Upon doing the press rounds for his soon-to-be-released sci-fi film Chappie, director Neill Blomkamp offered an update on his pitch to Fox pertaining to a new, stylistic Alien movie. Word of the concept first came to light via the filmmaker’s Instagram account last month, where he revealed some truly inspired concept art of his nascent idea, replete with Xenomorphs and wonderful grotesque alien artefacts.
Speaking with Collider, Blomkamp revealed that while the project has been on the back burner, his vision of what an Alien movie could be may still rear its greyish, elongated head on the silver screen one day.
“There was a reason I wanted to make that film. I still may make that film. [Laughs] It may happen. But I did it on my own time. Like when Chappie was winding down in post and I had available time, I started to work on it. It was also from talking to Sigourney [Weaver] during the making of this. I mean, I asked her about Alien all the time. Alien and Aliens are my favorite films.
“So I genuinely wanted to make that film, I came up with the story, I came up with way more art than I put out and I never officially spoke to Fox about it, but Fox wanted to make it. So, I kind of touched on it and I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know if I was just gonna go leave directing for a whole bunch of time and then I was like, ‘I might as well put some art out.’ But I may make it. I don’t know. That’s where it stands.”
For fans of Fox’s seminal sci-fi franchise, this is a fascinating extract; however, nothing is official at the time of writing. Plus, given that the studio is pursuing the path of prequels what with Prometheus 2, a fully-fledged Alien movie may not be on the cards for some time yet. But should Fox one day choose to resurrect the indelible beast, we’re holding out hope the Blomkamp is given an opportunity at the helm.