Sigourney Weaver and Neill Blomkamp were sitting in the pub during takes of 'Chappie' at lunch time. Neill turns to Sigourney and says "Hey, I have these designs for a movie proposal for a REAL and PROPER sequel to 'ALIENS'"
Sigourney, sipping on her glass of wine replies "Shoot. I'm interested".
"OK." Says Neill "Here. Check out these concept pieces. It'll have you and Micheal and maybe even Carrie can reprise roles."
"That's a fantastic idea!" Responded the tall, dark haired woman. "I'd love that. Have you got any costs worked out yet?"
"Well" Neill responds, pleased to see Sigourney's interest had been captured so readily "I was hoping to work that out with you right now."
OK. Says Weaver "Firstly, there's my fee. That will at least be eight figures and I won't settle for less than twenty million. I got paid eleven million for the same role 20 years ago. I expect at least double that now".
"Done. How much do think Michael should be paid."
"Oh, I don't know. ... make it five million. I think he'll take that. He'll be happy with 8 weeks worth of work and five mill in his pocket at the end of the day."
Neill looked at her and scratched his chin "hmmm... OK. I think that's OK. How about the special effects budget? I've got the technical background, so I know this already. To digitally de-age you for the 2 hour duration of the movie we will need a budget of around thirty million dollars. I think that's about right."
"OK" Says Sigourney "Sounds Great! Let's do it..."
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" insists Neill "There's also the Alien..."
"What about it? These movies are about Ripley - not the Alien. So what?"
"We need to budget for it anyway." Replies Neill.
"Uh, OK" responds Weaver. "I can tell you now James once said if he could get away with a special effect just by throwing a rubber chicken at a wall, he'd do that."
"Well, in that case, how much is a rubber chicken? Anyway, we have to get back to work. I'll work on these costs and send my proposal to the executives at Fox. They'll love it. I'll see you on set in five minutes."
- - -
Two weeks later an evelope full of document arrives on a Fox executive's desk. It's Neill Blomkamp's proposal for an ALIENS movie sequel that should have been made 30 years ago. Inside there's a script, some concept art and a balance sheet of costs. Among the costing for the project are these entries:
$20,000,000 - Sigourney Weaver's fee.
$30,000,000 - Special effects to de-age Ms Weaver for 2 hours.
$5,000,000 - Michael Biehn fee.
$2.50 - Rubber Chicken for creature effects.
-Windebieste.
