It’s no secret that certain things have been changed in Blomkamp’s Alien sequel because of events in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus 2. Bloody Disgusting now brings word that Blomkamp’s Alien sequel is being deliberately held back so that Ridley Scott can start production on the Prometheus sequel. The report also speculates that Prometheus 2 will film next year for release in 2017 while Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 movie will shoot in 2017 for release in 2018.
While Twentieth Century Fox is still hot on the project, our sources tell us that they’re being forced to hold off until after Ridley Scott gets into production on his long-gestured Prometheus sequel. This means a lengthy development process for Blomkamp’s Alien, and a potential release in 2018. “Alien 5 is still very much in the works, as Fox remains hot on the idea,” our regular tipster tells us. “Blomkamp continues to work on the script (only an outline existed previously) and refine the tale he is telling. Ridley Scott is still producing, but has insisted on Prometheus 2 being made first.” Blomkamp will continue to slowly prep Alien 5 while Scott goes off and makes Prometheus 2 early next year.
Prometheus 2 in 2017 and Alien 5 in 2018?
But there’s an even larger roadblock that’s being avoided by the feet dragging. Our insider says the “delay” will allow Blomkamp more time to develop his project and afford him the ability to work around any scheduling issues that may arise in reference to Sigourney Weaver’s involvement with James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. If all goes well, Blomkamp will likely shoot Alien 5 sometime in 2017, ahead of a release the following year. So that gives fans a one-two punch of Scott’s Prometheus 2 in 2017 and Blomkamp’s own Alien film in 2018. Things are subject to change, of course, but this is the current plan, so says our source.
None of this is really much of a surprise since Prometheus 2 has been in the works since the first movie came out in 2012 and yet we never seem to be getting any closer to a sequel. Though this news does support what we heard two weeks ago about Prometheus 2 potentially filming in January 2016. Hopefully, Ridley Scott will give us a Prometheus 2 update soon.
Just sent a follow-up tweet for a little clarification.
Makes me suspect that the "Prometheus 2 starts filming in January" thing is just another rumor.
Prometheus 2 should have been put into production atleast a year ago. The first built up a lot of good faith but that's diminished for me.
Yes, it makes sense to think that; but Hollywood people may not be that reasonable. I think Scott's mind was made up by that point. As for his other movies, I suppose he's making the movies he wants to make, and maybe he's working faster because he's aware of his own mortality.
No he doesn't HAVE to take their suggestions on board but he might think twice when A LOT of them say something is a bad idea.
Scott's last batch of films would be much much better if he didn't rush through the productions shitting out these line production movies.
Those artists that worked on Prometheus, those guys didn't matter. Sorry, but they didn't. Their opinions carried no weight at all. They were hired to do what Ridley Scott told them to do. Scott had no reason to do anything they said. And I doubt even Giger's presence would have changed the outcome.
This has nothing to do with Giger. What I'm saying is that the designers who worked on Prometheus actually told Ridley to his face that it would be a bad idea to change the original Space Jockey design because it was so good. Ridley insisted they change it the generic tall man design that we got.
Really looking forward to Prometheus 2 and hope that we go back to more of a Gigeresque look.
I think it was easier to do that without Giger sitting right there. But it's not like Giger was allergic to changes. He thought the alien queen was a brilliant addition to the family. Still, I think the Space Jockey was more interesting as this enigmatic creature grown into his chair. Proportionally, the original design didn't seem to leave room for legs. So, unless he had tentacles or something, it seems more likely that guy didn't move around a lot.
Well what I'm referring to is a couple of occasions in the Prometheus making of doc where the artists say "we told Ridley not to change the Space Jockey design......."
I think there is an untold behind-the-scenes story there. On the one hand, we have Scott. From what I can tell, he has a long working relationship with Arthur Max, and it seems Scott gave Max carte blanche for the art and style of the movie. Scott has also said he wanted to move away from the grunge aesthetic and away from Giger's work, too. On the other hand, I think by that point, the Giger who created the Alien and the Space Jockey in the first place had left the building. I don't think Giger was ever the type to be "one of the guys" and just work with other artists on a project. He's always been a free spirit and a tour de force - It's his strength. The Alien is the way it is because Giger made it so. Space Jockey, same thing. Of course, he had help with all that; but he was in the driver's seat. He touched everything with his own hands, painted everything with his own brush. What he did was remarkable.
I'm not 100% on the timeline, but by the time Prometheus came along, he may have already had his stroke. And he was already not painting for a long time - IIRC, he stopped actively doing that around 1991..I don't think his drawings were as strong as his paintings. His paintings range from so-so to marvelous; but from what I've seen, his drawing style and technique are serviceable but not great. He did do some sculpture after that, but I suspect he was in no condition to be an active participant in the production of Prometheus. I also doubt he would have wanted to do it with Arthur Max telling him what to do. But unless the story comes out, I doubt we'll ever know what really happened.
Quite likely. There was an Alien 5 concept sketch tagged as "Weyland Yutani Headquarters" after all.
The "big bad company" is also a recurring motif in all three of Blomkamp's films. In District 9 we had the MNU, in Elysium it was Armadyne and in Chappie it was Tetravaal. All three of those companies were involved in weapons manufacturing and research and they all had an individual or individuals with questionable morals just like Weyland Yutani.
Oh I totally agree, the concept was fine, them being the seeders of life is very interesting, the execution and human characters were pretty terrible though. And yes, the departure from Giger was indeed criminal......everyone tried to tell Ridley......he wasn't listening.
THe film had a hundred and one other issues but to destroy such a great design was heart breaking to me.
I concur. : )
The big issue with the first was the trailers made you think exactly that... and then you saw the movie itself.
Spoiler
What leads me to this assumption? Well, if Alien 3 did not happen I would guess that the Sulaco safely made it's way back to it's destination. If this is the case; most likely that Ripley, Newt and Hicks will take some kind of legal action towards the company and this time around there is a large amount of evidence behind the existence of the xenomorphs due to the value of both Bishop's report and the testimony of a marine whom has scars from the confrontations on LV426. The results that come out of this is still unknown to me seeing as I don't want to speculate too far in to it.
I personally believe that Weyland Yutani might have a bigger role in this film because of the fuel it receives from NBK's motives of creating more depth behind his plots. Now this is simply just theory based on very little information so there is not much beyond that. Please do not interpret as fact.
Prometheus 2 Holding Up Alien 5
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ba/35/70/ba35704bc2913cea1f99b1877bee7246.jpg
Ridley!
Exactly my first thought too. Whilst we don't know much, what we know of Blomkamp's inspirations for Alien 5 and what we've seen of his previous films leaves me with complete confidence that Alien3.2 is going to be a gorgeous looking film but know he has this time to really work on the project gives me the confidence that Blomkamp will be able to work on his weak points (script) and give us a nice and refined piece.
As long as it helps Prometheus 2 come out good. As long as it helps both films come out good. I'm not too fussed on the release order.
The dark skies are your own negative connotations. This doesn't equate to a bad thing. At all.
We were never really unified to begin with. I can't recall a time we were.
What RakaiThwei is saying makes sense. The AVP community basically inherited multiple continuities already from decades of mismanagement of the franchise by Fox. We already have completely different and incompatible timelines. That's a fact. So the powers that be can either choose to decide what is the master timeline (canon) or embrace the diverse nature of the story timelines within the AVP universe and allow for them to continue to grow in their own direction. I really think the latter approach makes most sense as it is very inclusive of people's preferences. If you love your elephant nosed space jockeys, enjoy! If you love your Engineers, go to town! If you love a reality with Aliens and Predators, so be it! If you can't tolerate Predators in your Alien reality, that works too! If you love Archie vs. Predator, wait a minute, that's going too far. Boundaries..
I wouldn't want a Story Group to determine what is canon and what isn't. Not everyone would be happy with a singular timeline and going about it how Disney did it with Star Wars? Well, that just divided Star Wars fans, so for Alien and Predator fans... that would further divide us.
As Perfect Organism said, some of us, especially myself feel as if a multiverse.. or at the very least, divergent and separate canons would be the way to go.. similarly to how Robocop, Halloween, Godzilla and Highlander have alternate canons.
Each thing would be assigned to a specific canon.
Welcome Bkbboy! Not a bad idea at all. But some of us are talking about a multi-verse which would basically establish several continuities that are self-contained. This is similar to what Disney did with Star Wars. It would be great though if there was a core team that was dealing with this and helping to organize things. Otherwise, everyone basically has their own head-canon which is not a bad thing, but for the uninitiated trying to start reading something? Good luck.
Wait... what?
First it's a retcon, then it's not a retcon, then it's a retcon again, now it's not a retcon again? The hell is going on?
According to the latest quotes, maybe not.
He's said they didn't move in a direction he personally likes, but that just puts him in the same boat as most people - Fincher, included.
Prometheus 2 - 2017 (five years since the first film)
Alien 5 - 2018 (21 years since A:R)
Predator 4 - 2019 (almost a decade since Predators. God time is going by fast !)
It's a lot of stuff, and I'm excited for all of it...but one thing that would make me feel a lot more hopeful about the future of the franchise would be if 20th Century Fox were to maybe announce some sort of formal "story group," like the one announced with Star Wars and even more recently Transformers. The nice thing about announcing the creation of such a group, tasked specifically with charting the franchise's overall narrative going forward, is that it a.) serves as a nice, official "reset" of the plot up to that point, stabilizing and concretely defining what is and isn't canon as we move into the future, and b.) it lends confidence to the idea that there is an actual captain steering this ship. As much as I've enjoyed much of the Alien/Predator EU over the last few decades, one thing that has been severely lacking to everything that we've gotten is any sort of core structure; we've gotten tons of comics and books and games, many of them from very gifted creators, but taken as a whole, it's more or less just a hodgepodge of stories.
That approach has its advantages, I admit...but looking at the variety of different projects coming our way from Fox, Titan Books, Dark Horse Comics, and Creative Assembly, it strikes me that the smarter–and more satisfying– approach might be to do something akin to what Disney has done, tying in the projects of Del Rey, Marvel, and various other companies, in an effort to create a more cohesive tapestry. Putting an official story group in charge of the Alien/Predator/Prometheus universe seems, at least to me, to be the smart move. Thoughts?
We still don't know what he has proposed, aside from a return to psychosexual horror, biomechanical aesthetics and a preference for the 'Alien Isolation' presentation style.
I'm so confused about 'ALIEN 5'. None of what Blomkamp has proposed makes any sense. Especially as it won't be released for a few years now. The script will change - it's just a matter of how much change at this point. I'm sure it's going to need all the time it can get in order to be a decent movie.
I just don't wanna wait years for the cinematic equivalent of 'A:CM'. So much more can be done within this Universe other than rehash already deceased characters. I'm not looking forward to that being the big drawcard.
-Windebieste.
Yes, and if Prometheus 2 is as bad as the first film, maybe he can tweak his script to conform more to his original idea. I still don't like the idea of Bloomkamp having to modify his original vision to accommodate a sequel to a film that had such a poorly executed vision.
I thought about replying to him, but just reported instead. Never done that before!
... Sooooo.... If I thought Prometheus was okay, as in, not the greatest movie in the series but definitely not the worst either, does that only make me half retarded?