Neill Blomkamp Says He Can Make ‘Alien’ Movie If He Wants To
By The Movie God
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Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 at 10:20 pm
Early last month some amazing concept art was released by director Neill Blomkamp, whose movies include District 9, Elysium, and the upcoming Chappie.
The concept art was for a new movie in the Alien series that Blomkamp was developing once upon a time, but was apparently not working on anymore, depressing as that was for the many fans of the movies who reacting with overwhelming positivity to the images.
While Blomkamp might not be actively developing a new Alien movie right this very moment, it turns out that the possibility of the movie becoming a reality is not as out of the question as it was once thought to be. In fact, according to the director, if he wanted to make it, he could. See what he had to say below.
Blomkamp chatted with Uproxx while promoting Chappie recently, when the topic of his concept art came up. He doesn’t always give very long answers, but they are very interesting ones.
He was first asked about how the idea to develop an Alien movie came from:
Basically, what happened was, when Chappie got heavily into post-production, I could take my foot off the gas a bit. I was thinking about what I wanted to do next and I’ve been wanting to make an Alien film for like years and years.
And as it turns out, Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley in the Alien franchise, was a big inspiration:
Speaking to Sigourney Weaver, when we were doing Chappie, she set off a bunch of thoughts in my head “” I had come up with an idea that didn’t have Sigourney, it was a different idea. But I spent all of the shooting time with her, it was like, holy shit, that could actually be really interesting. When I came back to Vancouver, I had an entire year to work on Chappie. And when I wasn’t needed in the edit, I could think about Alien. So, I basically developed an entire movie and I did all of this artwork as well.
The interviewer then mentioned how developed the art looked, like a full story was already there. Blomkamp confirmed that it was, before revealing that he actually wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to make another movie and why, which is the reason he ultimately decided to release the concept art:
It was a whole story. Then I just wasn’t sure if I was going to do another film, like, at all.
…
Sometimes Hollywood just sort of gets to me. I love movies, but Hollywood itself is a difficult animal to negotiate. So, then I was like, if I don’t do any, I should put some of this artwork out and that’s exactly what happened.
This all led to an amusing exchange of questions and answers that revealed that the movie could still actually happen, and the surprising reason why it’s not already officially happening:
Is that you giving up on possibly doing an Alien movie?
It’s not really giving up on the idea.
People on the Internet responded really well to that artwork.
There’s a high possibility, a high degree of chance that it happens that I go back and try to get Alien made.
In case it never happens, why is Ripley wearing a space jockey helmet?
I can’t tell you! It might happen! It’s cool though; it’s really cool “¦ I’ll decide soon.
Someone at Fox should listen to you about this.
That’s not the problem, actually.
What’s the problem?
Me. I’m the problem. Fox, they would make it. Like, tomorrow. They would make it.
So if you called right now and said, “OK, done.”
Yes. Then it would happen.
Would it be your vision, or do they have their own ideas?
No, I think it would work out.
Then just do it.
I know, I just have to mentally agree with that.
Then what’s the problem here? I assumed there were obstacles, like maybe Ridley Scott wasn’t on board.
No, no, it’s not politics.
Then let’s do it.
[Laughs] OK.
You can read more of the chat with Blomkamp and stay tuned for their interview about Chappie over at Uproxx Movies.
You can also check out the trailers for Chappieright here.
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Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
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