Aside from the occasional piece of concept art surfacing online, news about Neill Blomkamp's Alien sequel is mostly a thing of the past with the film's fate having been sealed many years ago. However, the director recently opened up further on his attachment to Alien 5, the status of the film, and the support he had from Sigourney Weaver on the project.
In an interview with the Independent, Blomkamp was asked about whether there he had any interest in the discontinued Alien project. Blomkamp answered, "I don't know, to be honest. I'm not sure that I would do that project. My assumption is that it's completely dead."
The director went on to reaffirm that whilst Alien star Sigourney Weaver had shown support for the project, it had broken down on Fox's end. "Sigourney was unbelievably supportive and amazing. I have nothing but the best things to say about Sigourney," said Blomkamp. "I’m such a fan of hers on every level. She was always into the project, but Fox just clearly doesn’t want it. I haven’t had anything to do with that for years."
Weaver's interest in creating a fifth Alien movie spans back long before Blomkamp's Alien 5 was suggested to be in the works. In 2004, IGN reported that Weaver had suggested to Fox that she "thought it would be interesting to do a small, spooky movie" in the form of a psychological thriller that could "take Ripley to whatever the next stage may be."
Despite confirmation that Blomkamp isn't currently interested in revisiting Alien 5, he didn't completely rule out one day looping back to the concept. "I wonder if it’s possible to do an entire loop, where you're really into it up until the point it gets shut down, then you lose interest and years go by and you loop all the way back around to being really into it again. Maybe that’s hypothetically possible," he concluded with the Independent.
Currently, the only Alien project in the works is Noah Hawley's TV series for FX. The Alien series is not a Ripley story but will be heavily steeped in the Alien universe established in the movies.
Whilst no new news surrounding Alien 5 looks set to come out anytime soon, the recent release of Aliens: Fireteam Elite has stolen a few headlines. You can read our review of the Cold Iron Studios developed co-op shooter where we gave it a 7/10. We praised the game for its wild shootouts but thought that awkward pacing and repetitive level design held it back from becoming a classic.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.