Blomkamp: 'Alien Franchise Went Wrong After Aliens' (Exclusive)

Neill Blomkamp, the director of the upcoming ‘Alien 5’, told Yahoo Movies that the franchise “went wrong after ‘Aliens’”. Watch our interview below.

The ‘District 9’ director, who is currently promoting new sci-fi film ‘Chappie’, said he will ignore ‘Alien 3’ and ‘Alien: Resurrection’ in the upcoming sequel - and he explained to Yahoo why.

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He said: “I am a fan of ‘Alien’ and I am a massive fan of ‘Aliens’ and I feel the franchise went wrong after ‘Aliens’.

“So as a fan I’m like ‘let me conceptualize a world that takes place after ‘Aliens’’.  That’s what I think they [the studio, Fox) like. It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the fact there is an approach, an idea, that continues on the lineage that they signed up for. Not those ancillary things that they didn’t want. As a fan I want to see that.”

He went on: “I think that the connection between ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’… I think Cameron got the DNA correct in a way that it feels like a sibling of ‘Alien’. My job is to do that. My job is not to do my stuff. My job is to make it the third film of genetic lineage that makes 3 of them. That’s my goal.”

He also hinted that 65-year-old Sigourney Weaver, who stars in ‘Chappie’, could return as Ripley in the film.

He said: “Ripley is an interesting character. It’s not physical, she uses here mind. She’s strong through intelligence and conviction. 60 is young. She could be doing it at 80!”

He said that the reason he was given the gig was connected to the huge amount if positive press generated by the ‘Alien’ concept art he released last month, but not in the way we’d think.

“The studio, Fox, would’ve made it at any point, but it had nothing to do with the studio, it had to do with me. I don’t think of myself as movie director, I think of myself more as an artist and sometimes I just want to get closer to art. I was like ‘do I want to do a big film, or do I want to do some kind of weird art stuff?’. That was the debate. It had nothing to do with the studio.

“Then I thought I won’t do a massive film, let me just put some stuff out there [the ‘Alien’ concept art] that myself as a fan would dig. And then this always happens to me at the end of every film where I’m like ‘yeah I do want to go back and make a film!’.

Finally, he also told us how the upcoming ‘Alien 5’ affects the sequel to ‘District 9’ – ‘District 10’.

“‘District 10’ is weird. The unfortunate thing with these projects is that they take 3 years to make. Any decision you make – you’re 3 years behind.

“The thing that I like about ‘Alien’ is that I want to flex other muscles. ‘District 9’ and ‘District 10’ – there’s a lineage between my last 3 movies that ‘District 10’ would share that I’m totally game for. I’d like to make it. But I want to just flex some other muscles first.”

‘Chappie’ is the story of a police enforcement robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) that develops artificial intelligence. Hugh Jackman plays a villainous robot designer trying to shut him down and co-stars with Dev Patel and Sigourney Weaver.

‘Chappie’ is released in the UK on March 6. Check out the awesome trailer below. 

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