District 9 and Elysium director Neill Blomkamp has said that his planned Alien movie, which he pretty much willed into being with promises and concept art posted on Instagram, has been put on hold. It seems the franchise's original director, Ridley Scott, has instead been given control of the aliens in order to make his sequel to Prometheus, tentatively named Alien: Paradise Lost. News of this delay had already been rumored earlier this year, but Blomkamp confirmed it on Twitter today:
alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things... as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley
— Иeill BlomkΛmp (@NeillBlomkamp) October 30, 2015
It's not the most surprising news given how contingent Blomkamp's Alien project seems to be on the goodwill of the franchise's owners, Fox. As The AV Club points out, Blomkamp's track record hasn't been great recently (Elysium and Chappie were far from blockbuster successes), while Scott's most recent project, The Martian, has impressed critics and audiences alike. Blomkamp, it seems, will have to wait his turn.