Sigourney Weaver really wants Neill Blomkamp’s proposed fifth Alien sequel to happen. So much so that she’s hit the mic multiple times over the past few months to keep the hype alive. Last week, she confirmed that the screenplay disregards the third and fourth sequels, and now she says the story gives Lt. Ellen Ripley an ending.
“It’s a great story and it’s satisfying to me to give this woman an ending,” Weaver told Entertainment Weekly. Now, this is a surprising and slightly hypocritical statement, if only because she originally insisted on Ripley’s sacrificial death at the end of David Fincher’s Alien 3, despite Fox’s obvious hesitations about killing their blockbuster hero.
Of course, any meaning to that death went straight into the incinerator on Fiorina “Fury” 161 when Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection hit theaters and brought back a deranged, cloned Ripley. So few will argue with Weaver’s desire in wanting a better ending than the chaos that followed the Sulaco’s tragic, messy descent.
(Read: How Neill Blomkamp’s Alien Sequel Can Work)
But an enviable final chapter isn’t the only thing that Weaver’s sold on. “The script itself has so much in it that’s so original,” she adds,” but also really satisfies the, I would say, the primal needs of the aliens. It’s a tribute to all of the great work that the other directors have done, in a way, but goes in a completely new direction.”
And here’s why Ridley Scott might have been up in arms and insistent on doing Alien: Revenant before this sequel. As the veteran filmmaker continues to plumb the depths of the Alien mythology, perhaps Blomkamp’s ideas didn’t gel with what he has in store with next year’s Prometheus sequel? Or maybe Blomkamp hit too close to home?
Whatever the case, the sequel remains in hyper-sleep, which is upsetting for Weaver as she contends, “we would have already done it by now.” Instead, she’s now committed to James Cameron’s Avatar sequels while Blomkamp has turned his sights on The Gone World. Still, she remains hopeful and insists Alien 5 “will be worth the wait when we finally get to it.”
In the meantime, Weaver will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aliens by joining director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, and Newt herself, Carrie Henn at San Diego’s Comic-Con for a Q&A that takes place Saturday, July 23rd. Odds are we’ll hear more information around that time.
As for Alien: Covenant, Scott’s Prometheus sequel is due in theaters August 4th, 2017. The cast includes Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Katherwin Waterson, Carmen Ejogo, and Billy Crudup. Additionally, Kenny Powers himself, Danny McBride, will pilot the titular space craft.