When did Fede Alvarez approach 20th Century Studios and Ridley about his idea for Alien: Romulus? Apparently way back before Alien: Covenant was even released! This means the studio was toying with which direction they should take the franchise in after Covenant - Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 script having been talked about heavily back then, with franchise icon Sigourney Weaver herself even having built hype around the idea.
Both Alvarez's and Blomkamp's Alien storyline would revisit a point in the Ripley timeline but the when and where differed significantly. While different in their own ways, both films would touch on similar concepts, which is likely why one was chosen over the other.
The story for Alien 5 would have given an "end" to Ripley and would have "exposed" the motives behind Weyland-Yutani's obsession with the Xenomorph. Blomkamp's film would have seen a retcon of Alien 3, where Hicks and Newt both survived and the story would have rewritten history, chalking up Alien 3 and Resurrection as nothing more than bad dreams. During that time, James Cameron also had expressed interest in Blomkamp's vision for Alien 5, but sadly the project was shelved indefinitely and perhaps the reason for it was the studio saw more promise with Alvarez's version of the next Alien installment. It was January 2017 when Neill Blomkamp himself admitted there was a slim chance Alien 5 would be happening and then by June 2017, while speaking to The Verge, Blomkamp said Alien 5 was completely dead.
During his recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fede Alvarez explained how back in 2016/2017 his Alien pitch for Alien: Romulus wasn't even a pitch at all, he merely expressed what he would like to see in an Alien film, from the perspective of a fan and before he knew it, he was pitching a new Alien film. His ideas clearly caught the attention of Ridley Scott and shortly after Covenant was released, Fede was contacted to take on Romulus:
THR: Were you asked to pitch what became Alien: Romulus? Or did you ask if you could come in and pitch it?
Fede Alvarez: Right after Don’t Breathe, I had a meeting at Scott Free, Ridley’s company, and I think they were about to start doing Alien: Covenant. And I mentioned something that I would love to see. I said, “I hope this movie has some of this and that and this.” And he was like, “Oh, that’s interesting. What would you do with it?” No one was actually asking me [to pitch], believe me; it was more that they were intrigued about what I wanted to see as a fan. And I was like, “I think you guys should do this and approach it this way, and maybe it’s about that.” And suddenly, I was pitching, but I was not really being asked to do it. So that stayed in the air there somehow, and then a couple of years later, Ridley remembered that. He knew about it. He was like, “Fede had pitched this thing.” So they called me back and said, “Hey, remember that story you mentioned? Do you want to write it and direct it?” And I was like, “Fuck yeah!” And here we are.
It would appear, given the timelines and Fede's remarks, that his ideas for Alien managed to beat out the ideas Neill Blomkamp had proposed. While both Fede and Neill's visions for Alien gained praise from the likes of James Cameron and expanded the established timelines by taking placed between Alien and Aliens (for Fede) and Aliens and Alien 3 (for Neill), it makes sense why both could not coexist since they tapped into a lot of similar concepts.
Perhaps down the road Blomkamp will get another shot at developing a story for Alien, though... Maybe he and Fede can team up for the next Alien film if Romulus performs well enough? Both filmmakers had tremendous vision for the property and both are avid Alien fans who would surely bring a degree of care and attention to detail to whatever story they create.
What do you think? Should Blomkamp get another shot? Should Fede consider tapping into Blomkamp's ideas down the road? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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