This Is The Holdup With Neill Blomkamp’s Alien Movie
Early this year, Neill Blomkamp released a bunch of concept art for an Alien movie he had been working on. It looked crazy awesome, and the idea of the visionary director of District 9 and Elysium delving into that particular universe sounded incredible. But it was unclear if it was something he was doing for fun, or if it was an actual project that was in the works but petered out. We’ve now learned the real deal, and the truth is that the only thing standing between us and Neill Blomkamp’s Alien movie is actually Neill Blomkamp himself.
His latest, the allegorical robot adventure Chappie (which looks like the bastard child of RoboCop and Short Circuit, and I mean that in the best possible way), comes out in a few weeks and he’s been hitting the promotional circuit hard. Talking to Uproxx, the director shed some light on his Alien endeavor.
As it turns out, he started tinkering with an Alien idea when he had a moment to breathe in his hectic schedule. He says, “Basically, what happened was, when Chappie got heavily into post-production, I could take my foot off the gas a bit. I was thinking about what I wanted to do next and I’ve been wanting to make an Alien film for like years and years.”
Sigourney Weaver, who, among other notable things in her illustrious career, played Ripley, the iconic lead in the franchise, stars in Blomkamp’s latest, and she had a hand in the genesis of his idea. He says:
Speaking to Sigourney Weaver, when we were doing Chappie, she set off a bunch of thoughts in my head—I had come up with an idea that didn’t have Sigourney, it was a different idea. But I spent all of the shooting time with her, it was like, holy shit, that could actually be really interesting. When I came back to Vancouver, I had an entire year to work on Chappie. And when I wasn’t needed in the edit, I could think about Alien. So, I basically developed an entire movie and I did all of this artwork as well
And what we saw back in January, what he shared on Instagram, is only a part of what he came up with. He says, “I produced way more art than I put out.”
Ever since he went through a helllacious experience trying to get a Halo movie made, Blomkamp has been wary of big studios. A combination of that, and exhaustion sounds like it is the major hold up. He says, “I just wasn’t sure if I was going to do another film, like, at all. Sometimes Hollywood just sort of gets to me. I love movies, but Hollywood itself is a difficult animal to negotiate. So, then I was like, if I don’t do any, I should put some of this artwork out and that’s exactly what happened.”
And for once, the studio is totally on board, and it sounds like the moment he says yes, it’s all go. He says, “I’m the problem. Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it.”
Though it isn’t happening now, or possibly ever, Blomkamp does say there is “high possibility” that he will at least kick around the idea of making an Alien movie in the future. This is damn near the best idea we’ve heard all day and is something that needs to happen sooner rather than later. We just need him to say yes. Would your rather see a Neill Blomkamp Alien movie or Prometheus 2?
