The decades since 1997 held a lot of promise for an upcoming Alien 5 but no matter what the screenplay was, to which studio the franchise belonged, or who the directors involved with the film were, somehow the time was never really right. With Sigourney Weaver claiming that she would come back but only for the right script, the time is running out since Disney has officially expressed no intentions of green-lighting the Weaver-approved script of Alien 5 penned by Neill Blomkamp.
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The Many Failed Attempts at the Making of an Alien 5
Over the years, numerous scripts had graced the directors’ tables as ideas for the proposed sequel to the Alien franchise which stopped with Alien: Resurrection (1997). Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, that was the last of Sigourney Weaver‘s appearance as Ripley, although now as a human-alien hybrid clone. The original franchise had lost its aura after the greats like David Fincher and James Cameron had bid farewell after their stints in the original trilogy.
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The future brought in prospects from Joss Whedon who proposed an earth-bound alien script but ultimately it was Ridley Scott who launched the mind-bending 2012 ensemble cast film, Prometheus. Its 2017 sequel, Alien: Covenant was received poorly by critics and audience alike, with many claiming the prefix was added simply to draw in the Alien fanbase. After the back-to-back failure of Scott’s attempts at reviving the franchise, the further rumors of a follow-up movie eventually died down.
Disney Casts Shadow Over the Latest Proposal of Alien 5
With Cameron officially signing out of the franchise, Neill Blomkamp‘s script was the sole remaining hope of ever seeing Sigourney Weaver back on the screen as Ellen Ripley. However, the idea was shut down by Disney who now owns 21st Century Fox (the studio originally associated with the franchise) after the 2019 acquisition. Walter Hill, producer, and screenwriter, who has had a lengthy relationship with the initial trilogy, has revealed to The Hollywood Reporter about the shelving of the Blomkamp script.
“We took a shot at that a couple of years back with Sigourney. But that was back when Aliens was still at Fox. The people at Disney, who now control Aliens, have expressed no interest in going down that road. I had an idea for a good story with the Ripley character and Sigourney.”
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With the recent mergers and acquisitions going on in the industry, we are already witnessing the vast array of changes being brought by new management. However, the extreme slashing going on at WB is, fortunately, something that Disney has not yet been capable of. With the watered-down approach of the company toward its Marvel-acquired projects, the news of the Predator prequel seemed unlikely to have any critical success, but Prey did surprisingly well in audience perception. That instills some hope as to the unlikely future of Alien 5.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
