‘Alien 5: Awakening’: The Xenomorph movie that was never made
Iconic franchises aren’t allowed to sit on the shelf for too long, with Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox creating the previously-unthinkable scenario of the Mouse House being in control of Alien and Predator, with both of the sci-fi stalwarts being rewarded with a fresh coat of paint.
Any doubts over either of the intergalactic titans being Disneyfied were assuaged when Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey arrived as the best Predator movie since John McTiernan’s classic original, and that’s at the very least. Meanwhile, Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus and Noah Hawley’s TV series will reinvent the Xenomorphs across two different mediums as the new ownership seeks to maximise its return.
One of the side effects is that the chances of Ridley Scott following Prometheus and Alien: Covenant with a third prequel film have dwindled significantly, but it was the architect of the 1979 original who hammered the final nails into the coffin of Alien 5: Awakening, which has since gone down in history as one of the most exciting blockbusters in recent memory that never got made.
After the seminal first two chapters, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley failed to reach those dizzy heights in either Alien 3 or Resurrection, but Hollywood’s fondness for the legacy sequel meant the actor was constantly being quizzed on a potential return. Fresh from the success of District 9 and Elysium, Neill Blomkamp was announced as director in what sounded like a match made in sci-fi heaven.
Set 30 years after James Cameron’s Aliens, Weaver would have reprised her signature role alongside Michael Biehn’s Hicks, with Newt all grown up and being pushed to the forefront of the story. Scott was attached to produce, but when he was suddenly bitten by the bug to return to outer space, he gave himself precedence over Blomkamp.
In an interview with The Guardian, Blomkamp acknowledged it was game over for his professional relationship with Scott after his Alien project was canned, saying, “there’s no coming back from that”. Voicing his frustrations, the filmmaker offered: “I’m not going to work on a film for two years and have the rug pulled out from underneath me and then go hang out and have beers”.
He felt bad for Weaver, though, who was “really into what I had brought forward”. Seeking to tie up her arc in a much more satisfying manner than Resurrection did, Blomkamp rues missing out on “the opportunity to do one more film with Sigourney in a way that may have satiated what people were looking for, and what she was looking for”.
The Chappie megaphone-wielder was bemused with the decision, making the accurate assessment that “it’s what the audience wanted to see”, but Scott’s standing in the industry is something Blomkamp simply doesn’t have tucked into his back pocket for when ultimatums on the future of a legendary property are being issued. It was one or the other, and the veteran won out.
