Movies
Sigourney Weaver Ready For Final ‘Alien’ Battle!
The internet exploded when District 9, Elysium and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp shared some insanely cool concept art from his Alien movie pitch.
Two days ago things heated up when Blomkamp revealed that his Alien film “may happen.”
While the story’s hot, sites continue to stoke the fire. CS quickly caught up with Blomkamp, as well as Chappie co-star Sigourney Weaver, who both had quite a bit to add.
“Fox was blindsided by it, which wasn’t my intention,” Blomkamp explained. “I just wanted to share artwork with people that liked the franchise. I don’t know whether it’s going to happen or not. We’ll see.”
When asked what the deal was with that concept art, whether it was something he was playing around with or something he was actively developing, “It was sort of both,” he added. “Fox didn’t know that I was developing it, so in that sense, it was completely unsanctioned and just basically for fun. To me, it wasn’t for fun. To me, that was what I wanted to do next, and I spent a lot of time doing it, and there was a lot of effort that went into. Like when I could take breaks between ‘Chappie’s’ post-production winding down as VFX got under control.”
It really awesome to see how intense he is about making an Alien film, although it shouldn’t come as a surprise as both Elysium and District 9 are soaked in homage.
But what really makes this story hot is that Weaver, star of the first four Alien films, has been working regularly with Blomkamp. This means he can pitch her on a daily basis, while also take her ideas into account. She confirms there’s been on-set chatter.
“He kept sending me these brilliant designs and ideas and everything. We’ll see what happens,” she told CS.
Weaver has always been very vocal about her desire to return to the Alien franchise, mostly because her character’ arc was never completed. In the past she’s stated she wats to see Ripley go back to the Xenomorph planet and “kill them all.” Here she explains why she stopped making the films, and clarifies what it would take to get her back at the badass Ellen Ripley.
“It’s not that so much is that we just left it at such a creepy place, sort of stranded above Earth. I was quite happy to move onto other things and I didn’t want to go to Earth. I didn’t want to manufacture a sequel and I felt like we were starting to do that. If something happens from this, it would be very organic and very original, and because of that, it would make me want to do it. If it was someone as talented as Neill, I’d certainly listen.”
Listen she may, but this all feels very real to me right now. While everything is speculation, a Neill Blomkamp Alien feels inevitable, almost destiny if you will. And the fact that he works with Weaver is of no coincidence. The respect between the two could lead us to one final Alien film to end all Alien films.
I’m drooling acid right now.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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