To the relief of sci-fi fans worldwide, South African director Neill Blomkamp is going to direct a new Alien movie.
The idea of a Blomkamp Alien film first grabbed people’s attention in early January, after the director posted some concept art on Instagram. The art looked incredible, but more importantly, Blomkamp—best known for Elysium and District 9—seemed like the ideal person to take over the franchise.
To many fans of the Alien franchise, Ridley Scott has become a George Lucas figure, a filmmaker whose best work was in the 1970s and ’80s and whose recent return (in this case, Prometheus) felt like a serious misstep. Meanwhile Blomkamp is one of the most original sci-fi directors around right now, and his work on District 9 proves that he could bring Alien back to the edgy, grimy tone of the first two movies.
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Unfortunately, Blomkamp’s Instagram captions made it pretty clear that he wasn’t working on the movie any more, and most fans consigned it to the world of Jodorowsky’s Dune and Tim Burton’s Superman: cool projects that should have happened but never made it through development hell. But that all changed on Wednesday, when Blomkamp posted this to Instagram and Twitter:
According to Variety, Blomkamp’s untitled Alien sequel is back on track. Hopes are high that Sigourney Weaver will reprise her role as Ripley, as she features heavily in Blomkamp’s concept art and he worked with her on his most recent movie, Chappie. At 65, she is younger than action stars like Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, all of whom have recently returned to franchises they helmed in the 1970s and ’80s.
Elsewhere, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus 2 is still in the works. Right now, though, it looks like Alien fans are far more excited by the prospect of Blomkamp’s sequel.
Photo via Pug50/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)