Details on The Fifth ALIEN Film That James Cameron, Ridley Scott, and Joss Whedon Were Once Planning

After Alien: Resurrection was released, Fox was looking to do a fifth Alien film and that project started the development process with Joss Whedon set to write. Whedon had worked on the script for Alien: Resurrection, but this sequel would have been 100% his.

Tom Rothman, Fox’s president of production at the time, told Entertainment Weekly (via: Winona-Ryder). “Joss Whedon will write it, and we expect to have Sigourney and Winona if they’re up for it.”

Whedon talked about that project saying that Ressurection set the stage for what was going to happen in the fifth film. He said (via Alienmovies): “There’s a big story to tell in another sequel. The fourth film is really a prologue to a movie set on Earth. Imagine all the things that can happen. If I write this movie, and it has my writing credits on it, then it’s going to be on Earth … And it’s going to be very different from the last one.”

The filmmaker went on to explain what the studio was thinking, and what he was looking to do, saying: “The studio talked about Alien Resurrection as a kind of placeholder. They said, ‘We want to do Earth or the big Alien planet, but we’re not convinced yet that this franchise has legs. So we want to do a smaller story.’ I don’t think you can do that with Alien 5. I think the time of people running around in a tin can has passed. You have to work on a broader canvas otherwise it becomes an episode and not a new movie. The way Cameron exploded from the first to the second, you have to do that again, and that means going somewhere new … With Alien Resurrection, I used the first two movies as models, but with this one I can promise you something new, something completely different from what’s been seen before.”

This version of Alien 5, which would have been titled Alien: Revelation, ended up not happening after Whedon became frustrated after Alien: Ressurection was released. Fox put the movie on hold, and Whedon just lost interest. He explained: “I’ll tell you there was a time when I would have been interested in that, but I am not interested in making somebody else’s franchise anymore. Any movie I make will be created by me.” Whedon then went on to work for Marvel and DC with their franchise films.

Not long after that, Cinescape magazine reported that the story for Alien 5 was going to focus on Ripley 8 heading off to the Alien home world to take on the Xenomorphs. Nothing ever came of that, though. When Sigourney Weaver was asked about it in 1999, she told Sci-Fi Wire: "I've always wanted to do one [an Alien movie] where we go back to the planet from which the Alien originally came. I don’t know if there are any plans to do another one. It wouldn’t surprise me if some time in the next twenty years or so, you see a white-haired Ripley hobbling around out there. But I haven’t heard of anything.”

It was around 2002-2003 that word got out that James Cameron and Ridley Scott were looking to team up on an Alien 5 film project, which would’ve been amazing! Scott was once asked about his potential involvement in that, and he said at the time: “You know I thought it’d be nice. I’d do it. It really is entirely dependent on the take on the material. It’s all about material. I’ve been asked about Alien 5, and I said of course. We’ve started a script meeting. I mean, I’ve started it off so I may as well close the door – if in fact this is meant to be the last one.” He added, “I will decide in the next 5 weeks. I’m looking at Alien 5 [for] sure. Why not? Maybe.”

The rumor of Cameron and Scott teaming up for Alien 5 started with reporter Ian Nathan, who said, there “has been talk of a heavenly partnership with Cameron to work out an idea” for a fifth Alien movie. This was confirmed by Cameron when he revealed: “What came up was the idea of doing Alien 5,” he said, “and at one point I pitched that I would write it and produce it, and Ridley would direct it, and we had lunch talking about this.”

Zap2it.com then shared the rumored plot lines for both Alien 5 and Alien 6. They reported: “Number five is set on Earth with the planet under attack from alien warrior drop ships, which made their debut in the original Alien movie. In the process they make Earth look like an incubator while attacking, leaving Alien eggs around the humans. When Ripley realizes her dreams have played a role in what’s happening she evacuates and confines herself to a cell, but inevitably she will meet her nemesis face to face again.”

The info for Alien 6 was a bit more brief, but it was said to take “place on the home turf of the navigator of the ship. Aliens are taking over other planets and Ripley finds herself forced to turn to the dark side in order to save civilization.”

Those plots haven’t been confirmed, but it would have taken the franchise in an interesting direction. Cameron did talk about jumping back into the universe and how the story needed to by uncompromising. He shared with The Edmonton Sun: “The original Alien holds a special classic niche as one of the great terrifying experiences. And the trick is you don’t go crazy and make a $150-million movie because you don’t want to have to compromise, you don’t want to try to do a PG-13 Alien that is all things to everyone. It’s got to still maintain its roots in this kind of cinematic Id. Ridley did it really beautifully. He just kind of put you into this Freudian nightmare space.”

He also said in an interview with BBC One: “We’re looking at doing another one. Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie.”

Ultimately, this Alien 5 film project never panned out, and Cameron blamed Alien vs. Predator for the film never moving forward. It would’ve been very interesting to see Cameron and Scott collaborate on an Alien sequel together and it’s a shame that it never happened. The fact that Fox chose Alien vs. Predator over Cameron and Scott’s project was a dumb decision, one that was most likely made by Tom Rothman.