Neill Blomkamp is sick of talking about Alien

Alien is still a chestburster for director Neill Blomkamp—at least, judging by a recent, inexplicably and unexpectedly contentious interview with Uproxx about his Gran Turismo adaptation. Between 2015 and 2017, Blomkamp generated quite a bit of hype for his now-canceled Alien 5, which would’ve focused on Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley character, despite the competing Alien-related projects, including Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Nevertheless, throughout that time, Blomkamp remained optimistic online, where he shared concept art and props.

In his talk with Uproxx, which takes a nosedive after the director is reasonably asked about living up to a seismic hit like District 9, the subject turns to Alien and the production designs Blomkamp posted on Twitter a few years ago. Blomkamp responds tersely, “It’s hard to define how little I care about what happens with Alien.” Fair enough!

While it’s clear something about the interview offended Blomkamp, it seemingly closes the book on his involvement with the franchise. And, to be fair, Blomkamp hasn’t been involved with Alien since 2017, when Ridley Scott declared the project all but dead, so it does make sense that he’s tired of talking about. “There was never a script,” Scott said at the time. “It was an idea that evolved from, I believe, a 10-page pitch, and I was meant to be the producer on that. And it didn’t evolve. Fox decided that they didn’t want to do it, and that was it.”

Last year, producer Walter Hill confirmed that since Disney bought Fox, their interests in Alien have changed. “We took a shot at that a couple of years back with Sigourney,” Hill told The Hollywood Reporter. “But that was back when Aliens was still at Fox. The people at Disney, who now control Aliens, have expressed no interest in going down that road.”

Still, the subject continued to follow the director, and though he comes off as burned in Uproxx, Blomkamp has had a sense of humor about the defunct project in the past. In 2021, he joked to The Guardian, “It’s possible that Ridley watched Chappie and he was like, this guy can’t do Alien so let’s just go ahead and move on.”

In the same interview with The Guardian, Blomkamp hints at how painful the collapse of Alien was for him. “I’m not gonna work on a film for two years and have the rug pulled out from underneath me and then go hang out and have beers,” he said. “It’s exactly why I don’t want to do IP based on other people’s stuff ever again.”

“If there’s something amazing and the set-up is right, I wouldn’t say no, but generally speaking, after Halo and after Alien, it would be unwise to do that”

Blomkamp has obviously reconsidered that stance, what with the release of Gran Turismo, which opens on Friday, but his point is well taken. It’s also clear that he has mixed feelings about a project he worked on for years and never went anywhere, and again, point taken.

Led by Legion and Fargo creator Noah Hawley, FX’s Alien TV series is currently in production in Thailand sans any of its SAG-AFTRA-affiliated stars. Given how the strike has been going, we’ll see if that egg ever hatches.