Ridley Scott Downplays Neil Blomkamp’s Alien 5: ‘There Was Never a Script’
Alien: Covenant director Ridley Scott says it’s doubtful that fellow director Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 will ever be made. Blomkamp, who burst onto the scene in 2009 with the inventive, Best Picture Oscar-nominated sci-fi tale District 9, made his desire known, after working with Sigourney Weaver in 2015’s Chappie, that he wanted to reboot the Alien franchise with Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley. Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel essentially erased the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, and was meant to properly finish telling Ripley’s story.
Curiously, Blomkamp was pushing for Alien 5 despite the fact that Scott, who directed the first Alien, made what was effectively a prequel to his 1979 sci-fi epic with Prometheus in 2012. Blomkamp’s plans for Alien 5, however, were far from just a pipe dream. In addition to reportedly attracting Weaver’s interest, Blomkamp developed concept art for Alien 5 that signaled the return of a scarred Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Newt (Carrie Henn) as an adult, since both characters were found dead by Ripley at the beginning of Alien 3. The project got so much attention that it even earned the praise of Aliens director James Cameron.
Shortly thereafter, of course, Scott began his work on Alien: Covenant. And if that wasn’t enough to dampen Blomkamp’s spirits, Scott’s latest thoughts on the prospects of Alien 5 will. In an interview with the French publication Allocine, Scott offers his opinion on the future of Blomkamp’s film. He says (translated from the original French by Screen Rant):
Quote:
“I don’t think it will ever see the light of day. There was never a script. Just an idea that evolved from a dozen or so pages. I had to participate as producer, but it didn’t go farther because Fox decided it didn’t want to do it. As far I was concerned, I had already done Prometheus and I was working on Covenant. “
If by some miracle Scott does an about-face on his remarks and gives his blessing to Blomkamp to make Alien 5, it won’t happen anytime soon. Scott said in March that – unlike Alien 5 – the script has already been written for the sequel to Alien: Covenant (tentatively titled Awakening), with production beginning as soon as 2018. Scott even says that Weaver may even return to the franchise (which he doesn’t plan on closing again) at some point, and she would be de-aged with the wonders of CGI.
Since Scott is effectively the father of the Alien movie franchise, there’s no reason to doubt the sincerity of his remarks. Clearly he’s serious about the future direction of the series, otherwise, he never would have done Prometheus and picked up on the franchise up again with Alien: Covenant. Scott’s words shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to Blomkamp, who put Alien 5 on hold in 2015 as Alien: Covenant went into production. Scott’s new remarks, however, all but suggest that Blomkamp should just move on and leave the Alien franchise in hands of the filmmaker who engineered the idea in the first place.
[Screen Rant]
