Once upon a time, Neill Blomkamp — the creative mind behind District 9, Elysium and the upcoming Chappie — was attached to direct the long-gestating Halo movie, and is now in contention to oversee the pilot episode of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming TV series. But the filmmaker also has a vested interest in another venerable sci-fi franchise and has even drafted up his own vision of what that end product could look like if he had the opportunity to one day direct.
And that IP is none other than Alien, 20th Century Fox’s legendary haunted-house-in-space that spawned an entire universe of sequels and middling spinoffs. Posting the rather striking images through his Instagram account, Blomkamp confirmed that he was at one point working on a concept for a new chapter in the series — in an unofficial capacity, we assume — but not anymore.
Unfortunately, the esteemed director didn’t shed any light on when and why the project stalled in the early stages of development, or whether or not Fox had anything to do with its eventual fate. Still, given the quality and detail in these stills, Blomkamp clearly has an affinity with the Alien IP, and we’ll hopefully learn more about the story surrounding his vision during his next inevitable press round.
In no particular order, the artwork itself boasts depictions of a Xenomorph queen, an alien sprawl ship and a rather cool elongated helmet for Ripley. In addition, there’s also a still that showcases Ellen Ripley alongside Michael Biehn as Hicks, who sports facial scarring following his encounter with the deadly acid blood in James Cameron’s Aliens — yay, continuity!
For the full range of concept art for Neill Blomkamp’s Alien film, check out the pictures embedded below and be sure to share your own impressions of the images in the comments section.
A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on