Walter Hill’s Alien 5 idea mixes scares and meditation on the fate of Ripley

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Last week, Sigourney Weaver revealed that ALIEN franchise producer Walter Hill had sent her a 50 page treatment for an ALIEN sequel that would require her to reprise the role of franchise heroine Ripley one more time. Since the series has been in the hands of Ridley Scott, who has been crafting a prequel trilogy that began with PROMETHEUS and continued with ALIEN: COVENANT, Weaver wasn't sure if Hill's idea would move forward, or if it even should. She told Empire Magazine, "Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest."

Now Hill has confirmed to Syfy Wire that he has indeed written a treatment for an ALIEN 5 with fellow franchise producer David Giler. Hill and Giler both previously received "story by" credits on ALIENS and screenplay credits on ALIEN 3. The ALIEN 5 idea is something they have been working on quite recently, with the latest draft of the treatment done in March of this year. Their Brandywine production company even went so far as to show Syfy Wire the cover page of the treatment, complete with quotes and taglines. 

On the cover page, the classic ALIEN tagline "In space no one can hear you scream" has been extended to include the line "In space no one can hear you dream". That's followed by the Edgar Allan Poe quote "All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream", and finally William Tecumseh Sherman's line "War is hell".

Plot details were not revealed, but when addressing Weaver's apparent hesistance to bring Ripley back Hill said, 

Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley."

Hill's statement, along with the quotes on the cover page, make it sound like Hill and Giler have a very interesting idea here. But this also raises a lot of questions. What's with all the references to dreams and meditation? And if the producers are eager to bring Weaver / Ripley back, why didn't they just stick with the idea Neill Blomkamp was working on, which also involved Hicks and Newt from ALIENS?

Nothing is certain about the future of the ALIEN franchise at this moment, but we'll keep you updated whenever we hear anything more about the ideas that are being thrown around.