News of filmmaker Neill Blomkamp’s hypothetical Alien movie has been swirling for the better part of two years. In that time, we’ve heard so many rumours and quotes about it that it’s hard to keep them straight. But a new one is a clear as crystal.
“It’s just as if, you know, the path forks and one direction goes off to [Alien 3] and [Alien: Resurrection] and another direction goes off to Neill’s movie,” Sigourney Weaver told Entertainment Weekly.
To recap: Blomkamp, who directed District 9 and Chappie, revealed last year that he’d been developing an Aliens sequel that would bring back Weaver, Michael Biehn and others. Basically, characters who died in Alien 3. That lead everyone to assume Blomkamp’s idea would ignore Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, the third and fourth films in the trilogy. And now Weaver herself has confirmed that.
The question becomes whether or not this movie will actually happen. It was moving along well until Ridley Scott went ahead and started Alien: Covenant, which is a sequel to Prometheus and prequel to Alien. The plan at that time was for Scott to make his Alien film (it will be out next year) and then Blomkamp to make the other Alien film. As far as we know, that’s still the case but time will tell.
If Blomkamp’s film happens, though, now we know what we’ve long assumed. It’s an alternate timeline. And while I don’t particularly like the idea of wiping two films off the face of the Earth, I do dislike how the opening credits of Alien 3 instantly removed all goodwill created in Aliens. I’m excited to finally see something happen with Ripley, Hicks and Newt.
We’ll probably find out more about this at Comic-Con when Weaver joins James Cameron and the rest of her Aliens co-stars for a 30th anniversary panel. You can read more about that below.