Neill Blomkamp Shares Concept Art From His Proposed Alien Sequel

'It was a mental stroll into the world Ridley Scott created...'

His CV has one or two projects lurking on it that remained frustratingly out of reach – the much-heralded but still unmade Halo film fits that category – but District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has shown a welcome willingness to share when he knows the movies won’t go ahead. He has apparently been quietly developing his take on an Alien franchise sequel, and shared some imagery via Twitter. {Blomkamp Alien Images}

Admitting that the idea had no official input from 20th Century Fox, which controls the rights to make any Alien follow-ups and seems more committed to having Ridley Scott direct (or at least produce) a Prometheus sequel, Blomkamp enthusiastically showed off intriguing artwork that included a look at Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in human and alien-hybrid form and appears to include Michael Biehn as Hicks.

No plot details were given, and it definitely appears that Blomkamp won’t be going ahead with what was called Alien: Xenomorph, but even this brief glimpse from the Elysium director’s development portfolio is enough to make us wish he’d managed to get it off the ground. “Woulda rocked,” Blomkamp said on Twitter. “Was a mental stroll into the world that Ridley Scott created. Maybe I’ll go back to it…”

Blomkamp’s actual next project, robo-drama Chappie, will hit UK screens on March 6.

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Jennifer Saunders Offers An Absolutely Fabulous Film Update

'I’ve finished the first draft. I’m feeling euphoric...'

Jennifer Saunders has talked up the possibility of an Absolutely Fabulous spin-off film for years now, though it has always existed more in the realms of rumour as nothing has yet come of the concept. Now, though, it appears she has some new momentum, and is finally looking to get the movie made, which means Edina and Patsy might actually hit the big screen.

Talking with the Sunday People, Saunders admitted, “I’ve finished the first draft. I’m feeling euphoric. My proper New Year’s resolution is to do the film, otherwise it’ll be a pointless year of procrastination.”

So far all that is known about the film is an early title – Edina and Patsy, named for the hard-partying and responsibility-averse PR guru and her booze-happy best pal, played by Joanna Lumley. And it sounds as though her co-star and another long-term comedy partner have at last forced her hand on the matter. “Joanna Lumley kept announcing it and saying, ‘Yes she’s going to do it,’ and then Dawn French on our radio show at Christmas said, ‘I bet £100,000 that you don’t write it,’” she says. “So now I have to write it, otherwise I have to pay her £100,000.” You might want to hold off holding your breath for it just yet, though…

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Richard Linklater On That's What I'm Talking About

It'll serve as a 'spiritual sequel' to Boyhood and more

2014 was the year of Boyhood, as Richard Linklater’s long-gestating project to chronicle the growing years of one young man and his family came to successful fruition and began scooping up awards by the armful. Linklater is now in post-production on his latest effort, That’s What I’m Talking About, which he has already described as a “spiritual sequel” to one of his earliest films, Dazed And Confused. Now, though, he’s also thinking it’ll serve a similar purpose for Boyhood .

That’s What I’m Talking About is set four years after the events of 1993’s Dazed, though it doesn’t directly feature any of the characters from the film – so don’t go raising your hopes for a Matthew McConaugcameo. Instead, it’s set across a single weekend and follows a college freshman arriving at his seat of learning and figuring out his new world. But while you won’t also see Ellar Coltrane’s Mason from Boyhood crop up (since the movie takes place in the early 1980s), Linklater feels there’s a, well, a link.

“I think the word ‘spiritual’ gets me off the hook,” he tells Creative Screenwriting. “I just shot it and wrapped it recently, and it has nothing to do with Dazed And Confused other than it would be set four years later, when one of the younger characters went off to college. It’s a party film. It’s really about the beginning of school, not the end of the school year. I guess personally or autobiographically it’s kind of in that realm, but it’s also a continuation of Boyhood, believe it or not. I don’t know if one film can be a sequel to two different movies, but it begins right where Boyhood ends with a guy showing up at college and meeting his new roommates and a girl. It overlaps with the end of Boyhood.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on when it might hit screens, but we can expect it to arrive later this year.

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This Rotten Week: Predicting Taken 3 Reviews

The year 2015 is certainly starting off slow, as we only have one movie on the docket this week. But if projected death counts for a flick is your metric for cinematic success, then, my friend, you are in luck. A certain agent is back to find someone and kill everyone in his path on the way. Some poor scrub is getting Taken again. Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at what This Rotten Week has to offer. <!-- POSTER HERE, LINK IT TO PREVIEW PAGE ...

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Selma Was Almost A Completely Different Movie

Director Ava DuVernay's Selma has been hailed by many film critics - including myself - as one of the best movies of the year, and it is considered a heavy contender in this year's award season race. What you may not know, however, is that the movie actually spent a number of years stuck in Hollywood's famed development hell - and in that time, it underwent a large number of changes and saw a surprising number of famous faces in key roles come and go. The story of Selma's long road to production was recently brought to light in an ...

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Weekend Box Office: The Hobbit Enters 2015 On Top For Third Weekend

2014 went out with less than a bang. Ticket sales were down 5% from the previous year and with an increase in average ticket prices that means attendance dropped even more than that. But 2015 got off to a slightly stronger start. According to stats at Box Office Mojo the top twelve films of the first weekend of 2015 did 6% better sales than the same lot did the first weekend of 2014. Given that there wasn't much new to go see this weekend, that's perhaps more an indication of how slow 2014 was than how strong 2015 will be. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death debuted ...

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The He-Man Movie Might Actually Happen, Get The Latest

The last couple of years have been filled with a variety of ups and downs for the new Masters of the Universe movie, but at the very least 2015 is off to a good start. It appears that a draft of the script has been completed, suggesting that the movie might actually gain some traction in the coming months. While we actually haven't heard about the Masters of the Universe script since Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow signed on to write it last April, this latest update comes directly from DeVon Franklin, the Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures. The ...

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