When Neill Blomkamp released some of the artwork for his proposed Alien film, I was impressed. Then, when I heard the news this past week that FOX had actually made it happened, I was ecstatic. You will know Blomkamp as the director of ‘District 9’, ‘Elysium’, and ‘Chappie.’ He also holds writer credits on all three movies. For Alien 5 he is writing the script and directing, and we know very little beyond that other than it is set years after whatever happens in ‘Prometheus 2’, which is kind of obvious, really.
Firstly, as much as it hurts my soul to say it, FORGET Alien 3 & 4. Simply ignore them. ‘Prometheus’ is too far in the past, I think, to be of much consequence, other than the fact that obviously it might have some impact on how Blomkamp is allowed to portray Engineer technology, now that Scott’s established more concretely what they’re like beyond fossilized corpses. The same goes for the AVP films, although those are almost certainly rendered non-canon by ‘Prometheus.’
So, what would Alien 5 entail? Here is how I would do it.
Start the film with a montage of clips from Aliens and end it with Newt/Ripley/Hicks and Bishop going to sleep. Cue title. Open the movie with Newt, now in her 30’s and still having nightmares about what happened to her. She’s now a Weyland-Yuntani scientist and is determined to find out the source of the derelict ship, the eggs and their meaning. She also wants to wipe them out. She gets into trouble and Ripley/Hicks have to save the day with help from a decommissioned Bishop who gained his rights as a sentient being. Side note…Do we even know what exactly Weyland-Yutani want to do with a Xenomorph once they get their hands on it? Research? Bio-Weapons? A cameo in ‘Spaceballs 2?’
As far as the look of the film aesthetics-wise, I personally hope they skew more toward ‘Alien’ and ‘Alien: Isolation’ rather than ‘Aliens’, though I sort of expect the latter, especially since it will fit the timeline better. The technology and the spaceships need to be a bit more streamlined — hopefully not as clean or Apple Store or shiny as the Prometheus bridge. The used future aesthetic is even more important to ‘Alien’ than it is to ‘Star Wars.’ Space travel is hard, dirty, and dangerous, not fun. It should be sparse, grungy, and very retro-futuristic. Go for the simple monochromatic command-line interfaces and beep-boops of the Nostromo’s tech. I’ll be curious to see if they try and use holograms and flat screens like Prometheus or pivot back to the CRTs of yesteryear the same way Isolation did. I think it would be pretty fresh if they tried that approach, but it might be a tough sell given how dated it might feel. Basically, simplistic graphics, but clean and very high-resolution.
The Alien brand has an alchemy of rich material and atmosphere. You need a composer that would not be trapped by paying homage to what came before but to push the melodies and soundscape to the next level – which is where Michael Giacchino comes in. Hell, Giacchino credits Jerry Goldsmith as one of his childhood favorites. It is a no brainer.
Some sequels will hit, others will fail, but overall the lore of Alien is one that should be pursued from time to time. Getting some fresh talent involved in direction and production might be a boon to the franchise and not the end of transmission.
-Dagobot
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