At this point it doesn't look like Neill Blomkamp's Alien sequel is going to happen, despite their being a much louder enthusiasm for it than Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant. Scott, who is still spear-heading the franchise for 20th Century Fox, basically put Blomkamp's film on ice by moving forward with his. However, Michael Biehn, who was said to be returning as the thought-dead Corporal Hicks, spilled the beans on Blomkamp's plans and revealed that Newt would have been reunited with Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley.
Biehn, in his typically grizzled fashion, tells Icons of Fright...
"They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old. I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that’s what the bottom line is now: money. That’s why you end up seeing Terminator 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10 and The Fast And Furious 7, 8, 9, and 10."
Biehn's quick jab at the industry shouldn't be a surprise. He's spent years making his own movies outside of the Hollywood system, earning a loyal cult following in the process. But the reveal that Newt, the littl girl Ripley saved in Aliens then was seen being dissected in Alien 3, is perhaps the surest confirmation yet that Blomkamp intends to totally ignore the last two films in the franchise. Biehn continues...
"The basic idea is acting like Alien 3 and 4 never existed. … I know Ridley Scott is doing his movie first and is going to be the executive producer on this one, so I’m really looking forward to that. I know that Ridley’s focus is on [Alien: Covenant] and I’m sure that he and Fox both don’t want that and Neill’s movie to come out right next to each other, because they’re kind of two different worlds, with Aliens taking place thousands of years later, which is how they explained it all to me, but at the same time, they want to give them a similar feel. I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney [Weaver] if they just didn’t make the movie."
So here Biehn is showing some confidence Blomkamp's story will eventually be told. We'll see about that. But wouldn't it be nice if there were new Aliens stories being told, and not just revisits to the past?
Alien: Covenant comes first, though, opening October 6th 2017.
