UPDATE: After posting a bunch of Aliens concept art to Instagram without 20th Century Fox's knowledge, director Neill Blomkamp is now officially working on an Aliens sequel for the studio.
Read the original post below:
Neill Blomkamp, the South African filmmaker who directed District 9 and Elysium, rang in the New Year by sharing a large amount of concept art for a sequel to Aliens that he may not be working on anymore.
It appears that Blomkamp's art was not developed by 20th Century Fox, but was part of a pitch to the studio.
Ps this has nothing to do with the studio. I just feel like I might do something else instead. In which case why not show some work-
The most radical thing about Blomkamp's concept art is that it's clear that the story would've taken place shortly after James Cameron's 1986 blockbuster Aliens, and would seemingly disregard the subsequent two films in the series.
The leads would be Sigourney Weaver's iconic character Ellen Ripley, and Michael Biehn's space Marine, Corporal Dwayne Hicks. These were the only survivors of Aliens along with the android Bishop and the young girl, Newt.
Hicks and Newt were both killed off-screen in 1992's Alien³, which was directed by David Fincher.
Blomkamp's story looks like would've mostly taken place in a space station operated by Weyland-Yutani, the sinister company at the center of the franchise.
It would've also included the mysterious spaceship where Ripley's crew initially came into contact with the xenomorphs in Ridley Scott's original Alien from 1979.
This art, which depicts Ripley wearing the armor of the "space jockey" from the abandoned ship, is particularly exciting.
The film would've also featured some new tweaks on H.R. Giger's classic designs for the "face hugger."
It's possible that Fox passed on Blomkamp's pitch because they are in the early stages of producing a sequel to Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which is also set in the Alien universe.
This wouldn't be the first time Blomkamp has scrapped work on an existing franchise. The director abandoned work on a film adaptation of the video game series Halo after a few false starts.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Blomkamp's 2013 hit Elysium has a lot of visual and thematic similarities to Halo.
So who knows – maybe some of Blomkamp's ideas for Alien will turn up in a movie of his own someday.
H/T i09
This post has been updated to include the news that Neill Blomkamp is now developing a sequel to Aliens.