Alien 5 director Neil Blomkamp revealed that his upcoming film will be put on hold indefinitely, citingย Prometheus 2 as the reason.
Check out the tweet from Blomkamp below:
alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things… as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley
โ ะeill Blomkฮmp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015
According to sources close to Blomkamp, the studio behind the Alien franchise, 20th Century Fox, made the decision to turn their focus to Ridley Scott’sย Prometheus 2. In September,ย the movie was renamed toย Alien: Paradise Lost. This put the studio in a conflict as they were looking at producing two Alien films simultaneously; Fox ultimately decided to move forward with the sequel to Prometheus, and decided to holdย Alien 5ย indefinitely.
Blomkamp envisionedย Alien 5ย as a canonized sequel to James Cameron’sย Alien,ย which didn’t rule out incorporating spin-off filmsย Alien 3ย andย Alien: Resurrection.
International box office appeal may have played into the decision to move forward withย Alien: Paradise Lost.
In 2012, the $130 million-budgeted Prometheusย was released. The movie received mixed to negative reviews and fans felt it was a departure from the Alien continuity. The movie earned $126 million domestically at the box office, close to breaking even, butย 20th Century Fox reported thatย Prometheusย debuted well outside of America. Overseas, Prometheusย earned $276 million and earned $403 millionย worldwide.
Alien: Paradise Lost will hit theaters on May 30, 2017.
