It's been quite a while since the status of DISTRICT 9 director Neill Blomkamp's ALIEN sequel (which would have ignored the events of ALIEN 3 and ALIEN: RESURRECTION to serve as a direct follow-up to ALIENS) was changed from "in active development" to "shelved indefinitely" / "cancelled permanently", but 20th Century Fox's decision to move forward with Ridley Scott's ALIEN: COVENANT instead of Blomkamp's ALIEN 5 continues to seem like a big franchise blunder.
COVENANT wasn't well received and it doesn't look like Scott is going to be able to finish the trilogy of films he intended to bridge the gap between the original ALIEN and the prequel PROMETHEUS. Meanwhile, the new HALLOWEEN sequel is raking in the dough because it features the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as heroine Laurie Strode. I can't imagine that Blomkamp's ALIEN 5 (or whatever it would have been called) wouldn't have been a huge success, being tied to ALIENS and featuring the return of Sigourney Weaver as heroine Ripley.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Weaver mentioned that even ALIENS writer/director James Cameron was a fan of Blomkamp's idea.
Asked if we'll ever see Blomkamp's ALIEN 5, Weaver said,
We almost started to do it when I was working with James Cameron. But by the time we were put off by Fox, Neill had gotten so many jobs that we’d have to wait probably. I’m busy doing Avatar 4 and 5. I love working with Neill and I think he’d do a terrific job, and James Cameron really thinks it’s a great idea, so you never know. Right now, I think Neill’s got like three projects going at once."
I would still love to see this project get made someday. We'll have to wait and see what the future of the franchise will be like now that Fox has been purchased by Disney.
In the meantime, at least we have Blomkamp's ROBOCOP RETURNS, a direct sequel to the original ROBOCOP, to look forward to.
