR, it is possible to make a sequel anywhere in the timeline, from WENCE Ripley is impregnated, and still include RIPLEY in the plot.
If you want to include NEWT and HICKS then you just need to make sense out of how and if they were cloned as well - FOR INSTANCE: You can easily say THEY WERE ALL IMPREGNATED and CLONED to harvest the ALIENS. The BEGINNING OF ALIEN 3 IS VAGUE ENOUGH to exploit details from.
So what Im saying about that blank space - you are taking to heavily... Im not providing an answer, I'm just saying writing one is possible.
The two facts that I AM asking for you to see are this:
1. The beginning of ALIEN 3 is VAGUE. You can start a story that fills in details that allows for a reason to clone newt and hicks, or have them woken up and replaced, or whatever, because ALIEN 3 does not provide info about the Eggs on the Sulaco or how Ripley becomes impregnated. It's a relatively blank space that another film can explore.
2. If they cloned Ripley once in AR, to harvest the Alien inside of her, it is entirely conceivable that an attempt has been made before, BY THE COMPANY, to obtain the alien. You see?
So I'm saying that ALIEN 5 - could be a movie that adds 1 and 2 and makes this sort of bizarre, un-explored Mid-quel that runs parallel....
More so, I am saying that the cloning in AR allows for more stories with Ripley, and NOT just Ripley8. Which, frankly, surprises me that I had not thought of before.
Ridley Scott is not the writer that James Cameron is and his two most successful Sci-Fi films were great largely in part to his ability to adapt the stories he was given by other people. From a writers perspective Prometheus is a lazy film and the same general format that brought it to the screen is being utilized for Alien Covenant. That doesn't really get me too excited for it.
And Bloomkamp hasn't written a critically acclaimed Sci-Fi film since 2009's District 9. His last few films have had plenty of interesting ideas in them that just haven't translated well to the screen under his direction.
I really wish people would spend as much time over-emphasizing the caliber of good writers that are attached to films instead of just looking at the directors. I think if we did that, we might get Hollywood to make more memorable sequels to our favorite franchises.
With that being said, I really do hope that Bloomkamp and Scott can catch "lightning in a bottle" and give us something better than what their track record suggests we'll get from them...because I don't want anymore mediocre Alien films.
I agree, for the time being, it seems a legit thought.
For reminders, here's a piece of interview form february 2015 :
We asked if there was more to Ripley she was interested in exploring. "It's not that so much is that we just left it at such a creepy place, sort of stranded above Earth. I was quite happy to move onto other things and I didn't want to go to Earth. I didn't want to manufacture a sequel and I felt like we were starting to do that. If something happens from this, it would be very organic and very original, and because of that, it would make me want to do it. If it was someone as talented as Neill, I'd certainly listen."
I am assuming its because they know Ridley Scott is a "safe bet"- whereas Blomkamp recent films have had lukewarm box office returns.
Prometheus did make $403 Million box office against a $130 Million budget after all.
That said I hope Prometheus 2 (COVENANT) doesn't bomb or else it can/could affect ALIEN 5 in the same way both financially and creativity wise.
Remember it was studio meddling that lead to Xenomorphs being cut from Prometheus according to....
https://monsterlegacy.net/2013/03/04/prometheus-horrors-trilobite-deacon/
I still intend to re-edit ALIEN 3 and ALIEN RESURRECTION (seperately) in a way where I can watch these movies without feeling that Ripley, Newt, and Hicks died...and it sounds like I could STILLl include my versions in a 'marathon viewing' if I ever took the notion...and then carry on with Blomkamp's entry afterwards, without contradicting it as being the 'true' follow-up to ALIENS. So I'm very pleased with this possibility.
...and if 'Jonesy' reappears onscreen once more too, then all the better!
Excuse my typos in previous post. I was rushing.
I still want the engineers to be some kind of entity. Ripley deserves a glimpse at the bigger picture of things- she deserves to find out why the Alien exists.
There is a Blonkamp Artwork that showed Ripley with something that resembles Biomechanic Tech. It was among the first Artworks released. Covenant can explore the engineers in a way, that would give em a plausible agenda to interfere with events after Aliens.
I say they board sulaco! They plant the egg! And they clone another Ripley. They either replace the bodies of Newt and Hicks- or they recreate them es artificial persons to give their Ripley clone some form of stability.
As we know from the books the Aliens cursed Ripleys Bloodline. The engineers somehow need that blood. And at some point it should tie in with Amandas path.
Honestly i was like Huda in regards to the clones aspect, but reading all this. It actually works so well. Its a cleverly extrapolated reason as to why it could be seen as parralell. And it would explain why the first clones in Resurrection didnt quite work. They were cloning a clone. Someone email this to Blomkamp, Scott and Weaver lol
You're welcome, and seeing that Alien 5 is very much going to be an AU, I figured that I might as well share with you what Norm and I had come up with. I think this pretty much cements what I've been saying the last couple of years regarding the franchises. I mean while we don't know much of the plot of Alien 5, the fact that Weaver seems to be the only one who KNOWS what's going on, and the fact that she re-asserts Blomkamp not touching Alien 3 and Resurrection, and says that these movies are occurring in a parallel universe... to me anyway, and maybe a few others, cements that there is more than one universe. Of course, I will admit, I COULD be looking too much into this but.. her statements seem to have weight to them.
I have no idea as to who created that particular chart. Aesthetically speaking, it does show where everything goes, and how their paths are laid out very nicely. But the dates, I won't argue, are very much wrong in terms of Alien and Aliens. They should be listed as 2122, and 2179. Whoever had done that particular chart, likely had some wrong dates listed but I liked the layout of the second chart.
For the first one, I like that the first 4 movies are on the borderline of universe 1 et 2, and for the second it is aesthetically perfect. I wonder why the dates are delayed of 1 year for 'Alien' or 'Aliens' for example.
Perfect-O,
I understood your state of mind and I know you are helping Cainsson's theory, but I'll switch on to sceptical mode for a bit. Thanks in advance for your forgivness
- The company labs, for experiment purposes, would prefer to have an egg rather than an already infected host. You say Bishop may be concerned that the eggs would hatch so he figures the best bet is to have the eggs get fertilized inside the clones, so that they can be frozen. I would argue that if the eggs didn't hatch in the dropship then why would they do so in the Sulaco ? And why not simply freeze the eggs ?
- Bishops wants the clones infected so why not have each egg near the host instead of putting one of them in a weird place like we see in the beginning of 'Alien³' ? and why doesn't he open the cryo tubes when the face hugger is near the tube in order to avoid the fire that happened, if himself wasn't in one of them ? If he was, then why ?
- 200 years later, the cloning technology is not achieved. Sure, cloning Ripley is easier than cloning infected Ripley but still. So Bishop managed to clone her, and did he do some learning sessions with her like in 'Resurrection' ? I also recall that in a deleted scene of this movie, Ripley 8 had feelings about Newt. So you can't say she is not conscious.
Anyway, I doubt there is a neat way to fill the gaps no matter how hard we try.
Really though, Cainsson had the idea with the clones and it was the fact that Huda challenged the idea of clones by asking why would they need to exist that made this come together. I mean cloning was a simple and obvious solution that works with the premise of Resurrection. It is an existing part of the Alien my this since 97. But Huda was right, you have to validate the cloning of those people. This is one way to do it.
What's more is that the grey area of Bishop is further extrapolated, and is consistent with the character. Throughout Aliens, we had no idea if he would be good or bad. What I'm proposing, actually amplifies that. In his mind, cloning the 3 people would be the preferred solution as they would not be conscious humans. So he would not feel that he is hurting anybody. Not until he wakes up in Alien 3 anyway.
This idea really follows up on the Ridley Scott sort of questions about what it means to be human, and what it means to be an artificial human, and what it means to be a human clone.
But yes, I agree, that any of these ideas could turn into cheese. I am a big proponent of the Blomkamp film, but don't doubt that I am knuckle-biting it through this process. The Alien 5 film has a greater potential to go so wrong, than to go so right...
Dude that's actually really sweet.
No one's talking about this, but I think it works.
Still wouldn't be a huge fan and could get a little cheesy, but as far as keeping them both in the SAME UNIVERSE, I think this plan is the best I've heard so far
Then the other films, such as PREDATORS and Prometheus, more or less didn't agree with the direction and instead took cues from the previous movies, PREDATORS being touted as the third movie, and Prometheus being touted as an indirect Alien prequel. So now it's pretty much become a pick your own path. And with Weaver saying that Alien 5 is pretty much an AU... well... everything sort of falls into place.
As for the second chart, I'm not sure WHO made that one but... I like it, I like it a lot.
Spoiler
Spoiler
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F41.media.tumblr.com%2Fc990d784765f5c321369305b401f503b%2Ftumblr_o5yl7fumXx1rh8tweo1_1280.jpg&hash=94f06bdca3f8995b0f5e4bd4cec910b0d3e28c4a
Someone (I don't know who but kudos to them!) did a REALLY good chart, and to me, it makes a lot of sense. It shows that there are intersecting timelines which diverge and converge in certain areas. I mean considering that... Weaver said this was a parallel universe to Alien 3 and Resurrection, I see this effectively being the case.
Considering how BIG this chart is... I'm gonna put under spoilers.
Spoiler
I would like it this way. Unify the movies beyond 2379 AD. It would be a smart move to set 'Alien 6' say from 2500 and have no mention to the previous ones or at least absolutely nothing that would hint any event of fact from a timeline or from another. Just stating year 25XX or whatever, is enough for us to understand that it acknowledges what has been done before, and everybody would be 'happy' !
Suppose 'Alien 5' or '3.2' is THE perfect movie everyone was waiting for and would even make silent the most sceptical person. That doesn't mean we should ignore 'Alien³' and 'Alien Res', they were present for more than 20 years and I won't deny the pleasure they gave me, I'll continue to watch them of course.
Something will happen and continuity will be preserved intact. That's all there really is to say now.
They are out there: http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=52313.msg2111971#msg2111971
They tested out that theory with ACM and guess what? Giler was right.
Corporal Hicks: Not keen on this idea! Don't need that kind of humour.
Corporal, on principle I agree that Alien 3 and Alien: R should just be ignored, but if they really had to mention it, I would consider the off-handed joke above, which could be a reference to any other jokes Ripley may have had in cryo-sleep, to be the maximum extent of what is needed. I would prefer if they would just let it go and not mention anything.
But...
I think I have a solution for everything. I have taken into account mostly what Cainsson said here, though keeping in mind what the skeptical Mr. Huda had said. To make the story make sense, there would have to be motivation for the cloning. I think I figured it out in a way that is neither convoluted, nor requires a retcon, and can in fact sync everything up nicely. So here goes, in point form.
-Firstly, we have to accept the premise that Bishop is operating under conflicting directives. Firstly, he is unable to harm a human being, but secondly, he has a specific request to secure an return an alien to company labs. But would Bishop consider a clone to be a human? Do you see where I am going with this?
-So how did the eggs get on the Sulaco? Simply, when Bishop was sent into the tunnels to get the second Dropship from the Sulaco, he went and secured 3 eggs from the egg chamber before the second dropship arrived. At this time he knew that there were only 3 survivors. He packed them neatly on the Dropship for return to company labs. At no time did he intend any malice towards any of the humans though, because since he was a scientific android sent on a scientific mission, he had a lab on board the Sulaco where he could store and secure such organisms.
-Once everyone is sleeping, Bishop wakes up and gets to work. But he is a bit of a spaz now that he is damaged. During the weeks of sleep that everyone is under, he clones Ripley, Newt and Hicks for the purpose of incubation. This does not conflict with his prime directive, because they are not humans. He could just deliver the eggs whole to the company labs, but he is concerned that they may hatch and screw things up for everyone, so he figures the best bet is to have the eggs get fertilized inside the clones, so that they can be frozen for further study once he arrives back at company labs.
-He successfully impregnates CloneRipley, and while he is delivering the second egg, being a spaz, he falls over, it hatches, and just goes for Clone Hicks on its own but it cracks the glass, hurts itself, and the blood starts the electrical fire that destroys the ship. This also explains why we have the burn marks inside the capsule from the acid. The clones are jettisoned along with Bishop to Fury 161, along with data on the cloning methods used. Perhaps Bishop was funneling DNA directly from the originals and that is how memories got included? I know this bit is a stretch. So we have a dead facehugger that causes burn marks in the capsule, an impregnated Ripley Clone, Clones of Newt and Hicks, Bishop plus 1 unopened egg in the capsule, + the data. When Bishop is reactivated in Alien 3, he sees that his Ripley clone is conscious and has all her memories and now that makes him guilty of violating his prime code. So he asks to be deactivated. The other egg hatches and impregnates the dog or ox. Hicks and Newt clones never once had an y consciousness.
-In Alien Resurrection, the marines are still trying to use Bishops original data for cloning purposes. In fact the previous point explains exactly why they went the cloning route, and how Ripley 8 was able to have memories. They never bothered to clone Hicks and Newt because they had no Alien DNA associated with them.
-And that leaves the 3 remaining survivors from Aliens who are also jettisoned in their own EEV, but without Bishop. That will deserve an explanation. Then they are floating out there until Alien 5. They are picked up eventually after they age about 30 years in stasis. Ultimately, the theme of Alien 5 could be about them learning what happened. Perhaps they could even end up frozen again after Alien 5 so that Ripley meets Ripley 8 eventually..
The Alien novelization had mention of people whose profession was to dream and have those dreams recorded for entertainment purposes. And of course Prometheus has David looking into Shaw's dream. It fits - it's just a terrible way to do it because it still just amounts to the lacklustre "it was all a dream."
Yeah, Giler or Hill, I think. Pretty sure it was on the Alien 3 documentary.
The truth has been stated on here a few times though - its all about the money. Didn't the one producer say you could have someone weeing against the wall and call it Alien 3 and still make millions of dollars?
No, you're missing the point. How would cloning Ripley, Hicks and Newt conceivably help them in any way? The three of them don't known anything about the Alien the company doesn't already know by the end of Alien 3, so there's no Need for them to go to huge expense to bring them back to life. It would be utterly pointless and a forced excuse to get them in the film.
Not to mention the cloning Ripely thing was already done in Resurrection.