Sorry, Sigourney Weaver, Ridley Scott And James Cameron Are The Only True ‘Alien’ Directors


Since Prometheus hit the big screen in 2012, director Ridley Scott has been hard at work building other worlds by directing five projects, two for the small screen.

But no project is more talked about than his return to the Alien franchise, which has polarized fans since his first return four years ago.

Now, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is wanting to also throw his weight into the game when he announced he wanted to make Alien 5.

According to an op-ed by The Guardian— which suggests that Ridley Scott should perhaps get out of the way and let Sigourney Weaver and Neill Blomkamp do their movie — there’s a feeling that the 70-year-old director put the spurs to the xenomorph he was on, shoving Blomkamp out of the way to make his Alien movie first.

As a matter of fact, the article refers to a VMWare event where Sigourney Weaver talked about Ridley Scott, asking them to hold off on their movie for his Prometheus sequel.

The Inquisitr covered the details, but after reading many of these reports, there’s a collective effort to reduce Sir Ridley Scott to a less-than-capable director, to take back the franchise he originally launched.

Sure, Blomkamp is a very talented filmmaker, who clearly loves to tell thought-provoking stories within a sci-fi format.

However, the problem with Blomkamp’s Alien idea is that it’s more fan-boy than innovation, which is fitting given his amateurish approach to storytelling in his films.

Neill Blomkamp geeks out with Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman
Director Neill Blomkamp, actress Sigourney Weaver, and actor Hugh Jackman pose for photographers at the photocall for the film ‘Chappie’, Bristol Hotel, Feb. 26, 2015. in Paris, France. [Image by Jacques Brinon | AP Photo]
An example of this would be if Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion) or even Alfonso Cuarón (Children Of Men, Gravity) were to direct instead, then there would be reason to be more excited.

But in almost all of these op-eds over their films, the comparison between George Lucas’s Star Wars and with J.J. Abrams is always made, and so the story by The Guardian is no exception.

That comparison fails for the simple fact that Blomkamp is certainly no J.J. Abrams.

You actually have to wonder if Blomkamp secured Sigourney Weaver for Chappie, just so he could follow on his geeky fantasy of showing her his Alien idea, which is a total stalker move.

Sigourney Weaver next to Alien, 1999.
Sigourney Weaver standing next to her infamous rival, June 2, 1999, at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theater, aka “The Egyptian” in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Weaver and cast members from all four films were attending a special screening of the original film to celebrate its 20th anniversary, held at the same theater at which it premiered. [Image by Chris Pizzello | AP Photo]
There’s no question that the first two Alien movies are by far better films than the last two, but all of the directors involved, were all up-and-comers.

For the most part, those movies and some of the spin-offs are basically a showcasing what new directors can do with the characters, and the one who risked the most was David Fincher, when he killed off the iconic characters.

Old folks don’t like it when you mess with things. They like the remote in a certain place, they like their coffee a certain way, and they like their Ripley where they left her, floating in space with Newt and Corporal Hicks.

And since then — much like the Republican party since 2009 – Alien fans have been polarized since the third movie, and absorbed a new faction which was created by the fallout of Prometheus, a film which many felt had stupid characters and was too simple to accept as part of the franchise.

The fact that Blomkamp wants to tap into James Cameron’s Aliens movie for the characters as the source, is the equivalent of messing with the holy scriptures, just because a certain “Sect of Ripley” hates what Fincher did to her.

This is why the Elysium director is only doing it to live out his fantasies of sharing the screen with Hicks and Ripley, and possibly be the one who won the bet he made back home with his friends, that he would one day direct an Alien movie with those two cinematic icons.

Ridley Scott, however, has every right to get back into making those movies again, and shove Blomkamp out of the way, and out of sight, and as Inquisitr reported, he is already shooting his prequel(s).

All of the directors in the series have some serious chops, as making those films is only for the adults at the table. Blomkamp can go sit at the Fischer-Price kid’s table, with the puréed peas and carrots.

Only rogue insurgents, traitors even, would deny Ridley Scott the access, but those who are more in touch with reality know that Scott should go forward and produce as many Alien movies as possible, even if it means not putting Sigourney Weaver in another one again.

[Image by Abraham Caro Marin/AP Photo]

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