The Alien sequel that everyone's gunning for is the one that remains up on blocks. Neill Blomkamp teased an Aliens follow-up in early 2015 with a bunch of concept art that left jaws on the floor. Ripley *and* Hicks... ALIVE? Say it ain't so! Since then, the project went from a maybe to a definitely and back to the development zone, after Ridley Scott got his wish to make the Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant first.
The question isn't if it will happen, but when, according to Hicks. During a recent interview with Forbes, Michael Biehn - who played the rough n' ready Marine - recalled how he was first made aware of Blomkamp's movie. "Well, she’s [Sigourney Weaver] doing the movie, Chappie, and he pitches her an idea for another movie in the Alien franchise, which I thought was dead and gone as she probably did too as well as Fox. He tweeted out some pictures of me, he said he’s going take the third and fourth film and act like they never happened and things blew up... Sigourney says they are still doing their project."
Blomkamp's film remains a passion project for Sigourney Weaver. She's said repeatedly that it's "worth the wait" and that it will give fans everything they're looking for. Everyone wants it to happen for that reason alone. Biehn believes it's more about 20th Century Fox not getting egg on its face. "It would be very embarrassing to Fox if they don’t give Sigourney the movie that she really wants to go out on."
"I don’t know when it’s going to happen but I know it’s going to happen and I know I’m going to be in it," he confirms, before repeating a few details we heard from him last year. "There’s going to be a new Newt, she’s going to be about 26 or 27 and looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence to me but I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a passing of whatever and then the franchise can move on so they can make more money because that’s what it’s all about."
The most recent piece of Blomkamp's concept art shows Newt all grown-up. That lends a bit of weight to Biehn's comments, although she still shares a remarkable similarity to Carrie Henn the actress who played her in the 1986 sequel - not Jennifer Lawrence. I'd watch either actress tackle the role at this point though if it meant the film was headed into production.
Images: Fox
