News: Blomkamp's "Alien" Sequel On Hold While "Prometheus" Sequel a Go

by Ken Miyamoto on October 29, 2015

The much hyped Neill Blomkamp (District 9) directed Alien sequel bringing back the characters of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Lt. Hicks (Michael Biehn) has sadly been put on indefinite hold in favor of the Ridley Scott-directed Prometheus 2, which will be headed into production in early 2016.

Blomkamp recently tweeted the update.

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 BlomkΛmp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015

This is sad news after fans were hyped by the possible return of the franchise and its two best characters.

Ridley Scott stated earlier this year that the Prometheus follow-up now is called Alien: Paradise Lost. He explained in an interview that the film will be more a prequel to 1979’s Alien, examining the “why and how the beast was invented.” He also went on to say that the allusion to the poem by John Milton is intentional, with Scott saying that there will be “really a similarity” between it and the film.

Blomkamp's Alien film seems to likely be dead, at least for the next couple of years. His concept of a sequel was first tweeted by himself, along with conceptual art featuring the characters of Ripley and Hicks. This prompted the studio to take notice. Until now.

Source: Deadline