Walter Hill working on Alien 5, but Sigourney Weaver not interested

For a good while there, it looked like we were going to get a fifth film in the Alien franchise that would have been a rebooquel (aka reboot sequel) following up the events of Aliens and ignoring the divisive Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Writer/director Neill Blomkamp had plot breakdowns and concept art already sorted, Sigourney Weaver was pumped to return as an older Ellen Ripley, Aliens director James Cameron loved the script… and then Fox decided to instead focus on Alien: Covenant, franchise creator Ridley Scott’s sequel to his 2012 prequel Prometheus. And that was a mistake. Since Blomkamp’s plans got scrapped, we haven’t heard anything about another Alien 5 attempt, but it appears that one has actually been happening.

The revelation comes from Weaver herself as the franchise lead revealed to Empire recently that she received a 50-page script treatment for a new film. This treatment comes from Walter Hill, the acclaimed veteran director behind the likes of The Warriors and 48 Hours who has also acted as producer on the entire Alien franchise. According to Weaver, Hill sent her this treatment back in 2018 already, but it didn’t go anywhere as the 70-year old actress felt that she’s done with her iconic character.

I’ve always felt she was such a partner. She is always in my stomach…

[But] I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.

However, it would appear that despite Weaver’s reticence, Hill isn’t giving up on getting another film made. Brandywine Productions, Hill’s production company through which he’s produced the Alien films, recently reached out to SyFy Wire about that treatment and revealed that Hill co-wrote it with fellow franchise producer David Giler. But here’s where things get interesting. Brandywine shared a pic of that script for “Alien V” and it showed that Hill and Giler’s latest draft comes from as recently as March 2020.

Along with that surprising draft date, the pic also gives us some intriguing teases on what Hill and Giler had planned, with the tagline reading “In space no one can hear you scream. In space no one can hear you dream.” There’s also a pair of poetry quotes from Edgar Allen Poe and William Tecumseh Sherman that respectively read “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream” and “War is hell”. What does all of that mean? Well, we have no idea other than it clearly has something to do with dreams. Or maybe destiny, as Hill spoke to SyFy Wire about how he thinks that Weaver is not past reprising Ellen Ripley one more time.

Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley.

As one of the most beloved and iconic characters in cinema history, I don’t think anybody would ever say no to more Ripley on screen. And Weaver is certainly badass enough as an actress to still pull it off despite now being a septuagenarian. Even if she was only halfway capable of doing it, I would still rather see that movie than whatever weirdo-sexual android stuff Ridley Scott was cooking up in Alien: Covenant.

Last Updated: June 22, 2020