Are Shaw and David bumping Ripley and Hicks off the schedule?
Back when Neil Blomkamp’s Alien 5 was announced to be real, it seemed the stuff of fanboy fever dreams. Well, as we all know it’s in development over at Fox with Ridley Scott producing. However, it’s possible that it may take longer to come out than originally anticipated if Bloody Disgusting is to be believed. It seems Fox is holding off on Alien 5 in favor of the Prometheus 2 production.
Why is that?
There could be a number of reasons, including production resources or simple marketing strategy. These movies are very big undertakings and sometimes juggling too many balls at the same time means you drop a few. If each movie has its own turn at bat, that means each will gain more attention on its own.
It’s also possible that Fox wants to be ready with back to back releases of the Prometheus sequel in 2017 and Alien 5 in 2018.
So, why is this a good thing?
Two reasons. The first is that Sigourney Weaver is set come back in the Avatar sequels, which means that production is going to be eating into her schedule. With more time to prep the film, it’ll be easier for the Alien 5 production to schedule time for Sigourney Weaver to, you know, star in the film.
The second reason is that if you’re going to write and direct an Alien film, you better make sure it’s as good as it can possibly be. Spending more time in development and pre-production means more planning and creative work, which will hopefully lead to stronger material. Blomkamp in particular has come under some criticism for Elysium and Chappie’s storytelling, while many still praise his directing. If he can iron out all the plot holes and make the character work as strong as possible due to the extra time, then it will have been completely worth it.
The simple fact of the matter is, if you’re making the successor to Aliens you better bring your AAA game.
So, do we know if this is in fact a direct sequel to Aliens? What about Alien 3 or Resurrection?
Corporal Hicks himself, Michael Biehn, has been adamant that Alien 5 will ignore the previous two entries in the series, though rumors have been back and forth in that regard. On the one hand, if they don’t ignore Alien 3… how will they get around Ripley’s death? And if they do ignore it, fans of the third film (they do exist, we swear) may be upset. After all, Alien 3 may be a bad sequel to Aliens… but it’s actually a pretty decent Alien film in its own right.
We’ll just have to see how it plays out. Overall, however, it’s going to be a bit of a wait until we hear more.
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