A short while back, director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) made considerable waves among the movie fandom community when he presented images of an older Ripley and a disfigured Hicks, late from the movie Aliens, and noted he had worked on an idea for a sequel to that film that would complete the Alien/Aliens saga.
The images (you can see them here) clearly got peoples’ attention at Fox Studios as this film has been green-lighted and will be Mr. Blomkamp’s follow up to Chappie.
One thing that people wondered, of course, was where this film might fit in the Alien cinematic universe timeline. Alien 3, after all, essentially took place “immediately” after the events of Aliens and clearly showed both Hicks and Newt were dead. The images Mr. Blomkamp presented, though, had an elderly and disfigured Hicks standing alongside a more mature Ripley.
What gives?
Well, it now appears this new Alien film might well ignore the events presented in both Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection:
http://www.slashfilm.com/blomkamps-alien/
Since learning of this there have been some commentaries pro and con regarding the need -if there even is one- to follow “continuity” or ignore it. Given the fact that few hold either Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection in as high regard as the first two films, I suspect it will be easier for audiences to accept the idea of ignoring these later two Alien films.
Continuity, I find, is a curious thing. If you’re into comic books, continuity can be a blessing as well as a curse. The Superman who appeared in Action Comics #1 way back in 1938 is not the same Superman as is presented today. Sure, he still sports the Clark Kent “disguise” and has the hots for Lois Lane (both ideas present in that first Superman story) and he is from Krypton, but there are noticeable difference. That Superman, for instance, couldn’t fly. He jumped very far. He was also a no-nonsense bad-ass who wasn’t adverse to “eye for an eye” type justice. In that very first story, if memory serves, he beats a woman beater!
In movies, too, there have been series that featured continuity “glitches”. In the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967) Sean Connery’s Bond comes face to face with Blofeld (played by Donald Pleasance), his S.P.E.C.T.R.E. nemesis. Yet in the film that follow this one, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, not only is Connery replaced with actor George Lazenby, but Bond once again comes face to face with Blofeld (this time played by Telly Savalas) yet the two do not appear to recognize each other!
Then there’s the fact that the original Star Wars, before George Lucas made all the big and little changes to it, clearly had Luke Skywalker fall instantly head over heels for Princess Leia who, in the very next film, is revealed to be his twin sister!
The bottom line for me is that I don’t have much of a problem ignoring either Alien 3 or Resurrection. While I felt neither film was “horrible”, considering what came immediately before, these last two films in the series were much weaker. I’m curious to see what Mr. Blomkamp is up to, though having seen his first two films he’s only batting 500. I enjoyed District 9 but didn’t like Elysium much at all.
Hopefully, his Alien film will be more in line with District 9.