About two months ago, while in the midst of post-production of his upcoming film Chappie, Director/Auteur Neill Blomkamp began to post concept art that seemed to be tied to an idea for a sequel to the Alien film franchise. At the time, it was unclear whether Blomkamp was actually tied on someway to any upcoming Alien film. In fact, the only film that had been confirmed for the series at that time was the sequel for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. The concept art was incredibly beautiful, and very akin to the original H.R. Giger art that inspired the look of Scott’s 1979 classic, and the internet agreed. Cries for Fox to allow the handover of the franchise to Blomkamp overwhelmed social media.

Well, breaking yesterday through Blomkamp’s Twitter, it is official that his next film will indeed be an Alien film. While the art drew heavily on the character of Ripley, as played by Sigourney Weaver, it is not confirmed whether she will actually be in the film.

This is very exciting, to say the least. While his last film Elysium received very mixed reviews, his first motion picture, District 9, was heralded as a fresh and innovative take on science fiction. I have actually been in love with his work since the time of his short Alive in Joburg and his short Halo films. His upcoming Chappie looks to be a cool new take on the AI-driven robot storyline that looks to push our understanding of what life is.

Check out some of the cool art from Blomkamp’s Instagram below:

Via Variety

Follow Tom on Twitter @thomaskagar