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'Alien 5' script treatment from Walter Hill teases 'dreams' and 'destiny'

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley on the poster for 'Aliens'. (Credit: Fox)
Sigourney Weaver as Ripley on the poster for 'Aliens'. (Credit: Fox)

Walter Hill’s script treatment for Alien 5 delivers a strange twist on the original movie’s famous tagline, stating that “in space no one can hear you dream”.

SYFY Wire revealed the front page of the treatment, which also bears a quote from author Edgar Allan Poe referring to a “dream within a dream”, suggesting there could be Inception-like trickery at play.

Read more: James Cameron on where the Alien franchise went wrong

Hill confirmed the revelation by Sigourney Weaver last week that a treatment exists for the return of Ripley, more than 20 years after the character was last seen in 1997’s Alien: Resurrection.

Weaver stated that Ripley had “done her bit” and “deserves a rest”, but Hill is more excited by the prospect of the iconic hero returning to screens.

He said: “Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley.”

Sigourney Weaver in the role of Ripley in the film 'Alien'. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Sigourney Weaver in the role of Ripley in the film 'Alien'. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Alien 5 is clearly an ongoing project for Hill who shared a version of the script dated March 2020, co-written with David Giler, who was also a producer on the original 1979 film.

It’s unclear what will happen with this script treatment, which seems at odds with the prequel-focused direction Ridley Scott has taken the franchise with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Scott said earlier this year that he believes there’s “a lot of mileage” left in the franchise, but that it will have to “re-evolve” in the wake of Covenant’s lukewarm reception.

Read more: Disney-Fox planning more Alien, Kingsman and Apes movies

A previous plan for a new Alien sequel directed by District 9 filmmaker Neil Blomkamp was shelved in 2017 in the face of Scott’s re-direction of the franchise.

The director said he felt like his idea was “pretty awesome”, but acknowledged it’s unlikely to ever happen.