Neill Blomkamp isn’t making an Alien movie, but the director behind District 9, Elysium, and the upcoming Chappie posted some Alien-themed concept art to his Instagram account over the weekend. The series of images, illustrated by Geoffery Thoorens and Doug Williams, provide some clues as to what might have been if Blomkamp helmed a sequel.
Accompanying the first image, Blomkamp shares that at one point he “was working on this. Don’t think I am anymore. Love it though.” What follows is a series of illustrations that feature the signature Engineer ship seen in both Alien and Prometheus, a queen xenomorph, and the return of both Ripley and a severely scarred Hicks—despite the fact he supposedly died in between Aliens and Alien 3. Thoorens has since posted some of the images to his DeviantArt page with “Alien5” in the title.
It’s not clear how the film would have fit into the existing franchise, why he’s no longer working on it, or even how formally the project was pitched. Blomkamp previously indicated he wasn’t interested in adapting existing Hollywood properties, but maybe that was just a way of politely passing on Star Wars. If seeing these images leaves a chestburster-sized hole in your heart, there is a glimmer of hope. In his final posted image, Blomkamp teases us with the possibility that “maybe I’ll go back to it ….love the world.”
[via The Hollywood Reporter]