Alien 5 (Sigourney Weaver)

20th Century Fox has closed a deal with director Neill Blomkamp to develop a new “Alien” movie, sources confirm.

The untitled sci-fi project is separate from “Prometheus 2,” which Fox is still making with Ridley Scott.

Blomkamp, who directed “District 9″ and the upcoming Sony feature “Chappie,” had been teasing the project in recent months but said the extra-terrestrial reboot was likely abandoned. It was supposed to star “Alien” veteran Sigourney Weaver.

But on Wednesday Blomkamp confirmed the tentpole was back on track at Fox.

“So I think this is officially my next film,” he confirmed on Instagram.


It’s unclear whether Weaver is still attached to the movie.

According to insiders, the new “Alien” takes place years after the “Prometheus” sequel. Scott is producing both films through his production company Scott Free.

“Prometheus,” also distributed by Fox, was “loosely based” on the “Alien” franchise and earned over $400 million worldwide. But the 3D movie opened to mixed reviews, and Fox hopes Blomkamp, who last directed “Elysium,” can take the franchise to the next level.

Check out Blomkamp’s concept art below, offering a peek at his vision for what’s being (unofficially) referred to as Alien 5!

detective392 wrote:I still have yet to see any of the Alien movies. I've seen Alien vs Predator and Prometheus and enjoyed those. Seems like we won't be getting this anytime soon though as they want this to come out after Prometheus 2 and that doesn't look to start filming anytime soon.

Tyger wrote:Go watch the fucking movies! There's only two of them, it won't take long.

WyldeMan wrote:

Tyger wrote:Go watch the fucking movies! There's only two of them, it won't take long.

I feel like he's also going to tell us he's never seen the Predator films either.

detective392 wrote:I love the Predator movies. Way bigger Predator fan than I am of Aliens.

WyldeMan wrote:

detective392 wrote:I love the Predator movies. Way bigger Predator fan than I am of Aliens.

I've always felt that the Alien franchise was inferior to Predator in every way. Not just in terms of story, characters and casting but world building too. The predators actually have a culture and hierarchy and intelligence as well as order, whereas the Aliens were a bunch of acid spraying dip shits who scream and scurry beneath floor boards and on ceilings. I'm still waiting for more Predators but all we ever get is more of these guys. So between the two, you definitely picked the best ones to watch. I don't like Sigourney either, but Aliens is the only time I watch any of her movies.

detective392 wrote:Predators deserved a sequel but now it seems we gotta wait for that Shane Black movie which seems years and years away as he still has Destroyer and Doc Savage to direct first. Unless something changes.

WyldeMan wrote:

detective392 wrote:Predators deserved a sequel but now it seems we gotta wait for that Shane Black movie which seems years and years away as he still has Destroyer and Doc Savage to direct first. Unless something changes.

I'm good with Shane Black he's a Predator original after all, so I can keep waiting while Ridley continues to dump out Aliens films with bullshit theatrical cuts.

detective392 wrote:@Tyger, Ellen Paige would be awesome in an Alien movie. She does look like a young Ripley.

In case you haven’t heard, a new Alien movie is on the way thanks to persistence and Instagram. District 9 and Eylsium director Neill Blokmamp got the idea for a new Alien film and, instead of going to 20th Century Fox or reaching out to see if there was interest, he went ahead and started putting the movie together himself. After posting some of the concept art online, Fox apparently came calling, resulting in the announcement that the studio had officially set Blomkamp to direct a film set within the Alien universe as his next movie, with Ridley Scott producing.

Not much is known about the film other than what we saw in concept art, which showed the return of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley as well as Michael Biehn’s Hicks. The press tour for Blomkamp’s most immediate next feature, Chappie, is ongoing, and folks are trying pretty hard to get details out of the filmmaker. Sky Movies succeeded, with Blomkamp revealing how his new Alien movie fits into the franchise as a whole:

“I want this film to feel like it is literally the genetic sibling of Aliens, so it’s Alien, Aliens and then this film.”

It’s early days yet, but it certainly sounds like Blomkamp plans on at least partially disregarding Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. Sure they’re not great films, but it’d be weird to just pretend like that part of Ripley’s story never happened. But again, it’s early days, so I’ll be interested to see how Blomkamp addresses (or doesn’t address) the events of those films in his movie.

The filmmaker also discussed his desire to maintain the “nightmare” element of the series:

“It’s a Freudian nightmare. That element to me is what is so appealing; to put the audience on the edge of their seat the whole time in a traditional, monster-stalking-you, dark-corridor-way. I love that. And then when you mix in all of the deign elements and the life cycle of the alien, it’s a powder keg of creativity for me.”

But possibly even more curiously, both Blomkamp and Weaver spoke with a sense of finality with regards to this new movie, with Weaver saying the following:

“I would love to take Ripley out of sort of orbiting around in space and give a proper finish to what was such an excellent story. So when someone like Neill Blomkamp said, ‘Well, I’m interested in finishing the story,’ my little ears perked up… I think it’s a great series. It deserves a proper ending—I know the fans would love that.”

I’m sure Fox feels differently about “ending” what’s been such a successful franchise for the studio, but if Blomkamp and Weaver could come up with a fitting conclusion to Ripley’s story, that would certainly be more satisfying than where we left off with Resurrection.

This is Blomkamp’s next movie, so I imagine he’ll spend the rest of the year writing the script and beginning prep work, with production likely getting underway in the first half of 2016 if it all comes together.

ForeverBlu wrote:Talk of this clearly started while filming Crappie.

Since Weaver is in that film.

detective392 wrote:Tyger, are the 3rd and 4th movies really that bad?

First-time director David Fincher disowned the film, citing constant studio interference and actually walked out of production before final editing began. He did preside over a rough cut that became the basis for the 'Assembly Cut', a longer version of the movie later released on DVD and Blu-ray.

With the release of the definitive Alien Quadrilogy on DVD in 2004, 20th Century Fox proffered David Fincher the proverbial olive branch and asked him to assemble and comment on his own Director's Cut. Fincher declined. He was the only one of the four Alien directors to refuse to have anything to do with the project.

The film spent over a year in editing.

The original budget was $45 million which included Sigourney Weaver's fee of $5.5 million. The budget soon spiraled however, with first Renny Harlin and then Vincent Ward both leaving the project before novice feature film director David Fincher came on board. Extensive last minute re-shoots - especially after the finale was deemed to be too similar to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - ultimately pushed the budget into the region of $65 million.

Writer/Producer David Giler has stated he regrets writing this movie, as it eroded his authority as producer. Giler only committed to writing the film upon demands from Sigourney Weaver who, after Vincent Ward's departure, would only sign on to the film if Giler and Walter Hill would pen the screenplay. Giler claims this later generated conflicts between himself, director David Fincher and Fox Studios executives, with Fox taking Fincher's side over Giler's. After one particularly heated disagreement, Giler walked off the set, leaving his duties to producer John Landau.

Costume Designer Bob Ringwood walked off the film early in production after finding Director David Fincher difficult and unpleasant to work with.

David Twohy, Vincent Ward, John Fasano, Renny Harlin, David Fincher, Larry Ferguson, David Giler and Walter Hill all attempted to claim credit for the screenplay during the arbitration process. Four more writers could have claimed credit but chose not to; William Gibson and Eric Red saw no point in doing so the film had changed substantially from their early drafts, Greg Pruss was talked out of claiming credit in exchange for guaranteed work elsewhere, and Rex Pickett, despite having written a substantial amount of the shooting script, declined to seek credit due to how unpleasant his experience of working on the film had been.

Sigourney Weaver had a clause in her contract specifying that Walter Hill and David Giler would write the final shooting script. Weaver has said that she considers Ripley a very difficult character to write, and, with the exception of James Cameron, only Giler and Hill have really ever written the character correctly.

The production effectively shut down for three months while the script was undergoing rewrites.

When the powers-that-be decided on a new ending to be shot, Elliot Goldenthal had one night to come up with a new score.

Initially Renny Harlin was attached as director, but left to direct Die Hard 2 (1990). Then Vincent Ward came on board, but only lasted a few months before being fired after several disagreements with the producers. The scriptwriter, Walter Hill, was considered to direct the film as well, but he stepped back after David Fincher became available.

Because of continuing troubles with the film, Fox halted production in Pinewood Studios in England in late 1991. The crew returned to LA, and an initial screening identified the missing parts of the film. A major part yet to be shot included killing the alien in the lead pool. By the time of the new shots in LA, Sigourney Weaver's hair grew back, and she had an agreement with the producers that if she would have to cut her hair she would be paid a $40,000 bonus. The producers therefore hired Greg Cannom to create a bald cap with very short hair on it. The make-up process cost $16,000 and was very difficult and time-consuming because the hairline required the cap to be placed very precisely on Weaver's head.

Much like the first Alien (1979) movie, Alien 3 also had problems with negative reactions of audience who saw rough cut of the movie in early test screenings and were horrified from all the scenes of gore and violence. Because of this and also to avoid NC-17 rating by MPAA, Alien 3 was heavily cut. Some of the graphic scenes that were deleted from rough cut which is said to be 3 hours long include; Longer and more disturbing version of an autopsy scene, close ups of melted face of prisoner who gets hit with Alien's acid and some gore was cut from scene where he falls into giant fan, bloodier version of character's death scene and some parts from final chase and fight between prisoners and Alien.

detective392 wrote:Wow that sounds like hell. Makes everyone look and sound petty pretty much. Especially Weaver and the hair thing.  

WyldeMan wrote:

detective392 wrote:Wow that sounds like hell. Makes everyone look and sound petty pretty much. Especially Weaver and the hair thing.  

Yup, one of those absurd diva requests. Reminds me of when Halle Berry said she needed to be paid an extra $500k on top of her $2 million to do a topless scene in Swordfish. She was "so afraid of appearing nude on screen" that the only thing in the world that could have comforted her was a half a million dollars.

detective392 wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:

detective392 wrote:Wow that sounds like hell. Makes everyone look and sound petty pretty much. Especially Weaver and the hair thing.  

Yup, one of those absurd diva requests. Reminds me of when Halle Berry said she needed to be paid an extra $500k on top of her $2 million to do a topless scene in Swordfish. She was "so afraid of appearing nude on screen" that the only thing in the world that could have comforted her was a half a million dollars.

Wow, that's just low and petty. Requesting money for nudity, Sounds like that illegal profession that lots of woman get picked up for.

Though Neill Blomkamp is setting up his Alien movie as the "genetic sibling" of James Cameron's Aliens, the director has also stated that he won't be disregarding the last two films in the series. If that's true he's going to have his work cut out connecting everything together, because Alien 3 saw Hicks and Ripley die, and in Alien: Resurrection the latter returned as a clone 200 years into the future! Whatever he's planning, it sounds like that concept art wasn't just a "what if" scenario to gauge interest, as Blomkamp says he hopes the deceased Colonial Marine will also be back to kick some Xenomorph ass in his movie.

Whether Michael Biehn will return to play him is another matter, but one would have to assume the feelers have already been put out there by now. In many ways, bringing Hicks back is actually easier than resurrecting Ripley, as the bloody carcass we see at the beginning of Alien 3 is not recognizable as the character. The Aliens: Colonial Marines video game came up with a reasonably plausible explanation for Hicks' survival, but there are several others. It will be interesting to see what route Blomkamp takes with all of this, but let us know how you would approach things in the usual place.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Not really into these movies. Nice looking gun though. Is that real?

WyldeMan wrote:

"Remember, short, controlled bursts..."

UltimateMarvel wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:

"Remember, short, controlled bursts..."

I don't remember much from the first movie. I only watched it once a long time ago but I watched the second one a few times.

WyldeMan wrote:Yet you don't recognize that screenshot from a major moment of the movie you saw a few times.

UltimateMarvel wrote: I guess I meant to say 3. Alien Resurrection was the one I saw a couple of times when it showed on TV. The others I saw only once including Prometheus, didn't like Prometheus either.

It’s not entirely a shock, but plans for a Neill Blomkamp-directed film in the Alien franchise have been put on hold and possibly set aside entirely, and the District 9 director is moving on to other projects. Blomkamp took to Twitter minutes ago to relay the news.

In February it was announced that Blomkamp would be directing a film to be set at some unspecified time after the events of the then-still-up-in-the-air Prometheus 2 story, and Alien director Ridley Scott was set to produce for 20th Century Fox. No story or script was ready at the time, but Blomkamp indicated on social media that it would be a proper installment of the Alien series.

A change of vision on Scott’s part might have had something to do with putting Blomkamp’s film on hold. As initially conceived, Prometheus 2 would have followed the further adventures of Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw as she seeks to uncover more about the events of Prometheus. However, Scott eventually set those plans aside, revealing in a recent interview that Prometheus 2 is going to be more of a proper prequel to Aliens, saying in an interview “it’s going to be Alien: Paradise Lost.” That concept is a bit closer to where Blomkamp wanted to go. More information about the future direction of the franchise presumably will come later.

Either way, Bloomkamp’s Alien movie appears for all intents and purposes comatose for now, while Prometheus 2 is slated to go into production in early 2016.