Neill Blomkamp's ALIEN sequel is on hold

For a brief while it looked like we’d see two movies set in the Alien universe being released in 2017 – Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel, Alien: Paradise Lost, and Neill Blomkamp’s untitled Alien 5 sequel. I’m going with Alien: Re-resurrection: I live, I die, I live again!

However last night the South African-born director took to Twitter to inform his followers (and the world) that his sequel, which had Scott on board as a producer, has been put on indefinite hold while work proceeds on the Prometheus sequel.

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

— Иeill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015

That might be disappointing news for fans, but I don’t find it all that surprising. All we’ve seen so far from Blomkamp’s movie is a few pieces of concept art and while District 9 announced his presence with a bang, his two follow-ups – Elysium and Chappie – were less-favourably received; and Ridley Scott is, well, Ridley Scott. But despite being Ridley Scott, the veteran filmmaker is also under immense pressure to produce the goods on Alien: Paradise Lost because Prometheus was an incredibly stupid movie that squandered a lot of good will among fans.

With both sequels coming out in the same year, if the one released first doesn’t live up to expectations that would negatively impact the box office performance of the second. So it makes sense that the studio would choose to go with the more well-established Scott, and depending on how his sequel performs, put Blomkamp’s sequel back in development; or even nix it entirely bearing in mind that Scott is also pushing for multiple Prometheus sequels.

As per his tweet above Blomkamp will turn his attention to other projects, but so far he hasn’t given any indication of what that could be – many have been clamouring for a sequel to District 9 for years. He could agitate, like in the case of Alien, to be brought on board another sci-fi franchise or work on something new again. What would you like to see him turn his attention to?

Maybe he’ll surprise us with a follow-up to Elysium, I’d be down with Kruger: Resurrection… boykie.

Last Updated: October 30, 2015