Neill Blomkamp's first experience sharing concept art on Instagram led to his appointment as the director on Fox's next Alien movie. That initial batch of designs, character sketches and xenomorph illustrations caught on fast, with a positive response from fans eventually piquing the interest of the studio.
Blomkamp has remained quiet on the matter for several months. Until today that is, when he posted another piece of artwork. The sketch was accompanied by the briefest of updates on the film's progress: "going very well," the caption reads:
Like the earlier gallery of artwork, echoes to James Cameron's 1986 movie are front and center. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and Michael Biehn's Corporal Hicks stand to one side, with people queued behind them, while a marine or soldier decked out in full futuristic uniform addresses them. Judging by the shipping crates, tall ceilings and strip lights the location is the same Weyland-Yutani hangar spotted in the first batch of snaps - and Ripley's breath means it's pretty damn cold in there. Why would they be keeping the temperature so low? To preserve that Engineer ship, seems like a good guess.
In terms of story, Blomkamp has yet to unveil a full synopsis for the sequel only going so far as to refer to Alien 5 as a "genetic sibling" to the first two movies. Initially, it was believed that he would skip over the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, but he later clarified that his take would simply be more connected to Ridley Scott and Cameron's instalments.
Alien 5 is currently set for release in 2017.
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