District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was recently confirmed to be directing the next Alien movie, and it seems like he’s been gearing up for the job with a little bit of Alien: Isolation.
“I think it’s amazing,” Blomkamp told IGN. “Even from the first screen grabs, just the quality of the art direction and how it looks. I’m such a visual person that the narrative of stuff is neither here nor there for me sometimes. It’s literally about imagery.”
Don’t worry too much about that last comment, which does sound a bit like something Michael Bay might say. Blomkamp’s a smart guy, and simply recognises the importance of practical, believable set design to the Alien universe, something Isolation did fantastically well. It might even have given him a bit of inspiration.
“It’s a genetic offspring of the first two movies,” he said, referring to his upcoming film, “and Alien Isolation made me question that quite a lot. Because they got it so perfect with all of the late 1970s early ‘80s tech, it’s really cool.”
Unsurprisingly given the action focus of his movies, Blomkamp’s more an Aliens guy than an Alien one. I’m betting, however, that he liked Isolation a lot more than Colonial Marines.