Proving that Alien is now in the hands of someone with more self-awareness than its sister franchise, Neill Blomkamp told Uproxx that he remains bothered by the feeling that he “fucked [Elysium] up.” Blomkamp, newly confirmed as the director of a new Alien movie that will ignore the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, made the admission in a candid interview on the press tour for his latest movie, Chappie. Before its 2013 release, Elysium was hotly anticipated as Blomkamp’s followup to District 9, but ended up disappointing critics and audiences with its largely self-serious vision of a dystopian future that can be best described as a pageant for weird accents where everything’s real grimy-looking.
While Blomkamp said Elysium’s underperformance in the wake of District 9’s breakout success did not particularly faze him, he does feel like he “fucked it up.” Blomkamp said he “still think[s] the satirical idea of a ring, filled with rich people, hovering above the impoverished Earth, is an awesome idea,” but that he “just didn’t make a good enough film” from that kernel of a premise. As Blomkamp said these words, Ridley Scott, thousands of miles away, felt a faint pinprick at the base of his skull. For a moment, he thought he heard someone whisper, “Promeeetheussss,” but quickly brushed it off.