Sigourney Weaver has read treatment for 'Alien 5' featuring return of Ripley

Sigourney Weaver has read a 50-page treatment for an Alien sequel that would see the return of her iconic hero Ellen Ripley.

Weaver had been due to reprise the role in a sequel helmed by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp until that project fell through in the midst of Alien director Ridley Scott’s continued adventures in expanding the series, as well as the Disney-Fox merger.

The star told Empire she received the new treatment, unconnected to Blomkamp’s idea, from franchise producer Walter Hill a year and a half ago, but doesn’t think it’s likely to get made.

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“Ridley has gone in a different direction,” she said. “Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”

Scott recently said that he believes the Alien franchise needs to “re-evolve”, but that there’s “a lot of mileage” left in the series yet.

He has focused on prequel stories set before the events of his 1979 original film with both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

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Weaver, meanwhile, said that Ripley is “always in my stomach”, even more than 40 years after she first portrayed her on screen.

The star received her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress for portraying the character in the 1986 sequel Aliens, helmed by James Cameron.

Since the Disney-Fox merger was formalised, the studio has announced that major franchises will return, with Alien among them.

Scott remains adamant that he will be able to make another prequel, furthering the connective tissue of the story he began with Prometheus, bringing it closer to Ripley and the team’s original journey in the Nostromo.

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Blomkamp, meanwhile, admitted in 2017 that his planned Alien sequel is “totally dead”.

He added: “I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome.

“But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.”