Neill Blomkamp’s Alien Prequel Officially Shelved

Neill Blomkamp / Instagram

In news that will be a relief to some and disappointment to others, Neill Blomkamp has taken to Twitter to confirm that his Alien sequel will be put on hold indefinitely. Unfortunately the tweet doesn’t give many details aside from the fact that the project will now be shelved pending Ridley Scott’s Prometheus 2 (now titled Alien: Paradise Lost) and that the District 9 director will shift his attention to other projects.

alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things… as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley

— ?eill Blomk?mp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015

Blomkamp didn’t decide to start his own Alien project until early 2015, and that was through his own will and use of concept art. There was no script, but Blomkamp showed some concept art that looked cool enough and made fans go crazy enough that Fox noticed and greenlit the project. His story was supposed to revisit Ripley’s story line and had her reuniting with Corporal Hicks. At the same time, Scott’s project was continuing its development as a direct sequel to Prometheus and less of a prequel to Alien. Fox and the two directors knew some overlap in production would occur but the story/direction of each’s film was different enough to avoid major issues.

That was until Scott revealed in a September interview that Prometheus 2 would be officially titled Alien: Paradise Lost, and implied it’d be more closely related to the Alien franchise than originally thought. Thus, his new direction put his project in too similar of territory as Blomkamp’s and Fox deemed Blomkamp’s no longer necessary. Scott’s project ultimately taking precedence over Blomkamp’s if it got down to it was always the likeliest outcome. Blomkamp’s last two films, Elysium and Chappie, weren’t critical or box office successes, while Scott is well…Ridley Scott, and The Martian has become a critical and box office knockout.

It’s unfortunate for Blomkamp because the director seemed very passionate about his entry and the concept art was admittedly very cool. Fans who wanted so much for a fresh and proper Alien sequel will definitely be disappointed. Those that are bummed though can take comfort in that fact that his tweet uses the word “hold” so maybe after Scott’s pseudo-Prometheus sequel pseudo-Alien prequel, we’ll see Blomkamp’s vision back in action.