Sigourney Weaverhas two big cameos this summer, in the Pixar movieFinding Doryand theGhostbustersremake, which is in theaters this weekend. And as such, she has been on the press trail quite a bit, where she has dropped little tantalizing tidbits about the impendingAlien 5to be directed byNeill BlomkampofDistrict 9andChappiefame. Last month, Weaver, who is set to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley in this sci-fi sequel, confirmed that the movie will gloss overAlien 3andAlien Resurrection. Now, she says that the sequel, which doesn’t have a title yet, will finally give Ripley a proper send off. So we can look for it to be Sigourney’s final bow as Ellen Ripley.
“It’s a great story and it’s satisfying to me to give this woman an ending. The script itself has so much in it that’s so original, but also really satisfies the, I would say, the primal needs of the aliens. It’s a tribute to all of the great work that the other directors have done, in a way, but goes in a completely new direction. I hope we’ll do it.”
That last line may not be so reassuring to fans that this will ever happen. 20th Century Fox was ready to move forward on the sequel. But Ridley Scott decided that he wantedPrometheus 2to be much more of a prequel to his original 1979 sci-fi classicAlien. ThusAlien: Covenantwas born. And because Fox didn’t want any confusion,Alien 5was indefinitely delayed. Though not canceled. The waySigourney Weavermakes it sounds, it will be one long stretch before this movie actually becomes a reality. And it sounds like we might even get two Ridley Scott Alien prequels beforeNeill Blomkampdelivers just one sequel. Weaver tells this toEW.
“Well, we have a great script. Fox asked us to delay so Ridley Scott could shoot his [second] Prometheus movie. That was too bad because we would have already done it by now. Now that we’re waiting for that, I have a couple of Avatars to do and Neill has The Gone World. So we’ll have to see what happens when we get back, when those projects are over.”
Alien 5is said to bring one major change to Ripley’s past, but no real story details have been divulged at this juncture. But we will learn more about the aliens Weaver has been battling these past four decades. Something thatAlien: Covenantwill also help push home.Alien 5takes place directly following the events of 1986’sAliens, at a time whenNewtand Corp. Hicks are still alive. The way Sigourney tells it, she will remain committed to the film until it is completely canceled by Fox.
Alien: Covenantis set to hit theaters in August of next summer. At this time,Alien 5doesn’t have a release date. It is noted by Weaver that, while this upcomingAliensequel will mark the end for Ripley, it doesn’t necessarily mean she dies in the script. But the movie will show what motivates the Aliens to be Aliens, and will further explore their species as an extraterrestrial race of beings. As well as what they have been seeking all these year. Sigourney went onto say that fans have something else to look forward to, as she recently teamed up with Neill Blomkamp on another project that she can’t yet discuss. And then she goes onto compare Alien 5 directly to the work of James Cameron.
“We’ve just finished something else together that I can’t talk about. But you never know in this crazy business. In any case, [the Aliens sequel] there and waiting for us. He and I both have these other commitments that are finally upon us, and so we’ve got to switch gears and concentrate on that. But it will be worth the wait when we finally get to it. It’s just as if, you know, the path forks and one direction goes off to three and four and another direction goes off to Neill’s movie. It’s just more, I would say, following Jim Cameron’s story about these characters, rather than just ending up in this sort of monastery in space, which was [Alien3 screenwriter] Vincent Ward’s idea and Fox elected to go in that direction. I think Fincher was fine with that. Each director kind of wanted to create a whole new set of circumstances. In this case, it picks up, it follows directly the circumstances of Jim Cameron’s Aliens.”
Sigourney Weaver is pretty sure thatAlien 5is less than a few years away. But she assures that it will be ‘a couple’. And with that, all we can do is wait. Until then, at least we’ll haveAlien: Covenantto look forward to. Which is set to introduceRipley’s mom and bring back some of the classic monsters we know and love.
