As of right now, Neill Blomkamp’s big ambition to make a new entry for the Alien universe is dangling clutched in the jaws of a studio power loader, wondering whether it’ll ever get the chance to be shot. But while we wait to see whether that actually happens, Aliens veteran Michael “Hicks” Biehn has been spilling a few details on Blomkamp’s vision.
Some of it we already knew, such as the basic idea that it would act as though Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection have been summarily wiped from existence. And the fact that Ridley Scott, the overlord of the Alien and Prometheus films, is pushing ahead with his own current project, Alien: Covenant, which continues the story of synthetic-with-a-suspect-agenda David and the evolution-spurring engineers. But, talking with Icons Of Fright, Biehn did say something new about the idea: “They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around 27 years old. I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that’s what the bottom line is now: money.”
He also seems confident that Blomkamp might one day get to make his film, but obviously has no real line on when. “I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.” We’re not so sure on that front, and even the idea of an older Newt doesn’t necessarily make us jump for joy. Still, what we do know is that Alien: Covenant has targeted an October 6, 2017 release date in the US, so that is everyone’s focus for now.