Neill Blomkamp Debating New Alien Film’s Look After Playing Alien: Isolation

District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp was recently revealed as the next director to helm the Alien film franchise after his concept art went viral on Instagram (in case you somehow missed that news). In an interview with IGN, Blomkamp stated that he has played SEGA and The Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation and has now begun to debate whether or not his film should follow in its footsteps from a visual standpoint, opting for low fi technological imagery the likes of the late 70s and early 80s.

“It’s actually interesting because it raises an interesting design question for me which is that when Alien was made it was cutting edge. ‘Mother’ was cutting edge, and a green CRT monochromatic monitor was cutting edge, you know what I mean? And it’s like Aliens: The Director’s Cut, with Reel 2 re-inserted, when you’re on the colony planet and he’s getting print-outs on dot-matrix paper with holes down the side – that sh*t was real man. On the planet, in that future, that was cutting edge,” said Blomkamp. “So it’s an interesting debate if you look at it from my stand-point, which is do I make my cutting edge… is it cutting edge, or is it actually closer to the first two.”

Said to be making his film the “genetic offspring” to Alien and Aliens, Blomkamp’s upcoming Alien film will retcon the events of Alien 3 and Resurrection in order to tell a new story post-Aliens. Opting for an aesthetic similar to Isolation would be pretty fantastic, especially from Blomkamp, a director with a very distinct visual style that could easily meld with the clunky, low-tech future that the first two films and Isolation portrayed.