a fifth installment in the franchise; she spoke specifically of
audience desire to see the story finished properly, and also talked a
bit about the direction she feels both the narrative and Lieutenant
Ellen Ripley might take. Nothing came out of her comments, of course,
but the reminder that Weaver still cares for the series is a welcome
reassurance.
Now recall far more recent noises made by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, who in January unveiled a smorgasbord of concept art for his own unsanctioned Alien
project via Instagram and Twitter. It’s just as much a reassurance that
Blomkamp still wants to make that movie; and according to him he may still do so, but a slew of informal, admittedly outstanding sketches don’t add up to much more than enthusiasm.
But Blomkamp has more than just pluck: he also has Weaver’s
attention. They’re both on the press tour for Blomkamp’s latest film, Chappie, in which Weaver has a supporting role, and perhaps unsurprisingly there were a few questions on the topic of Alien posed during their sit-down with Coming Soon.
Turns out that Weaver, who Blomkamp used as a sounding board of sorts
while making his drawings, is actually curious about the South African
filmmaker’s vision – as evidenced by her comments, featured below:
“It’s not that so much as that we just left it at such aWell, what are you waiting for, Neill? Send Weaver your pitch! She’s already all ears!
creepy place, sort of stranded above Earth. I was quite happy to move
onto other things and I didn’t want to go to Earth. I didn’t want to
manufacture a sequel and I felt like we were starting to do that. If
something happens from this, it would be very organic and very original,
and because of that, it would make me want to do it. If it was someone
as talented as Neill, I’d certainly listen.”
Let’s stress again that Weaver expressing interest in whatever Blomkamp has in mind for his Alien
film is the very definition of “preliminary”, and then move right past
that to say that this is, all told, pretty cool. Even if whatever
discussion the two have over his plans for the film winds up going
nowhere, it has to feel pretty good to Blomkamp that he’s managed to
earn Weaver’s consideration.
But say that their talks do wind up bearing creative fruit.
If Weaver gets invested in the production, that seems like a pretty big
step toward getting the movie made. To hear it from Blomkamp, Fox is already keen on seeing Alien reinvigorated
on the big screen. Having Weaver in his corner would just sweeten the
proverbial pot. Maybe that’d be reason enough to get something more
official in the works.
Blomkamp seems to already have satisfied most of Weaver’s criteria
for being involved just based on his artwork, but what we’ve seen is
only one part of the equation. If his ideas match his designs, or God
forbid top them, then it’s entirely possible that we might see one of
the human icons of the Alien saga make a return to tangle with xenomorphs in outer space once again. After Ridley Scott’s Prometheus failed to live up to that mythos, that seems like more than fair compensation for fans.
Chappie opens in U.S. theaters on March 6th, 2015. We’ll bring you more information on a potential Neill Blomkamp Alien movie as it becomes available.
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