Topic: Neill Blomkamp Shares New Alien 5 Concept Art

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[Scorpio]

People are not tired of the prequels, Scott's vision has re-invigorated Alien from becoming a tired and stale series of endless retreads.

Ridley doesn’t have some inherent right to the franchise other than the directorial and producer jobs the studio gives him. He’s not the father of Alien as some seem to claim. He’s not the George Lucas of Alien. He did a damn good job directing the original film but the art of Giger and writing of Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett were equally important. If enough fans are unhappy with the modern state of the franchise, you bet the studio may alter their course and take away his creative control.

Dan O Bannon unfortunately passed away in 2009. Ronald Shusett is still alive but Alien is mostly O Bannon's work.

Giger was one of the artists on Alien like Ralph McQuarrie was for Star Wars, but he had nothing to do with creating the story.

Ridley Scott did not write the story for Alien, but he did direct it and apart from Dan O Bannon who wrote the original story, he is the most qualified to be the Father of Alien.  If not Ridley then who else?

[SM]

Right, but the Alien series just doesn’t work that way.

Indeed.

[Corporal Hicks]

Dan O Bannon unfortunately passed away in 2009. Ronald Shusett is still alive but Alien is mostly O Bannon's work.

Giger was one of the artists on Alien like Ralph McQuarrie was for Star Wars, but he had nothing to do with creating the story.

Ridley Scott did not write the story for Alien, but he did direct it and apart from Dan O Bannon who wrote the original story, he is the most qualified to be the Father of Alien.  If not Ridley then who else?

Current status of life doesn't mean the others get relegated.  And besides, Walter Hill and David Giler are still around and I think their conflicts with O'Bannon should also be taken into account when thinking about the success of the script. There is no The Father of Alien, there are Fathers. Plural.

People are not tired of the prequels, Scott's vision has re-invigorated Alien from becoming a tired and stale series of endless retreads.

Lackluster returns for Covenant would claim otherwise. I know it wasn't a huge failure but it still wasn't the success Fox expected and it shows diminishing returns.

[Xenomrph]

Not to mention, it's not an either/or - it's not like the only options here are either "endless retreads" or "Ridley Scott's prequel vision" and nothing else. The sequel movies aren't "endless retreads", each is unique in tone, style, and themes. Shit, even the EU is similarly all over the map. It's one of the things I like best about the series as a whole, it isn't a "stale series of endless retreads".

[Corporal Hicks]

And just because Alienkamp's concept art features dropships or pulse rifles doesn't mean it's going to be a retread. It's just visual consistency. We've heard how influenced he was by Alien: Isolation and Alien as well. We know nothing about the core or themes of Blomkamp's story.

[Scorpio]

Current status of life doesn't mean the others get relegated. 

No, of course it doesn't.  And I don't mean to be disrespectful.  But being dead kind of disqualifies you from being involved in the franchise's future.

And besides, Walter Hill and David Giler are still around and I think their conflicts with O'Bannon should also be taken into account when thinking about the success of the script. There is no The Father of Alien, there are Fathers. Plural.

Hill and Giler rewrote O Bannon's script, among other things.  Their contributions cannot be underestimated.  But the director is the ultimate author of the movie.

Lackluster returns for Covenant would claim otherwise. I know it wasn't a huge failure but it still wasn't the success Fox expected and it shows diminishing returns.

Box office returns don't really mean much.  The original Blade Runner failed at the box office.  It's the life of the film after its initial run that's important.

[Russ]

Help me out here... is it right the main issue with Prometheus and Covenant is that they're neither one thing or the other. As I say, above, I'm watching "Furious Gods" at the moment (it's really long!).

The mission statement seemed pretty clear: this has the DNA of Alien - it could be taking place in the same universe, running parallel... something like that, I can't recall the exact quote. But it wasn't Alien. It was... like Alien.

Certainly, Ridley Scott was interested in creation - where do we come from... Chariots of the Gods (I'm surprised there wasn't a character called "Erick" or ship called "The Von Daniken")... all that stuff.

As far as I know, the Spaights story was much more about Xenos proper, but Scott pushed against that till he got the draft  from Lindelhoff .... the draft that he wanted?  (Spaights was fired according to the documentary).

So both Prometheus and Covenant are falling between two stools aren't they? At least that's what it feels like to me. One of my mates said that they basically both suffer from the milestone of Alien being hung around their necks and it seems like Scott didn't really want to have anything to do with the Alien anymore (at least directly).

So both prequels quite confusing in that regard and I don't think anyone wanted to have the origin of the xeno be revealed as it was.

Perhaps it would have been better for Ridley to divorce entirely and stick to his "has the DNA" guns and not go down the route he went down (or maybe he was told go down that road - I don't know).

And I think - despite the arguments about retcons (please, I'm not wanting to start that off again - let's just say some are for it and some aren't on these boards) there is sometimes (dare I say) a substantial dollar value to bringing back beloved characters if done well.

I think an Alien 5 that had the characters from Aliens in it could ride a hefty nostalgia wave in the same way that Star Wars did (people were going mental about Han Solo in the first one). Conversely, it didn't quite work out for the Terminator!

But these few images from NB have garnered massive traction - I'm not sure we can discount Rippers and Hicks NOT being part of that ground-swell.

[D. Compton Ambrose]

Even if people don't want more Ridley Scott I think many other directors would be a far better choice than Blomkamp.

I want to see fresh ideas and new characters not digging up the past to see an inevitably lesser version of what we've already seen.

That doesn't mean no marines or drop ships, you can do all that without raising the dead, again.

THIS.

It could be set in the late 2100's-2200s where the bulk of the series takes place (Excluding Ridlien: Davidnantmetheus), bring back the iconic human aspects of the franchise, such as the USCMC, Gateway Station, Fiorina, etc. I have a completed screenplay that encapsulates the original trilogy, yes - it does feature the Ripley family, but they could easily be substituted with original characters and personalities that already exist in the story in major roles as is. Could easily have a new Grizzled Marine who has spent his days fighting pirates and enemy governments/armies (or even Weyland-Yutani), but the main crux of the story is on a re-imagining of the Xenomorph that postulates there are many different species of Xenomorph that exist throughout the universe (and more importantly that doesn't look like the head of the original was copypasta'd onto the body of a flayed rabbit) and the crew of a dingy, retro-industrial backward-engineered military ship (that is almost literally a power station in space) happen to run across perhaps the worst of them all. Again, could be entirely original characters. The crux of it is on the atmosphere and central antagonist of the plot (I'll have a teaser trailer mockup for the film up on Kickstarter and IndyGogo Monday...), and I'd recommend Jennifer Kent (she director-debuted The Babadook, watch it, great horror film), but it'll probably end up being a fan-film, (but I'm really shooting for 'indy canon/non-canon spinoff').

[Russ]

It's just visual consistency.

This really struck me with Prometheus - it looked great, but it didn't look anything like pre-Alien technology (I can't remember how long before Alien its supposed to be set). I would have loved to have seen them use the same or similar analogue tech - maybe cleaner looking than the crappy second hand Nostromo stuff (after all, its a multi-zillion dollar mission and the Nostromo is just a tugboat).

Purely subjective on my part, but I would have loved it if they had done that - if it was indeed part of the universe - as I say above, it feels like neither one thing nor the other.

I'll have a teaser trailer mockup for the film up on Kickstarter and IndyGogo Monday...)

Wicked, can't wait!

[Corporal Hicks]

No, of course it doesn't.  And I don't mean to be disrespectful.  But being dead kind of disqualifies you from being involved in the franchise's future.

No-one was actually talking about others being involved were they?

Hill and Giler rewrote O Bannon's script, among other things.  Their contributions cannot be underestimated.  But the director is the ultimate author of the movie.

I disagree. He's one cog in a machine. The extent of the success that is attributed to him should be proportional.

Box office returns don't really mean much.  The original Blade Runner failed at the box office.  It's the life of the film after its initial run that's important.

Blade Runner is a cult film. It's bigger following after it's release didn't exactly help it's sequel either as that also seemed to have failed at the Box Office. Box Office returns reflect the wider appetite.

[GreybackElder]

Help me out here... is it right the main issue with Prometheus and Covenant is that they're neither one thing or the other. As I say, above, I'm watching "Furious Gods" at the moment (it's really long!).

The mission statement seemed pretty clear: this has the DNA of Alien - it could be taking place in the same universe, running parallel... something like that, I can't recall the exact quote. But it wasn't Alien. It was... like Alien.

Certainly, Ridley Scott was interested in creation - where do we come from... Chariots of the Gods (I'm surprised there wasn't a character called "Erick" or ship called "The Von Daniken")... all that stuff.

As far as I know, the Spaights story was much more about Xenos proper, but Scott pushed against that till he got the draft  from Lindelhoff .... the draft that he wanted?  (Spaights was fired according to the documentary).

So both Prometheus and Covenant are falling between two stools aren't they? At least that's what it feels like to me. One of my mates said that they basically both suffer from the milestone of Alien being hung around their necks and it seems like Scott didn't really want to have anything to do with the Alien anymore (at least directly).

So both prequels quite confusing in that regard and I don't think anyone wanted to have the origin of the xeno be revealed as it was.

Perhaps it would have been better for Ridley to divorce entirely and stick to his "has the DNA" guns and not go down the route he went down (or maybe he was told go down that road - I don't know).

And I think - despite the arguments about retcons (please, I'm not wanting to start that off again - let's just say some are for it and some aren't on these boards) there is sometimes (dare I say) a substantial dollar value to bringing back beloved characters if done well.

I think an Alien 5 that had the characters from Aliens in it could ride a hefty nostalgia wave in the same way that Star Wars did (people were going mental about Han Solo in the first one). Conversely, it didn't quite work out for the Terminator!

But these few images from NB have garnered massive traction - I'm not sure we can discount Rippers and Hicks NOT being part of that ground-swell.

Wow I totally agree with this. Maybe thats what feels off about Prometheus and Covenant. Scott originally wanted to divorce from Alien and create a story running in the same universe. The studio exes thought it would work better if it WAS about Aliens. Therefore we end up with a product that isn’t  Alien or a completely novel idea. So we piss off fans of the originals who were expecting Alien and the average movie goer who doesn’t know what these movies are exactly. These prequels suffer from an identity crisis.

[Dill-On]

Please don't hire Neil Blomkamp!

He isn't good enough. It will be Ridley Scott part II.
Just ask Denis Villeneuve if he has some free time to create new ALIEN movie. 
or give it to someone else.

If Hollywood doesn't have any original ideas, they can read some comic books published by Dark Horse.
ALIEN: LABIRYNTH is a better story than Prometheus for sure.

Hint: ALIEN: ISOLATION (video game) has something what fans love.

[Vrastal]

Fresh charecters and story is what is needed. I enjoyed Prometheus and aliem covenant. But it needs to stick to alien. 

This franchise doesnt need to stick to ripley. But for some reason. They think the only to do alien is to have ripley involved in some way. Be it an asinine bad dream/memory wipe or blood relation.

Ripley died then briefly came back in 4. Now just let her be

[skhellter]

Lackluster returns for Covenant would claim otherwise. I know it wasn't a huge failure but it still wasn't the success Fox expected and it shows diminishing returns.

Regardless of how people felt about the film..

Covenant opened right before the last Pirates of the Caribbean film.
R Rated vs Family friendly fare.
That sure didnt help Covenant gain any traction during its theatrical release.

Covenant did really well in the home video market, anyway.

[XenoHunter99]

Lackluster returns for Covenant would claim otherwise. I know it wasn't a huge failure but it still wasn't the success Fox expected and it shows diminishing returns.

Perhaps the returns show Fox spent too much money on the movie. The world-wide haul was respectable, but scales of economy are such that it is not enough. The haul was less than for Prometheus, but part of that may be because Prometheus disappointed the audience. The rest may be because the buzz for Covenant was not that great, and the movie itself was severely flawed. I realize there are rabid fans who love these movies. I'm happy for them, but the prequel movies still have gross internal logic and story problems. They both could have been great, but that's not what we got.

I don't think Scott can rescue the series from the mess he made. Like Lucas with Star Wars, Scott tried to fill in too many of the gaps. Also like Lucas, Scott's prequels are unsatisfying, severely flawed, and undercut the older movies. I also doubt Blomkamp has the right answer, especially after Weaver rewrote his plans for the movie. I'm not bothered that we're seeing a dropship or a derelict Engineer ship in the concept art. These are part of the visual language and texture of the Alien universe, along with hypercapitalist corporations and nightmarish monsters. I'm not even bothered that we may see more marines. As has been said, we only saw them once. It depends how they're used in the story. But resurrecting Ripley (again) and Hicks seems like a bad idea.