Happy Alien Day, everyone! Did Father Xenomorphmas bring you any pulsating, slimy sacks of goodness? Have you face-hugged someone today? District 9 man Neill Blomkamp is getting into the spirit of the day by releasing a new concept image of a grown-up Rebecca "Newt" Jorden from his still-in-development follow-up to Aliens.
On the day which, if you write the date they way they do in America and a few other places works out to 4/26 and therefore has been co-opted for fans of the planet known as LV-426, it seems only appropriate for Blomkamp to post a new pic from his film. Originally created as a spit-balled, fan-pleasing concept for a movie that would follow Aliens but right some of the perceived wrongs of Alien 3 and Resurrection, Blomkamp's idea caught the attention of 20th Century Fox, which made it a little more official... Until Alien godhead Ridley Scott (on board as executive producer for this one) decreed that his fellow director would have to wait at least until his own Prometheus sequel, the in-production Alien: Covenant had arrived.
And so we keep waiting for Blomkamp's vision, and Sigourney Weaver was recently talking up the embryonic film at an event (as reported by Indiewire) and seems to think we'll be happy. "It’s an amazing script, and Neill and I are really excited about doing it," she said. "We’re doing other things until we can get going on that. I’d be really surprised if we didn't do it, because it’s such a great script, and we love working together. So, it’s just going to take a little bit longer to get out to you, but it’ll be worth the wait.”
The image of Newt certainly seems to conform to statements made last November by Michael Biehn, who is also likely to return. “They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around 27 years old," he said. "I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt."
Alien: Covenant, meanwhile, remains on track for an August 4, 2017 release.