Movies
New ‘Alien’ to Follow Ridley Scott’s Next ‘Prometheus’
Last night the Web shook as District 9, Elysium and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp revealed his next project would be a new Alien movie, presumably starring Sigourney Weaver.
Official news followed, confirming 20th Century Fox had signed Blomkamp to the project, while also revealing two other major pieces of information.
No matter how obvious it seemed, we can now confirm that Alien director Ridley Scott and his company Scott/Free will produce the new Alien, which will take place following the events of his Prometheus trilogy.
I say trilogy because Fox confirmed Prometheus 2 is still in the works. Also, it’s pretty obvious that, based on Blomkamp’s concept art, his vision for Alien takes place following the events of the initial four films – and those films take place after the timeline of the Prometheus trilogy. In the art we see an older Ripley, as well as a deformed (clone?) of Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn) who we all thought died in David Finchers’s 1992 Alien 3. Ripley also looks to finally don the Engineers’ Space Jockey helmet to pilot an alien ship. My guess is she’s going back to the Xenomorph’s home planet, as she’s openly expressed her desire to do, in order to kill the species once and for all, and could potentially pilot the crashed ship to safety.
Ironically, this is sort of what happened in the original script for Prometheus, which wasn’t supposed to be a trilogy. The plan was for the Alien prequel to take place on the same planet as Alien, and for the Space Jockey ship to be shot down linking directly to the crashed ship in Alien. This was changed to set up the Prometheus trilogy, which is at least guaranteed to have a sequel. Michael Green is penning the screenplay with plans to have it in theaters by summer 2016. Neill Blomkamp, in the meantime, will develop the screenplay for his Alien sequel. Don’t expect that until at the very earliest 2017.
What do you want from the new Alien?
Up next from The People’s Joker director Vera Drew is a found footage movie titled Trandemic, and it’s being made possible by the Transgender Film Center Found Footage Feature Fund.
Deadline notes in a report this afternoon that Vera Drew’s Trandemic is the very first recipient of the award, created to “support micro-budget feature filmmaking by transgender creators.”
The outlet explains, “Applications were first evaluated by the Transgender Film Center and partner representatives, with finalists then presented to Duplass Brothers Productions, who selected the winning project.” Vera Drew will receive a $25,000 cash grant to bring Trandemic to life, with the project being described as a “cosmic found footage horror-comedy.”
Deadline further details, “The award package also includes creative advisory support from Duplass Brothers Productions; mentorship with Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice; a final script review from Duplass before production; development guidance from Kevin Nicklaus of Sandstone Artists; 15 days of in-kind post-production services from Aesthetica Post, including conform, color grading, light VFX, DCP delivery and festival-ready masters; a $37,000 post-sound package from Aura Sound and Color; and festival submission waivers from Transgender Film Center and partner festivals, including Fantastic Fest.”
“I’m so wildly stoked and honored to be receiving this grant from the Trans Film Center and Duplass Brothers Productions,” Vera Drew said in a statement. “Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass reinvented the found footage genre with the Creep franchise, so their support means the world to me as I gear up to do the same with my sophomore feature film Trandemic.”
“There were so many incredible projects submitted to us, I wish we could have picked every one of them,” Mark Duplass said. “But here’s the good news … everyone who built their projects to be made at a $25k budget? The hard part is already done. They can now go out, crowdfund it, and bring it to the world at a time when auteur-driven found footage horror is having a real moment.”
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