A few weeks ago, DISTRICT 9, ELYSIUM, and CHAPPIE helmer Neill Blomkamp gave us a look at a mysterious ALIEN verse project via some provocative and impressive concept art.
Now we have a bit more context regarding what that was all about, and it’s sounding like our seeing a Blomkampian ALIEN film on the big screen might not be out of the question at all. Per a chat with Coming Soon, Blomkamp indicates...
“Fox didn’t know that I was developing it, so in that sense, it was completely unsanctioned and just basically for fun. To me, it wasn’t for fun. To me, that was what I wanted to do next, and I spent a lot of time doing it, and there was a lot of effort that went into…”
[EDIT]
“The issue was more like whether I feel like directing another film at all,”
[EDIT]
“Alien and Aliens are probably my favorite films so was I was like, ‘Sh*t, I wouldn’t mind messing around in that world for a bit’ so I just sort of self-funded the artists to work on the artwork…”
[EDIT]
“Fox was blindsided by it, which wasn’t my intention,”
[EDIT]
"I don’t know whether it’s going to happen or not. We’ll see.”
Meanwhile, in THIS discussion at Uproxx, Blomkamp seems a bit more certain that he could get his ALIEN movie made - if he wants to.
Someone at Fox should listen to you about this.
That’s not the problem, actually.
What’s the problem?
Me. I’m the problem. Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it.
So if you called right now and said, “OK, done.”Yes. Then it would happen.
So there you have it. We may, just MAY, be on the cusp of a Neill Blomkamp ALIEN movie.
Would you like to see him dabble in that universe? Personally, I think it would be a pretty great idea and I’d love to see what his unique take on the subject matter would look like and feel like on the bigscreen. I still find DISTRICT 9 rather remarkable, and CHAPPIE (arriving March 6) looks promising. I do think ELYSIUM struggled to find its thematics and tone, but not to the extent that Blomkamp should resist the opportunity to fully engage in this project. It just…feels right, somehow.
Fingers crossed…
————
Glen Oliver
“Merrick”
