Alien5: Blomkamp's further yearnings for Alien

leading from  

Neil Blomkamp and Alien 5

 
a) Further yearnings

Twentieth Century Fox had no idea that Blomkamp was developing an Alien 5, so in that sense, what he was doing was completely unsanctioned and just basically for fun, although it wasn' just for fun to Blomkamp, because it was what he wanted to do next and he spent a long time doing it, so in his opinion there was a lot of effort that went into it, and when he came back to Vancouver, he had an entire year to work on the film, so he got into developing the entire movie along with the artwork
while he was taking brakes between the post-production of his movie Chappie winding down and visual effects getting under control.

In February 2015, the issue was suddenly becoming whether Blomkamp felt like directing another film rather than whether he wanted to direct an Alien movie because he had wanted to make an Alien movie for years and years and within the same month, it was declared that it was officially his next film.

He was concerned about finding himself being told "Well we think in this film this should happen because it happened in that one"

But his own thoughts were " I’m just not going to do it, I’m just going to put it out."

But when he spoke to Sigourney Weaver, and she wanted to execute the story that he wrote and thought it was the right story for Ripley. and so his thoughts were "Nah, I'm fully going to do this".

b) Alien Life Cycle Glasses as a portent

When Neill got back to Vancouver in 20014, unclear of what he wanted to do, he found that his artistic compass was driving him to Alien. There he was is own home full of Alien memorabilia, and his wife Terri Tatchel who's also his screenwriting partner , was drinking from a glass one morning when he was readying to go to edit Chappie,  it showed the life cycle of the alien on the glass, and Terri was looking at it and Neill was still saying " I don't know what to do".

Terri responded "Look, look at what you make me drink my orange juice out of every morning. Is there something wrong with your brain? I'm drinking out of a glass that has a frigging facehugger on it. And you don't know what you want to do next?"

Then Terri pulled out of the cupboard the rest of these glasses that depicted brutal scenes from the movies and she said "you make your daughter drink out of these cups , this is a sign"

Neill responded "Mmm, you have a point"

What appealed to him about making a movie in the Alien world  was that he would be dealing with Freudian terror, such as the idea of going down dark passage ways with the chance of something coming around the corner and terrifying the viewer on the level of some primal neolithic cavemen getting hunted by a lion. This was Blomkamp's goal. He saw how Cameron did it with more aliens and more guns, while Ridley did it with slow burning.

Source Quotes

1. Neill Blomkamp: So when I went back to Vancouver for 2014 unclear of what I wanted to make, I knew that my artistic compass kept driving me to Alien. Whenever I wasn’t needed on Chappie, I spent time on Alien, to the point where I hired my own concept artist and fleshed the entire movie out, basically. Even then, I still didn’t know if I wanted to do it.(http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=43633, 6th March 2015)
2. Neill Blomkamp: When I came back to Vancouver, I had an entire year to work on 'Chappie.' And when I wasn’t needed in the edit, I could think about 'Alien.' So, I basically developed an entire movie and I did all of this artwork as well, I produced way more art than I put out. (http://blogs.indiewire.com/ 10th February 2015)
3. IGN: Is this the first film to be green-lit via Instagram?
   Blomkamp: I don’t know – it’s an interesting question. Maybe. That’s a very interesting question.
   IGN: But you put that art out there…
   Blomkamp: The thing that I find… it kind of ties in a little bit with what you were saying about living up to people’s expectations, and are you nervous. This is a little bit of the same discussion where I think that people think I was playing some kind of game with the studio where I was releasing stuff to try to create hype to try to go back to them. I’m totally not Machiavellian in that way at all. I’m just not. The debate was an internal debate actually. It was a debate where… I don’t think I’m a movie director. I think I’m an artist, and for me movies are the pinnacle art form. But the pinnacle art form requites 10s of millions or 100s of millions of dollars of other people’s money that needs to return an investment for them on their cash. And that means that there are certain things that come with that that limit you as an artist. So you can have full control on a film – Chappie is as close to having virtual carte blanche on a film as you can have, less the fact that it’s two hours, and it has three acts. And, and, and, and… there’s a list, right? So it’s like if you want to create a thing that’s a piece of art that just really winds people up – something hyper offensive or crazy or whatever it might be – this is the wrong thing for you.
   I have that internal debate sometimes where I’m wondering if this is the right avenue for me. That’s what Alien was where I was like ‘Maybe I should just go off for a couple of years and do some other stuff.’ And I had all of this accumulated work of a project that I thought was really awesome. I was like ‘I know there are going to be some fans out there who like this – here you go!’ You know what I mean? And that’s kind of what happened. So nothing is pre-meditated. I still hadn’t picked a project. 2014 was really weird for me. I loved Chappie and I loved working in post on Chappie – working with [Hans] Zimmer, cutting it together, working on VFX – it was very relaxing and it was kind of awesome. But I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I came up with so many ideas. I came up with like many films and I couldn’t choose one.
   My apprehension with Alien was that I had never worked with someone else’s material. And not even someone else – at this point it was like… I’m going to count Fincher in with the third one, even though the third one I don’t like as much as the first two. But they’re all three awesome filmmakers. So it’s not about living up to it and being nervous about it, I just don’t want other people to tell me what to do. Which is a different thing. ‘Well we think in this film this should happen because it happened in that one.’  That kind of scared me a little bit so then I was like ‘I’m just not going to do it, I’m just going to put it out.’ But then I spoke to Sigourney [Weaver]. And I love Sigourney and her wanting to execute the story  that I wrote, and she thinks it’s the right story for Ripley. So I was like ‘Nah, I’m fully going to do this.’ And also my place looks like this [points to geeky memorabilia on IGN shelves] – with all this stuff everywhere, so Terri [Tatchell – Blomkamp’s wife and screenwriting partner] was actually drinking a glass in the morning when I was readying to go edit Chappie recently, and it’s the life-cycle of the xenomorph on the glass, and she was looking at it, and I was like ‘I don’t know what to do’ and she was like ‘Is there something wrong with your brain? I’m drinking out of a glass that has a frigging face-hugger on it. And you don’t know what you want to do next?’ Our house is covered in xenomorphs, so I was like ‘Mmm, you have a point.’(http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/03/04/how-district-9-director-neill-blomkamp-got-the-alien-gig)  
4. Neill Blomkamp: I saw Sigourney again, and her enthusiasm in it, and me still not knowing what I was doing... Well, the thing that actually made it really clear was that we have xenomorphs all over the house [including drinking glasses depicting graphic scenes from the films]. No bullshit, that actually is what made me realise that there’s a massive portion of my brain that’s taken up by the world of the xenomorph. And I’m like, ‘Hmm. Valid point.'"(http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=43633, 6th March 2015)
5. Interviewer: There is a kind of xenomorph shaped alien in the room which we've talked about a little bit, but obviously you're making an Alien movie, next, Neill, ahm, really fascinated by how that came about, cause obviously your release concept art onto the internet, erm, I assume you've been having conversations with Fox about that before that it wasn't just a kind of..
   Neill Blomkamp: No....No, no, no,, it wasn't actually like, I er 2014 was a really weird year for me because, erm, like I, I usually know quite decisively what I want to do and in the process of post on chappie, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do and I had a, and I had a bunch of different for different films , but my, my favourite, on like a gut instincts but on like an artistic level was Alien by a long way, but I had thos sort of like inhibiting mental road block about, erm, just wanting to, you know, kind of work on my own stuff and not not be held accountable for really by, whether it's the studio or by fans or whoever, I just want be left alone to do my stuff, that's just kind of a big deal to me, but what happened was, even if you go back three or four years, I've wanted to make a film in that genre, in that, in that franchise you know for ages, and, I had come up with an idea and then, when I met Sigourney on set, I, I assumed that she would never want Ripley again, rightly or wrongly, I just, for some reason had that in my head, and , and also I didn't know where she could go with her, given Alien 3 and 4, and so, when I started speaking to her , erm and she was just, I just wanted to know about the process of making the first two films, 'cause the first two are the ones I care about, and I was like what she thought and everything else, yuh, I started to realise that there actually was a whole, at least a film if not more, that still contained Ripley, which I was really surprised by, and, and so when i went back to Vancouver and I had my weird year of 2014 if not of being totally clear of what I wanted to make, I knew that my artistic compass kept driving me to Alien and, and I spent like, whenever I wasn't needed on Chappie, I spent a lot of hours working on Alien, you know, and unto a point when I hired my own concept artists and liked fleshed the entire movie out basically and I still didn't know if I wanted to do it and, and then I just like one night came to the conclusion that I was like, I mean this is like an ongoing thing with us all the time where, you know, I,  like, she's always like, "no, you'll go back and do a film" and I'm always like, "Nah, this is the last film do" like I genuinely believe it's the last film I'm going to do
   Terri: Sometimes I patronize him, I'm like okay, here you are, that's good.
   Interviewer: We always need more hands in the restaurant
   Terri; Yuh, exactly
   Neill: But erm, so, I was so convinced that I wasn't, I, I didn't even think a norm...  like any film, let alone a large studio film
   Interviewer: Yeah
   Neill: But I was like, it came from a place of like love, and it came from a place of me being a fan, and, and I was like, if I'm a fan, then other fans should see the stuff, just at least gives one person's take on it, you know, and I put out, I just put out a bunch of art, but I still hadn't decided what I was going to do next, and then so you see, Fox didn't know and then after, like I saw Sigourney again, and then her enthusiasm and me still not knowing what I was doing, it becomes kind of clear, the thing actually that made it really clear, tell them what happened, this, this is actually the binding thing for me, we have xenomorphs all over the house
   Terri: But, but, well, he's humming and hawing going back and forth and, and , finally I said, "look, look at what you make me drink my orange juice out of every morning", and I pulled out of the cupboard... we have these, set of glasses that have like these brutal scenes from the movies and I was like "you make your daughter drink out of these cups , this is a sign"
   Neill: and then that that no bullshit, that actually what made me realise, that's like my whole, like there's like a massive portion of my brain that's like taken up by the world of the Xenomorph and I was like Mmm, that's like a valid point. (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=43631)