Alien 5 Put on Hold, Says Director

Alien 5 director Neil Blomkamp revealed that his upcoming film will be put on hold indefinitely, citing Prometheus 2 as the reason.

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’s Prometheus 2. In September, the movie was renamed to 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 hold Alien 5 indefinitely.

Blomkamp envisioned Alien 5 as a canonized sequel to James Cameron’s Alien, which didn’t rule out incorporating spin-off films Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

International box office appeal may have played into the decision to move forward with Alien: Paradise Lost.

In 2012, the $130 million-budgeted Prometheus  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, but 20th Century Fox reported that Prometheus debuted well outside of America. Overseas, Prometheus earned $276 million and earned $403 million worldwide.