In late 2015, it was revealed that 20th Century Fox‘s plans for Neill Blomkamp‘s (District 9, Elysium) proposed Alien 5 were on hold pending the release of Ridley Scott’s prequel Alien: Covenant.
Then, with the release of Covenant, Scott was asked about Blomkamp’s 5th Alien film:
“There was never a script,” “It was an idea that evolved from, I believe, a 10-page pitch, and I was meant to be part of the producers on that. It didn’t evolve. Fox decided that they didn’t want to do it and that was it. I’d already done ‘Prometheus’ and I was planning ‘Covenant’ so I dunno.”
Blomkamp then confirmed the news:
“I think it’s totally dead, yes. That would be an accurate assumption at this point. ” “It’s sad. I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.”
The now-canceled movie would have brought back many from the original cast, with Sigourney Weaver praising Blomkamp (she worked with Blomkamp on Chappie) and expressing her interest in returning to the character of Ripley.
Michael Biehn would have returned as Hicks, albeit heavily scarred, as seen below. We would even see Carrie Henn returning, who quit acting after her role as Rebecca “Newt” Jorden, the sole survivor of the colony on LV-426. The film would have ignored the events of 1992’s Alien 3, in which both Newt and Hicks were unceremoniously killed off.
Even so, the Alien franchise is still alive and well and it will continue to be for a long time to come if we are to believe Ridley Scott. Who says that he has three more sequels planned that will eventually connect back to the original Alien. As for Blomkamp, he will most certainly give us other great sci-fi flicks, he is now occupied with the experimental film venture Oat Studios that he’s using to produce a number of sci-fi short films.
We are left with the great concept art of a movie that will never be, shared by Blomkamp via his Instagram account. The art was created by concept artist and matte painter Geoffroy Thoorens. Check out more of Geoffroy Thoorens art by visiting the links below.
Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Artstation
All images used with permission by the artist. All images © Geoffroy Thoorens or their respective copyright holder.
