Alien 5 Delayed Indefinitely Due to Prometheus 2

[JaredJones]

Alien 5 Delayed Indefinitely Due to Prometheus 2

With the box office success of The Martian representing a return to form for Ridley Scott, it appears that the original Alien director is throwing his weight around re: Prometheus 2.

Well, this is a downer.

Ever since it was announced that Ridley Scott would be directing had designed a kickass new pulse rifle [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133220-Prometheus-2-Planned-For-2016-With-Alien-y-Scope] that would be featured in the movie if/when it ever came out.

Of course, the production of the tentatively-titled Alien 5 surely wasn't helped by Blomkamp's recent failures at the box office with Elysium and Chappie, nor by Scott's constant insistence that he tweak certain things about the movie [http://www.vcpost.com/articles/69804/20150526/neil-blomkamps-alien-5-making-adjustments-for-ridley-scotts-prometheus-2.htm] to fall in line with Paradise Lost.

Unfortunately, today brings even worse news for those among us who would rather watch Alien vs. Predator a dozen times in a row over the original Prometheus, as it seems that Blomkamp's dream project is being delayed indefinitely to allow Scott to move forward with *his* sequel.

The unfortunate news was delivered by none other than Blomkamp himself, via Twitter [https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw].

"alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things... as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley," wrote Blomkamp last night.

As disheartening as it is to see a true fan of Scott's work be shoved aside by him, I guess it makes sense to move forward with the sequel to the prequel before anything else. Let's hope that Alien: Paradise Lost, which is currently scheduled for a May 30, 2017 release date, puts up as decent numbers like the first one did, lest 20th Century Fox decides to abandon Blomkamp's Alien sequel altogether.

Source: Cinema Blend [http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Alien-5-Just-Hit-Major-Snag-Get-Details-91317.html].

Permalink

 

[Casual Shinji]

Good.

This means we'll only get one likely failure as opposed to two.

The idea of retconning 3 and Resurrection out of existence seemed horribly arrogant anyway. And thankfully Blomkamp's marshmellow man sized social commentary won't be yet another black mark against this franchise.

 

[Fox12]

This suits me just fine. The last thing we need is an army of alien's who are also a symbol for corporate lawyers, Republican's, or something else equally pretentious. Whatever happened to subtlety in movie making? I can't decide which would be a worse fate for the franchise, another Alien directed by Blomkamp, or another Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott.

Now, if we could just get Prometheus canceled we'll all be right as rain.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The idea of retconning 3 and Resurrection out of existence seemed horribly arrogant anyway. And thankfully Blomkamp's marshmellow man sized social commentary won't be yet another black mark against this franchise.

At this point, who cares, sling continuity out the airlock and let's hope one movie or the other will turn out to be good.

I'd take a good movie in exchange for continuity chopping any day.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

...I guess it makes sense to move forward with the sequel to the prequel before anything else.

Does it? IIRC, they didn't really leave things set up for any prequel sequel, other than not-Ripley arriving at the Engineer planet and introducing Aliens through some horribly contrived coincidence to explain why the Engineers don't just kill her on sight.

There's really not a lot to go on. I'd rather let the franchise go to sleep and hope that someday someone actually writes a good space horror again.

 

[rcs619]

Well, at least The Martian was good. That means we at least got one good Ridley Scott movie this decade.

Unless something drastically changes, I imagine Prometheus 2 will be just as poorly-constructed and up its own ass as the first one. It should be a very impressively-directed trainwereck at any rate. The writing and plot may have been terrible, but no one can fault Scott when it comes to pure, technical directorial skills.

I really wish he'd let someone like Blomkamp come in with a fresh take on things, but I can understand him wanting to hold his creation close to his chest. Even if it turns out to be terrible, the Alien franchise is his, and he's got all the right in the world to make more terrible movies set in it.

Maybe one of these days Alien will get back to its roots, and become a fun haunted-house-in-space and/or action-movie once again. That's one of the reasons Prometheus fails as an alien movie. This series was never about deep, sweeping storytelling or pretentious metaphysical themes... it was about a cast of fun, distinctly human characters having to fight for their lives against a savage, unyielding, mysterious predator from beyond the stars.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Prometheus' problem was that is was clearly written as to be part of a series of movies, not a stand alone feature. This was way back when every movie was (is still) trying to mimic Marvel's cinematic enterprise.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh for fuck's sake!
No one liked Prometheus! No one liked Alien 3!
Everyone liked Aliens! Get a clue, Hollywood! You're worse than EA!

 

[flying_whimsy]

Talk about a catch 22 for Blomkamp: if prometheus 2 is a hit, he'll be forced to dance along to Scott's demands, but if it fails, he won't get to make the movie.

As others have said, I've also had doubts that Blomkamp could make an alien movie without it just being 'white guilt in SPACE!!!' Still, it couldn't have been any worse than AvP 2. I always thought one of the strengths of the series was giving different directors a chance to give their own take.

Seriously, though, I'm not happy to get another Prometheus: it could have been so much more if Scott had just left out the xenomorph origin story bullshit and focused more on the gods and their creations motif. Horror is almost always more effective if you don't know where the villain comes from.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Alien 5 Delayed Indefinitely Due to Prometheus 2

With the box office success of The Martian representing a return to form for Ridley Scott, it appears that the original Alien director is throwing his weight around re: Prometheus 2.

Well, this is a downer.

Ever since it was announced that Ridley Scott would be directing had designed a kickass new pulse rifle [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133220-Prometheus-2-Planned-For-2016-With-Alien-y-Scope] that would be featured in the movie if/when it ever came out.

Of course, the production of the tentatively-titled Alien 5 surely wasn't helped by Blomkamp's recent failures at the box office with Elysium and Chappie, nor by Scott's constant insistence that he tweak certain things about the movie [http://www.vcpost.com/articles/69804/20150526/neil-blomkamps-alien-5-making-adjustments-for-ridley-scotts-prometheus-2.htm] to fall in line with Paradise Lost.

Unfortunately, today brings even worse news for those among us who would rather watch Alien vs. Predator a dozen times in a row over the original Prometheus, as it seems that Blomkamp's dream project is being delayed indefinitely to allow Scott to move forward with *his* sequel.

The unfortunate news was delivered by none other than Blomkamp himself, via Twitter [https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw].

"alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things... as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley," wrote Blomkamp last night.

As disheartening as it is to see a true fan of Scott's work be shoved aside by him, I guess it makes sense to move forward with the sequel to the prequel before anything else. Let's hope that Alien: Paradise Lost, which is currently scheduled for a May 30, 2017 release date, puts up as decent numbers like the first one did, lest 20th Century Fox decides to abandon Blomkamp's Alien sequel altogether.

Source: Cinema Blend [http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Alien-5-Just-Hit-Major-Snag-Get-Details-91317.html].

Permalink

Slapping on a sight and a couple of aiming modules does nothing but ruin the look of a timeless sci-fi weapon that was designed by people who knew what they were doing.

 

[TristanBelmont]

Elysium was a failure? It did super good .-.

 

[rcs619]

Oh for fuck's sake!
No one liked Prometheus! No one liked Alien 3!
Everyone liked Aliens! Get a clue, Hollywood! You're worse than EA!

To be fair, Alien 3 gets a lot more flak than it deserves. It's definitely the weakest of the original trilogy, and the way they killed Hicks and Newt offscreen never sat well with me, but it's still leaps and bounds above Resurrection or any of the other stuff.

Talk about a catch 22 for Blomkamp: if prometheus 2 is a hit, he'll be forced to dance along to Scott's demands, but if it fails, he won't get to make the movie.

As others have said, I've also had doubts that Blomkamp could make an alien movie without it just being 'white guilt in SPACE!!!' Still, it couldn't have been any worse than AvP 2. I always thought one of the strengths of the series was giving different directors a chance to give their own take.

Seriously, though, I'm not happy to get another Prometheus: it could have been so much more if Scott had just left out the xenomorph origin story bullshit and focused more on the gods and their creations motif. Horror is almost always more effective if you don't know where the villain comes from.

I actually think Blomkamp's style of political film-making is really well suited for the Alien universe. I mean, one of the main themes is how unrestrained corporate greed and power can ruin lives and potentially kill people all in the name of making a buck. The secondary main antagonist of the franchise is a huge, faceless, souless corporate juggernaut with enough political clout to get the Colonial Marines deployed at its whim, along with having its own private army for when it needs to do its own dirty work. Blomkamp would have a freaking field day with that.

I always thought the main issue with Prometheus was that there was no one around to tell Ridley Scott "No, this is an awful idea." It reeks of the same sort of pretentious, self-indulgent naval gazing that George Lucas brought to the Star Wars prequels when no one would actually stand up to him.

It's not like this is the first time for Scott either. Go look into some of the original plot points of Alien, back in the original draft. There were some pretty dumb ideas in there, but he actually had a team that he listened to (or wasn't afraid to disagree with him) and we wound up with a better final product.

 

[Hawki]

Y'know, I can't help but feel some Schadenfrude from this (sp?)

While Prometheus was a letdown, I'm looking forward to the sequel, as I think it has the potential to be great, if the writing is tightened up. "Alien 5" on the other hand, has struck me as fanfiction. Now, I like/read/write fanfiction, but the declaration that it'll "finish Ellen Ripley's story" and by proxy, retcon Alien 3, Resurrection, and supposedly any EU work that even references this material, reeks of arrogance to me. Now, I know that neither of those two are popular films, even if I actually quite like Alien 3, but even if I didn't, I wouldn't request those films be retconned for the "true story" to be told. Heck, as much as I outright despise Requiem (as in, really despise. Really, REALLY despise), I wouldn't want it retconned either.

Newsflash - the Alien universe doesn't revolve around Ellen Ripley. You can tell stories in this universe without having to bring her character back.

 

[Kajin]

Slapping on a sight and a couple of aiming modules does nothing but ruin the look of a timeless sci-fi weapon that was designed by people who knew what they were doing.

I don't see how that "ruins" a gun.

 

[Vigormortis]

God-fucking-damn-it.....why did The Martian have to do well?

It's bad enough we're getting a sequel to Prometheus[footnote]Which failed on just about every level, save for visual and audio design.[/footnote], but this news further increases the chance that Scott will move forward with his "Alien/Bladerunner" crossover film.

Just...ugh, fuck me. Franchising has gotten so ridiculous in the film industry.

 

[Laughing Man]

"Alien/Bladerunner" crossover film.

Lol what? Really?

As for this, good, the whole retconning the third and fourth movies to suit his needs just didn't sit right. End of the day 3 was not as bad as people try to make out and it at least sat well within the tone and setting of the Alien Franchise, also Newt and Hicks just suddenly alive again.... really? Oh yeah the way they were killed off was pretty meh especially after what they went through to escape LV-426 but that's that.

so we get another Prometheus, well frankly that's just as bad Retconning history set up by two other movies. Alien was great, the concept of this truly Alien being found on an Alien planet that has one purpose (later expanded on in Aliens.) No knowledge of where it came from other than it was found on another Alien ship. A truly scary creature and part of that menace and fear was the fact that we really have no idea where these things came from. Finding out how they came in to being in the Prometheus movies actually removes some of that menace and fear. Also doesn't Prometheus ret-con the AvP movies? Prometheus is set after the events of both the AvP movies but the Aliens we see in those movies are the Aliens we are familiar with where as Prometheus is the start of how these Aliens came about?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Tron 3 gets canceled right before production begins and now this happens. Glad I haven't looked forward to going to the movies in ages. As far as I'm concerned, Neil Blomkamp could easily made a better Alien movie than modern Ridley Scott.

Scott okayed and filmed a shitty overly-rewritten script full of characters that didn't just hold the idiot ball, but were themselves the physical manifestation of idiocy. The screenplay of Prometheus just felt like was passed around, everyone added their own ideas, and nothing stupid was cut out. (Too many cooks spoil the soup, eh?) The whole movie looks to set up Alien's wrecked ship on LV426. The angle the engineer ship crashes is even the same as the derelict. We get told the film would be an Alien prequel, then nope, it "shares the universe and is set on another planet." Righttttt. They probably just cut it up to make a the real prequel later and lazily added filler.

I won't deny it's possible for the next one to actually be good. Feedback might have been taken into account, and we won't have "top of their field" biologists waiving their fingers in the face of space snakes this time. But, I'd rather have seen an alternate timeline after Aliens, a better ending for Ripley. Just because Alien 3 and Resurrection would be reconnected doesn't mean you can't still watch them.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Slapping on a sight and a couple of aiming modules does nothing but ruin the look of a timeless sci-fi weapon that was designed by people who knew what they were doing.

I don't see how that "ruins" a gun.

The additions do not share the visual aesthetic of the gun and as such look out of place. They needed a bit of work to make them look like they belong there. Then again, maybe it's a bad shot/angle - but I doubt it.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

The only Alien film I really liked was the first one anyway and you know something like that isn't getting made again. The idiot popcorn munchers would get bored.