Neill Blomkamp Calls Time of Death on His Sigourney Weaver Alien Film

Jill Pantozzi | June 6th, 2017

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has given an update on his much discussed Alien project that would have starred Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn. Prognosis negative.

Speaking to The Verge he spoke in no uncertain terms, the film is not happening.

I think it’s totally dead, yes. That would be an accurate assumption at this point. It’s sad. I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.

Verge: As in studio politics?

Yeah. Ridley [Scott] was one of my idols growing up. He’s so talented and he’s made this film that really set me off in a direction. I want to just be as respectful and not go stamping around in this world that he created. I think that if the circumstances were different, and I didn’t feel like I was getting too close to something that he obviously feels a massive personal connection to, that things that may have played out differently. But I did want to be as respectful as possible.

I spoke just recently about Blomkamp’s vision and how it seemed to be blocked by Scott’s altered plans for the franchise. Honestly, after Scott’s Prometheus follow-up Alien: Covenant did poorly at the box office, I thought Blomkamp might get a ring from Fox. Plus, the director has a good relationship with Sigourney Weaver. She starred in his film Chappie and will also feature in his new project, so far only dubbed “Volume 1” from his own Oats Studios.

C’est la vie I suppose. The whole Verge interview is a great look into Blomkamp’s creative mind, definitely worth a read.

(via /Film)