So it looks like Neill Blomkamp will get to direct that Aliens sequel after all.
After posting some art last month from a never-made film in the Alien franchise that the District 9 director had conceptualized and commissioned, Blomkamp appears to have sparked the right kind of interest in his dream project. Yesterday, the filmmaker announced (via Instagram) that an Alien-related project was “officially my next film.”
Here’s the photo that Blomkamp posted, along with the announcement via caption:
http://instagram.com/p/zQwEQ0qhBq/?modal=true&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=photo
20th Century Fox later confirmed Blomkamp’s announcement, and clarified that the project will be a sequel to the Alien franchise, and not the Prometheus sequel currently scheduled to hit theaters in 2016.
Given that Blomkamp called James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens his favorite film of all time, it seems pretty safe to consider the upcoming film a bona fide dream job for the director. In fact, Blomkamp hasn’t shied away from professing his love for Aliens — the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien — while promoting his new film, Chappie.
When asked a few weeks ago about the concept art featuring Aliens stars Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn (as Ellen Ripley and Corporal Hicks, respectively), as well as a new kind of “face-hugger” alien, a massive alien queen, and other iconic elements from the franchise, Blomkamp said the art was inspired by conversations he had with Weaver while filming Chappie.
“[Sigourney] knows about it,” Blomkamp told ComingSoon last week. “Part of it was just inspired by speaking to her on set when we were filming Chappie, and getting her thoughts on Alien and what she thought of the movies that came after Aliens and what she felt about Ripley and what was incomplete for her about Ripley. There was so much fuel in what she was telling me.”
