Movies

Neill Blomkamp's 'Alien' Sequel On Hold Indefinitely

Neill Blomkamp Alien room
By Angie Han

After all that fuss, it looks like the only Alien sequel we'll be getting in the foreseeable future is Ridley Scott's. Director Neill Blomkamp has confirmed that his Alien movie has been put on hold indefinitely, and that he'll be moving on to other projects. See the Neill Blomkamp Alien announcement after the jump. 

Blomkamp confirmed the news on Twitter.

(Blomkamp's Twitter account is unverified, oddly, but this is the same account that first announced his Alien plans in February.)

The news shouldn't come as a huge shock. We heard a couple of months ago that studio 20th Century Fox was hitting pause on Blomkamp's Alien sequel until after Scott's Prometheus sequel, at Scott's insistence. Then a few weeks back Scott, revealed his Prometheus sequel was now going by the title Alien: Paradise Lost, suggesting a more direct connection to Alien than previously assumed.

At the time, we noted that the new name undermined the notion that Blomkamp's movie would be the "real" Alien sequel, while Scott's would carry on the torch for the Prometheus spinoff. Scott's new plan may have put him too close to Blomkamp's, making the latter unnecessary. Blomkamp's tweet does refer to his project as being in "holding," so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he'll be back to work on it after Alien: Paradise Lost. But maybe don't hold your breath.

In January, Blomkamp unveiled a trove of concept art from an Alien project he said he'd been working on. The designs got the fandom buzzing, and in February 20th Century Fox officially announced that it had set Blomkamp to direct an Alien movie with Scott producing. Some overlap between Blomkamp's project and Scott's was probably inevitable, and indeed, Blomkamp let slip in March that he'd had to tweak his concept a bit to get out of Scott's way.

With Scott's Alien: Paradise Lost gearing up for an early 2016 shoot, it would've been 2017 at the earliest before cameras rolled on Blomkamp's Alien sequel. And even then, things could've gotten complicated with Scott's plans for further Prometheus sequels. Earlier, the idea was for Blomkamp to keep working on the Alien script while Scott finished up his movie, but clearly it's been decided that even that's not worth it anymore.

So with Blomkamp off Alien, where's he headed next? He hasn't said, but maybe now would be a good time to return to his long-promised District 10. District 9 was the movie that put him on the map, and so far he hasn't had much luck outside that world; he's coming off of two duds in a row (Elysium and Chappie). Whatever he does next, here's hoping he stays far away from the script. Ideas, world-building, unique visuals — those are his strengths. Screenwriting, not so much.

Are you bummed Blomkamp's Alien has been put on hold? What do you want to see him do next?

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