Game over, man.
It’s with a heavy heart that we bring you the news that Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9 and Elysium, is no longer developing that Alien sequel, and has “moved on” to pastures anew.
Word comes by way of Twitter (via Screen Rant), where Blomkamp effectively drilled the last nail into the coffin. After being approached by one curious fan, the South African filmmaker conceded that his franchise film, one that was purportedly shelved in favor of Fox’s Prometheus sequel – which, in turn, became Alien: Covenant – will never see the light of day. Not now, not ever.
This confirmation comes just one week after Blomkamp shared some unused concept art for Alien 5 (see here), while previous reports claimed that his ill-fated sequel would have delivered a satisfying conclusion to Ripley’s arc. Toss in the promise of a grown-up Newt and you have all the makings of a true fan-favorite, but sadly, the stars never aligned.
It’s a disappointing and largely underwhelming end for a project that once showed so much promise, and save for an unexpected twist of fate, Michael Biehn and Sigourney Weaver’s time battling Xenomorphs is ostensibly over.
Via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/948310726191411200
Circling back to the core Alien franchise, though, and Ridley Scott has big plans for his prized horror series going forward. But after resurrecting H.R. Giger’s towering nightmare machine early last year, Scott will seemingly do away with the Xenomorph in order to focus on artificial intelligence – think of Michael Fassbender’s dual role in Covenant and you’ll begin to get a sense of the direction in which Alien is headed.
Because make no mistake, another film is on the cards, and it’ll purportedly dovetail Scott’s prequel saga with the beginning of Alien, which originally launched a million nightmares in 1979. Neill Blomkamp, on the other hand, is busy crafting his own independent, far-future thrillers under the banner of Oats Studios.
