During post production on a movie, especially a big-budget one with a full post-production crew and a lot of FX to be completed, a director might find he has a little spare time on his hands. So it was with Neill Blomkamp on Chappie, and he spent that time quite fruitfully, dreaming up a new film in the Alien series. Just for fun. Like you do. Blomkamp had a lot of concept art created for the project, showing Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn in the guise of Ripley and Hicks. This confuses continuity somewhat, but I'll roll with it for now. Then he posted this artwork on Instagram, and the internet got excited. Remarkably, the outcome of this is that Fox are keen to actually make the movie. In fact, they will do so, if Blomkamp himself decides he wants to go ahead. Or at least that's how Blomkamp is telling it. Blomkamp was speaking with Uproxx and explained, "Theres a high possibility, a high degree of chance that it happens that I go back and try to get Alien made... Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it... I just have to mentally agree with that." So let's get this straight. On a whim, Neill Blomkamp dreamt up a new Alien movie that appears to fudge various elements of continuity, went to the trouble of getting concept drawn up and then threw this out where it attracted a lot of attention and adulation. Next, Fox told him that they'd like to make the film but he... well, he's not sure. Hmmm. I'm absolutely sure we're not seeing the whole picture here. Hopefully somebody will be able to get another perspective on this from one of the other parties. And if it so happens that Neill Blomkamp does make a new Alien film, then great. I'd certainly like to see it. I'm just not quite ready to start believing this story just yet. Blomkamp's Chappie is out on March 6th, that much is sure.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
