There had been rumours ever since concept art started turning up on the Internet but now it's official.
Despite saying that he was done with studio films, it would seem that Neill Blomkamp's next film will be a sequel to Alien. The news was leaked by the director on Instagram with a photo of Giger's classic monster and then confirmed in Variety. Blomkamp had previously said that his experiences making Elysium and Chappie had put him off making studio films and given David Fincher's experiences making Alien 3, you could hardly blame him for being cautious.
Leaked concept art included an acid-scarred Hicks, a new Alien design and Ripley as a Space Jockey.
However the various concept art that turned up on the Internet certainly looked interesting and Blomkamp has proved himself very capable of creating believable creatures and combining live action and effects flawlessly. We can only hope that this new film will incorporate some of the concept ideas seen in the leaked art such as the return of Ripley and a surviving, acid-scarred Hicks. There was also a redesigned Alien, a look inside the headquarters of Weyland-Yutani and, most intriguingly, Ripley as a Space Jockey.
What kind of film Blomkamp plans to make is a mystery but the possible return of Hicks would suggest a sequel to Aliens, rather than Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection. Quite how he plans to address the advanced years of both Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn remains to be seen but we're all for ignoring the existence of the latter Alien films and giving Aliens the sequel it deserves. What has been made clear is that this new Alien film remains separate from Ridley Scott's planned sequel to Prometheus.
What do you think, has the idea of Neill Blomkamp playing in the Alien universe got you excited? Let us know in the thread below.
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