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Remember that awesome concept art that director Neill Blomkamp released last month for a secret Alien movie he was developing? That photo of Sigourney Weaver in the space jockey helmet lit the geek community on fire, and while fans appreciated the concept art, you could practically hear the collective sigh of disappointment when Blomkamp said that he didn't think he was developing the project anymore.
But wait! In a new interview with Uproxx, Blomkamp (who has Chappie coming out early next month) says that he might actually make the movie after all. That's great news! Here's a snippet of the interview:
The art was very specific, it looked like a complete story. Ripley is wearing a space jockey helmet.
It was a whole story. Then I just wasn’t sure if I was going to do another film, like, at all.
Why?
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.
Is that you giving up on possibly doing an Alien movie?
It’s not really giving up on the idea.
People on the Internet responded really well to that artwork.
There’s a high possibility, a high degree of chance that it happens that I go back and try to get Alien made.
He sounds pretty serious, which gives us a little more hope than a lot of the empty talk that seems to surround projects like this. And he really makes it seem the only thing standing between us and a Blomkamp-directed Alien movie is...well, Blomkamp himself.
In case it never happens, why is Ripley wearing a space jockey helmet?
I can’t tell you! It might happen! It’s cool though; it’s really cool … I’ll decide soon.
Someone at Fox should listen to you about this.
That’s not the problem, actually.
What’s the problem?
Me. I’m the problem. Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it.
So if you called right now and said, “OK, done.”
Yes. Then it would happen.
Would it be your vision, or do they have their own ideas?
No, I think it would work out.
Then just do it.
I know, I just have to mentally agree with that.
I'm sure things are slightly more complicated than he makes them out to be, but if he's shooting straight here, he's basically saying that all he has to do is come to terms with making the movie and then he'll actually be able to make the movie. I understand the hesitation - there would be a lot riding on it, and after the way fans responded to Prometheus, the Alien movies aren't exactly hot properties right now. There would be tremendous pressure to deliver something awesome, and it would be a multi-year commitment that would take him away from directing original projects. I'm guessing he'll take a look at how Chappie does and then make his decision from there, but fans of the franchise should be really stoked that this is a possibility.
Weaver was at last year's Hero Complex Film Festival, and I transcribed a conversation she had about returning to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley.
After going to a couple of these Comic-Cons and meeting fans who are so passionate about the series and passionate about Ripley, I do feel that there’s more story to tell. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t think Alien belongs on Earth popping out of a haystack or something, which is where I was afraid it was going to go – the French countryside, or something – but I feel it should take place in the far reaches of the universe where no one in their right mind would ever go. There are very few filmmakers I can think of that I would want to entrust this to, but I can think of a couple.
I feel there’s a longing in certain groups of fans when I meet them for the story to be finished, because we sort of really left it up in the air and I feel a bit badly about that because I was part of that decision-making process. I didn’t want to make 4 and 5. I think it’s hard to make these all in a big jump, you know? You need time to sort of let things resonate. I can imagine a situation where we can at least finish telling her story. I think that would be very satisfying, at least to me. Although I haven’t done anything about it. But I can understand why that might happen and I certainly have met young filmmakers who are very interested in doing that so we’ll have to see what happens.
Moderator: Is that a conversation you've had with Mr. Cameron?
Mr. Cameron’s too busy on Avatar. But I think he’d be – it would really depend on the story and the script. I certainly think there’s something else to say about it and he would certainly be someone I would want to be in that conversation. But he’s too busy. I’m thinking, we always had some crazy young dude doing it – and it could be a woman, too – but anyway, some brilliant young filmmaker. We’ll see. It’s certainly not something that I think about too much, except when I see the movies, I go, ‘God, we’ve gotta finish this story.’
So Weaver is definitely into it. Hopefully Blomkamp can put this together, because his concept art looked fantastic and I'd love to see what he does with a new movie in that franchise.
