Sigourney Weaver was at the London Film and Comic-Con this past weekend, during which she spoke about her iconic role as Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise, revealing that she was “really depressed” by the spinoff Alien vs. Predator, and that the crossover caused Ridley Scott to pull out of a proposed Alien sequel.
“Well, yes – because I heard that Fox was gonna do Alien vs Predator,” said Weaver when asked if it was her choice to have Ripley killed off in Alien 3. “[Alien vs. Predator] really depressed me because I was very proud of the movies. I’ve nothing against building a movie on a video game but at the time, it was, as [Aliens director] Jim Cameron said I think publically, ‘why would you want to do that?’ It’s like making Alien meets the Wolfman. In fact Ridley Scott was about to direct a third one, until this was announced, and he dropped out, because he also wanted to do an Alien sequel. I think it caused more problems than it was worth.”
Weaver is expected to reprise the role of Ripley for District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp’s planned fifth Alien movie, and she also shared a few words of excitement about that project: “I’m so excited about Neill – because Neill is like you guys! He broke the tapes of these movies when he was a kid, he watched them so much. I love the fact that’s Neill’s fulfilling his childhood dream of what he hopes will be the popcorn movie, the Alien popcorn movie that he wanted as a kid to see.”
Were you depressed by Alien vs. Predator, and can Neill Blomkamp get the series back on track with a fifth Alien movie? Let us know in the comments below…
Source: Radio Times