Yesterday director Neill Blomkamp shared the above image on his Instagram with the caption: “Um…So I think it’s officially my next film. #alien.”
A few weeks ago Blomkamp shared some concept art he’d done for a potential Alien sequel, a sequel that never came to fruition. Fox must have liked the art, though, because Blomkamp is on board to direct a new Alien sequel that will follow the forthcoming Prometheus sequel.
I’ve had a long history with the Alien franchise. I’ve shared my fears of the franchise, fears that I overcame in order to watch and review Alien and Aliens. I loved both of those movies but haven’t gotten around to watching Alien 3 or Alien: Resurrection, mostly because I’ve heard they’re not as good. Blomkamp is a very talented director, though, so hopefully he can bring the Alien franchise back to its previous heights.
Along with the news of a new Alien movie, I’m also very excited for a sequel to Prometheus. I loved Prometheus and thought it was one of the most thought-provoking science fiction movies I’ve seen in a long time. As an Alien prequel it didn’t answer a lot of questions, which may have been why some people didn’t like it.
A Prometheus sequel still might not answer enough questions, but Blomkamp’s movie will be set after the Prometheus sequel. So hopefully Blomkamp’s movie will give us an idea of how the Engineers and the weird little alien from Prometheus ended up terrorizing Sigourney Weaver.
Thankfully I’ve gotten over my fear of the Alien franchise because Alien, Aliens and Prometheus are three tremendous science fiction films. Hopefully Blomkamp’s sequel and Prometheus’s sequel will be more like the first two Alien movies and not the last two.
What are your thoughts about Neill Blomkamp’s Alien movie?
I’m excited about this. I’ve seen the Quadrilogy and I believe they are strong, mostly, in the order in which they arrived, with the fourth being perhaps superior to the third, despite some stuff that . . . well, you kinda have to see it. The third one is a bit bewildering, but there is a director’ cut out there, which I’ve heard is better. There’s also some great stuff in the fourth film because of the awesomeness that is Jean-Pierre Junet (not to mention Ron Perlman). I’ve yet to take the ‘Prometheus’ plunge, but I will, and I’m interested to see where all of this is going.
I’ve got the Quadrilogy on Blu-ray so it’s just a matter of carving out the time for Alien 3 and Resurrection. When I think about it, though, I just want to watch the first two agin.