Neill Blomkamp on his vision for Alien: “At least a film, if not more”

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

Lately it seems we're getting inundated with news on CHAPPIE director Neill Blomkamp's upcoming ALIEN film almost every damn day, and while we're still a long ways off from seeing the flick hit theaters I'm up for taking in every little morsel of new info on the film as it comes in. Yes, I'm that excited about it.

Now Blomkamp has shared more about his ALIEN movie while speaking with Empire, and it's filled with some nuggets of exciting info. Here's some of the highlights below, with one line that really stood out. Blomkamp shared…

"If you go back even three or four years, I’ve wanted to make a film in that genre, in that franchise. I’d come up with an idea, and when I met Sigourney on the set of Chappie, I presumed that she would never want to play Ripley again. Rightly or wrongly, I had that in my head. I also didn’t know where you could go with her, given Alien 3 and 4.

"So when I started speaking to her, I just wanted to know more about the process of making the first two films. The first two are the ones that I care about. Then I started to realise there was a whole film – at least a film, if not more – that still contained Ripley, which I was really surprised by.

"At least a film, if not more." Could this mean expanding his story to other mediums (books, comics, etc.) or even future sequels? I'm not sure, but I'm excited by the prospect of following Ripley past the next ALIEN film, no matter what form that may be.

Blomkamp goes on to say…

…I knew that my artistic compass kept driving me to Alien. Whenever I wasn’t needed on Chappie, I spent time on Alien, to the point where I hired my own concept artist and fleshed the entire movie out, basically, and then I still didn’t know if I wanted to do it.

"Every film I do, I genuinely believe it’s the last film I’ll do. I didn’t think I’d make another film, let alone a big studio one. But it came from a place of love, and I was like, ‘If I’m a fan, then other fans should see the stuff.’ Here’s one person’s take on it, you know? So Fox didn’t know.

"I saw Sigourney again, and her enthusiasm in it, and me still not knowing what I was doing… Well, the thing that actually made it really clear was that we have xenomorphs all over the house [including drinking glasses depicting graphic scenes from the films]. No bullshit, that actually is what made me realise that there’s a massive portion of my brain that’s taken up by the world of the xenomorph. And I’m like, ‘Hmm. Valid point.'"

While no date has been given for Blomkamp's ALIEN film, nor has a production start date even been announced, I'm still stoked that Fox is behind this film and that it is going to happen. Sigourney Weaver has stated that Blomkamp's vision will "Break new ground" and we're excited to learn more about what we can expect. Stay tuned!