"[Alien Romulus] joins the prequel series"

[Nightmare Asylum]

Wait, Fede's making a young adult flick? When was that confirmed?

[TomT]

So, let me ask this of the group: If Ridley Scott shit the bed with the prequels, what would you all have rather seen? Remember, AVP and AVP:Requiem were the latest "Alien" films prior to Prometheus and Covenant. In my opinion, Alien:Isolation has been the most solid strictly "Alien" property since the first three films. Other than that, I am not sure where else the franchise could have been taken? A lot of the expanded universe stuff lives well within their respective mediums, but many would not likely crossover well into a medium to high budget film, in my opinion. I think the franchise has been confined by its tropes (confined spaces, lived-in futuristic aesthetics, corporate motivations, blue-collar professionals caught in the middle, and of course the titular creature) and I struggle to think where it could have gone from AVP. Was Prometheus everything it could have been? I think the film was solid, but I understand why others hate the hell out of it. It isn't without some issues, but I agree that the beast was cooked by the time AVP got done with it. So, now that we are getting a film and TV series, I am seeing that a lot of Scott's contributions via the prequels (opening up the universe, AI politics/bio-ethics, transhumanistic-themes) have made its way in-verse. I'm rambling now. I just don't know what else could be produced without rehashing the films that came before... oh, other than Blomkamp's Alien 3, of course.

I actually really liked what Ridley was trying to do with Prometheus and beyond: expand the mythology, incredibly ambitious ideas about gods and creation of life, David's and Shaw's characters, engineers homeworld, new worlds, big budget R rated sci-fi event movies with A-level production values. But again, he threw most of it away in Covenant, so we never really got to see what it could become. And it's a damn shame. The only good stuff in Covenant is Prometheus stuff, the rest is just pure trash.

The only thing to do with Alien after killing Prometheus sequel and Blomkamp's Alien was a lose Alien: Isolation movie adaptation with MEW playing Amanda Ripley. If done right, it could revive the franchise and create a future for it. It's so obvious, but morons at Fox prefer to just hit nails in that nice coffin I guess.

Wait, Fede's making a young adult flick? When was that confirmed?

Already announced young adult cast in a young adult flick, R rated young adult flick if you like it that way.

[Mike’s Monsters]

The more I've learned about the cancelled Blomkamp film, the more I realize we dodged a huge bullet as a fandom. I much prefer the direction of this instead of the mess that was going to be.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Aye, Blomkamp's film had some neat concept art (and some deeply, deeply silly concept art) but I really don't mind that that particular project got passed over, honestly. 

I'm very open and curious to seeing what Hawley and Alvarez bring to the table in their projects. I do admittedly wish we could have gotten a proper Ridley-helmed Covenant sequel to finish up the prequel trilogy before moving in a new direction with new filmmakers like this, but I'm still quite looking forward to seeing what is done in these next outings.

[Mike’s Monsters]

Aye, Blomkamp's film had some neat concept art (and some deeply, deeply silly concept art) but I really don't mind that that particular project got passed over, honestly. 

The concept art only scratched the surface of the silliness, and I think most fans would have left a theater feeling very upset from that project. Silly is a very good word to describe where that film was going to go.

[T Dog]

So, let me ask this of the group: If Ridley Scott shit the bed with the prequels, what would you all have rather seen? Remember, AVP and AVP:Requiem were the latest "Alien" films prior to Prometheus and Covenant. In my opinion, Alien:Isolation has been the most solid strictly "Alien" property since the first three films. Other than that, I am not sure where else the franchise could have been taken? A lot of the expanded universe stuff lives well within their respective mediums, but many would not likely crossover well into a medium to high budget film, in my opinion. I think the franchise has been confined by its tropes (confined spaces, lived-in futuristic aesthetics, corporate motivations, blue-collar professionals caught in the middle, and of course the titular creature) and I struggle to think where it could have gone from AVP. Was Prometheus everything it could have been? I think the film was solid, but I understand why others hate the hell out of it. It isn't without some issues, but I agree that the beast was cooked by the time AVP got done with it. So, now that we are getting a film and TV series, I am seeing that a lot of Scott's contributions via the prequels (opening up the universe, AI politics/bio-ethics, transhumanistic-themes) have made its way in-verse. I'm rambling now. I just don't know what else could be produced without rehashing the films that came before... oh, other than Blomkamp's Alien 3, of course.

When I heard Prometheus would be exploring the Space Jockey my mind daydreamed what that movie would look like. I wanted truly alien weird biomechanical landscapes and concepts. Just the weirdest of the weird. What we got instead was modern blockbuster dumb dumb filmmaking.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Aye, Blomkamp's film had some neat concept art (and some deeply, deeply silly concept art) but I really don't mind that that particular project got passed over, honestly. 

The concept art only scratched the surface of the silliness, and I think most fans would have left a theater feeling very upset from that project. Silly is a very good word to describe where that film was going to go.

I wasn't exactly feeling the direction things were going with Ripley's Jockey/biotech mask and Hicks' biotech weapon (conceptually interesting ideas but the visualization wasn't doing it for me), but then once the hybrid Alien pieces started releasing a while later, it all really started feeling full-on Kennner.

Actually, now that I think back, there was a concept piece that was straight up Atax in the Queen suit, too. 

I still don't know anything about what Blomkamp's Robocop would have been, but I do feel like he'd likely have been a better fit for that world (especially if paired with Neumeier) than he would have been here.

[Kimarhi]

I like most of Blomkamps work but he should do his own unique stuff.  Can't let fanboys play in the universe. 

[Nightmare Asylum]

Yeah, I'm something of a Blomkamp apologist myself – even with Chappie – but he just doesn't strike me as right for this world (at least, his concept doesn't strike me as right), and I thought Demonic was dire.

[TomT]

The more I've learned about the cancelled Blomkamp film, the more I realize we dodged a huge bullet as a fandom. I much prefer the direction of this instead of the mess that was going to be.

Why? We don't have a script or plot summary of Blomkamp's film beyond the fact it's a direct sequel to Aliens with Ripley, Hicks and Newt to judge, just cool concept art. And we don't know anything about Romulus beyond young adult aspect, setting and supposed budget to assume it's a better direction (which I'm sure is not, even if Blomkamp's film was another mixed bag for the franchise, because big budget R rated event film with Ripley trumps any cheap streaming nonsense, not even a choice to me).

I like most of Blomkamps work but he should do his own unique stuff.  Can't let fanboys play in the universe. 

His own unique stuff just killed his career and now he has to direct Gran Turismo movie because he has no other offers.

[Immortan Jonesy]

That said, I do get Engineer vibes from Romulus/Remus, given the Rome inspiration that went into their city in Covenant.

But it's too early to know with any certainty at this point.

Yes, it's too early to tell and everything seems to say no. But I hope so! hahahaha😅

Yeah, I'm something of a Blomkamp apologist myself – even with Chappie – but he just doesn't strike me as right for this world (at least, his concept doesn't strike me as right), and I thought Demonic was dire.

For me there is his trilogy of the 'Third World-like Scifi Tales' 😅

1. Distric 9

2. Elysium

3. Chappie

But you know what? if it wasn't for the whole kenner porn of the concept art for his Alien project, I'd say that at leats his 'Third World-like Scifi' setting from those movies (minus the Elysium space station) would kind of fit Alien. At least if you want to make things look dystopian enough or 'dark & gritty'. Actually, and kinda changing the  subjetc about scifi aesthetic (although more or less related) if we ever see a cyberpunk setting on an Alien movie / TV series, I'd like it to not be so generic and more like Blade Runner.

[skhellter]

Aye, Blomkamp's film had some neat concept art (and some deeply, deeply silly concept art) but I really don't mind that that particular project got passed over, honestly. 

The concept art only scratched the surface of the silliness, and I think most fans would have left a theater feeling very upset from that project. Silly is a very good word to describe where that film was going to go.

can't leave us hanging like this. 
I was one of the peeps that was finding concept art for the film and helped share it around avpg..

how silly would it go...

f**k it, i'll sign a NDA, even. lol

[Kimarhi]

Yeah, I'm something of a Blomkamp apologist myself – even with Chappie – but he just doesn't strike me as right for this world (at least, his concept doesn't strike me as right), and I thought Demonic was dire.

Haven't seen that one.  But I liked most of the others, and even warmed up to Elysium which I initially didn't care for.  He's the closest 80's sci action style director we have working right now imo.  He catches the tone of that era of movie, but this era of moviegoer might not care for that style anymore. 

[Nightmare Asylum]

Yeah, I'm something of a Blomkamp apologist myself – even with Chappie – but he just doesn't strike me as right for this world (at least, his concept doesn't strike me as right), and I thought Demonic was dire.

Haven't seen that one.  But I liked most of the others, and even warmed up to Elysium which I initially didn't care for.  He's the closest 80's sci action style director we have working right now imo.  He catches the tone of that era of movie, but this era of moviegoer might not care for that style anymore. 

Elysium is spread a bit too thin and I think it should have been a smaller, dingier movie (and overall I'd actually say it is a bit weaker than Chappie), but I do like it for what it's going for/trying to be and I'll be damned if it doesn't look great. Kruger is a great antagonist, too. I haven't seen the movie in at least five years, probably longer, but he's stuck with me.

It boasts some really solid late-career Syd Mead work, too.

[Corporal Hicks]

The more I've learned about the cancelled Blomkamp film, the more I realize we dodged a huge bullet as a fandom. I much prefer the direction of this instead of the mess that was going to be.

Agreed 100%. As much as I'd loved to have seen Michael Biehn and Hicks back, everything I know about this film makes me quite thankful it didn't happen. Though I'd still love to see it as a What If if Marvel continues doing those kind of comic projects. That's another article that I need to get to work on too.

When I heard Prometheus would be exploring the Space Jockey my mind daydreamed what that movie would look like. I wanted truly alien weird biomechanical landscapes and concepts. Just the weirdest of the weird. What we got instead was modern blockbuster dumb dumb filmmaking.

I actually really like the Engineers. Not as Space Jockeys, but as some other race imitating the Space Jockeys. I think there's some fascinating and terrifying about these dark eyed "perfect" humans.