'Alien 5' release date, cast news: Michael Biehn joins cast, confirms film is moving forward

"Alien 5" concept art showcasing Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn as Ellen Ripley and Colonel Hicks [Photo credit: Neill Blomkamp | Instagram]

Director Neill Blomkamp was already in pre-production for "Alien 5" when the project was momentarily delayed in order to let Ridley Scott finish "Alien: Covenant," the sequel to "Prometheus" and prequel to the 1979 "Alien." Speaking to Forbes, "Aliens" actor Michael Biehn has given an update regarding the film's production and his involvement in the project.

"I don't know when it's going to happen but I know it's going to happen and I know I'm going to be in it and there's going to be a new Newt, she's going to be about 26 or 27 and looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence to me but I don't know," the actor explained in the interview.

Biehn also stated that Blomkamp had called him several years back and filmed him for a scene. The actor explained he was going to play a villain in one of Blomkamp's films but he didn't get the part. Fans speculate that this could be the role in "Elysium" that eventually went to Sharlto Copley.

However, he later learned that Blomkamp had done concept art for "Alien 5," a film which would ignore the events of "Alien 3" and "Alien Resurrection" and instead be the "true" follow-up to "Alien" and "Aliens." In this new film both Biehn's character Hicks and Newt both survive. 

However, a report from Screen Rant points out that despite both Sigourney Weaver and Biehn being positive that the film is going to happen, the studios have not yet officially green-lit the project and the only official film in the franchise at the time being is Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant."

It is also noted that the official plot of "Alien 5" is still a mystery. If the film moves forward and brings back Weaver, Biehn and a new star as Newt, fans speculate that the movie will end with Weaver's Ellen Ripley dying and then passing the torch to Newt, making Newt the new main character.

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