IT wasn’t all that long ago that we got word that Neill Blomkamp was going to take over the Alien Franchise, as he teased us with a little concept art. The rumor mill swirled and we all took sides. Blomkamp came out of the gate swinging with a fantastic debut film in District 9, but his follow up films have left a lot to be desired. At that time it really was just talk and nothing had been set in stone. Well that has changed now that the new Alien film is in actual development and Blomkamp dropped this piece of concept art on us:
The obvious thing that will get a lot of attention here is not that Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley is in this pic, we already knew she was coming back for this one, but that Michael Biehn’s Cpl. Dwayne Hicks is once again popping his head up in the pre-pro art phase (sporting some nasty facial disfiguration). Whether or not Michael Beihn is cast in it still has yet to be announced and exactly where this film falls in the Alien timeline has yet to be revealed. Let’s hope that Blomkamp’s first venture into franchise filmmaking is successful because the Alien cannon is a fan favorite and lets be honest the fans have not been fed anything truly exciting or worthwhile in a very long time. Either way we will find out at some point in 2017.