development hell
Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped- for future
Ripley yarn!
ALIEN 5
Neill Blomkamp is keeping the finer details of his Alien sequel as close as a face-hugger but he’s prepared to trail some tantalising hints. “I want this film to feel like it is literally the genetic sibling of Aliens,” he tells Sky Movies. “So it’s Alien, Aliens and then this movie.” Not that he necessarily wants to wipe the third and fourth chapters from existence. “My favourites are the first two movies, so I want to make a film that’s connected to Alien and Aliens,” he tells Allocine. “I’m not trying to undo Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. I just want it to be connected to Alien 1 and 2.” Franchise icon Sigourney Weaver is looking forward to some xenomorph- battling closure. “I would love to take Ripley out of orbiting around in space and give a proper finish to what was such an excellent story,” she says. “I can’t think of a better director. He’s a real fan. I think he’ll be true to the world and take it in unexpected directions. It’s got a lot of sinew in it. It will certainly stand up to the others and probably break a lot of new ground as well.” Alien 5 bursts from the chest of cinema itself sometime in 2017.
Buzzing!
TOY STORY 4
So just where do you go once you’ve been to infinity and beyond? Maybe it’s time to point your jetpack at Planet Rom- Com… Pixar president Jim Morris reveals that the next adventure of the mismatched toybox ensemble will shift the franchise in an unexpected new direction. “The third movie ended in a beautiful way and completed a trilogy,” he tells Disney Latino. “I think this movie is not part of this trilogy. It is a separate story… It will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children.” Josh Coley has just joined the project as John Lasseter’s co- director, working from a screenplay by Celeste And Jesse Forever writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack.
Stacking the Deckard!
BLADE RUNNER 2
Harrison Ford’s revisiting another of his iconic roles. And no, it’s not “Bellhop” from 1966’ s Dead Heat On A Merry- Go- Round, still criminally sequel- free. After months of intense will-he- won’the action he’s now officially signed to reprise trenchcoat- clad
Replicant chaser Rick Deckard, joining Han Solo in the Hell Freezes Over sub- set of his screen career. Original helmer Ridley
Scott has passed on the chance to direct this belated sequel though he’s still onboard as producer. Ford will return to a dystopian, neon- drenched Los Angeles under the direction of Denis Villeneuve, best known for crime drama
Prisoners and doppelganger tale Enemy. Fellow producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson call it “a uniquely potent and faithful sequel to one of the most universally celebrated films of all time.” Origami unicorn, anyone?
Sluuurrp!
THE BLOB
The 1958 original was one of the classics of drive- in cinema ( read our review on page 106), the tale of a relentless mass of gelatinous ooze crushing a small American town – rumours insist this unstoppable horror went on to present Hollywood showbiz slots on breakfast TV. Now Con Air and
Expendables 2 helmer Simon West is bringing us an altogether less wobbly remake. “It’s going to be much more sci- fi than the original,” he tells Screen Relish. “It’s a bigger scale type of movie. It’s more Alien meets Predator and designing the creature is a long and involved process because it’s very sophisticated. It’s not going to be the goo pouring through windows…” Pity. We were ready for that jelly. Filming begins in August with Seven’s Richard Saperstein and Silent Night’s
Brian Witten producing.
Lend us your ears!
DUMBO
You’ve seen a horse fly. You’ve seen a dragon fly. You’ve seen a house fly. But have you seen an elephant fly… from the head of
Tim Burton? Yes, straight from the boggling but true file: everyone’s favourite schock- haired auteur is set to remake Disney’s 1941 animated classic. It’s the latest live- action take on a Mouse House mainstay, following the likes of Maleficent, Cinderella and Burton’s own 2010 version of
Alice In Wonderland. For those of you raised in an underground bunker with no Christmas television in your childhoods it’s the story of a baby circus elephant teased for his outsized ears before discovering the power of flight and triumphing over adversity probably. Listen, Johnny Depp could totally nail it. Transformers franchise scribe Ehren Kruger pens the screenplay.
Be unkind, rewind!
RINGS
Let’s add this one to the pile marked Prequels You Never Knew You Needed, right next to The Omen: Satan’s Feeling Frisky Tonight and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Running With
Scissors Years. Yes, the next instalment of Paramount’s Ring franchise will loop back to events preceding the 2002 Naomi Watts movie – itself a remake of Japan’s 1998 horror classic Ringu – revealing exactly how that bedevilled VHS tape was created and delving even further into the origins of telly- crawling spookette Samara. Well, it was either go back in time to the videocassette age or try and thrash out a story about a cursed Netflix binge.
Before The Fall’s F Javier
Gutierrez directs from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Jacob Aaron Estes and David Loucka. Casting is now underway.