Caffeinated Clint
Don’t believe everything you hear, they say. Also probably wise never to believe everything you see either. Never has that ostensibly been more true that in the case of David Fincher’s “Alien 3”, which purportedly erased two fan favourite “Aliens” characters, Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Newt (Carrie Henn), from it’s spacely-existence within the film’s opening moments. Never the classic that “Alien” or “Aliens” were, and with beats (namely those deaths) that got the fan community riled up, it’s welcome news that “Alien 3” is isn’t really being considered when it comes to crafting the storyline for Neil Blomkamp’s upcoming “Alien 5” (or whatever it’ll be titled). We already know that Biehn’s Hicks is joining series star Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) for the movie – suggesting Hicks didn’t get gobbled up by aliens (though those storyboards suggest he has been left rather scarred by his confrontation with the “bitch”) – and now, according to the former, there’s a third “Aliens” fave making a surprise return for the film.
Newt.
Yep, the little blonde tyke that Ripley protected throughout James Cameron’s 1986 film didn’t – despite what “Alien 3” told us – bite the dust either. According to Biehn (via an interview with Icons of Fright), that character will also factor into Blomkamp’s sequel.
“They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back, and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old,” he continued. “I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one; it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money because that’s what the bottom line is now: money.”
Carrie Henn played the character in “Aliens” but based on Biehn’s comments, Fox are likely going to cast a bigger name in the part of the older Newt – being that she will be passed “the torch” and headline future instalments in the series.
“The basic idea is acting like Alien 3 and 4 never existed,” said Biehn.
Biehn notes that Ridley Scott’s “Alien” prequel “Prometheus” will get it’s sequel – “Alien : Covenant” – first, and because of that, “Alien 5” has been put on pause for a bit.
“I know Ridley Scott is doing his movie first and is going to be the executive producer on this one, so I’m really looking forward to that. I know that Ridley’s focus is on the second Prometheus and I’m sure that he and Fox both don’t want that and Neill’s movie to come out right next to each other, because they’re kind of two different worlds, with Aliens taking place thousands of years later, which is how they explained it all to me, but at the same time, they want to give them a similar feel. I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.”
