So I will start this with a segue... I bumped into director
Vincent Ward the other day and we got to talking about his failed
Alien 3 project. I say project, but he was actually the original director hired by the studio for the film. But it was many years ago and much of the publicised bad blood has been washed away (and strangely hard to find online to boot). Ward was replaced by none other than David Fincher (
Se7en) and the film morphed into what we eventually saw on screen. But although the project changed hands and Fincher was heavily hampered and handicapped by the studio, the film was a good addition to the
Alien franchise, but not great. But, there was always the question of what if, and that 'what if' was of Vincent Ward's failed vision/version and could it have been a better addition to the series?.
There's a good investigation of Ward's version on
Empire Online, and more again on his own
website. However, it's what sparked this conversation, other than the chance meeting, which has so suddenly evolved...
... There was an internet buzz earlier this year as concept art for a possible Alien project was released on Neill (
District 9) Blomkamp's Instagram (
Images here), sadly these were posted with a woeful comment "Was working on this. Don't think I am anymore. Love it though".
It was thought that was the end of that, but apparently not!
Last week fans were greeted by an
article on Variety stating that the project was indeed happening, although not until after the
Prometheus sequel, so not until 2017 (at least).
Then... Today... The following video fanned the flames and offers so very much promise...
... And we may well see the third installment, as fans, we originally hoped to see and expected all those years ago (ALMOST 23 in fact!).
Links:
Huffington Post - Instagram reveal
Huffington Post - Official
Variety.com
Oh No They Didn't - Video Post
Oh No They Didn't
Vincent Ward - Official
io9 - Compile
