Casting is currently underway for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel Alien: Paradise Lost, and there is a bit of an update concerning Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5. Blomkamp took to Twitter to reveal that his film has been put on hold, this doesn’t mean it’s never happening or he’s exiting it, just that Fox has decided to focus on Paradise first.
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th8os-IfZhg The assumption here is that Fox is looking to put all their energy into making Paradise Lost the priority, as Prometheus had a tough time with critics and finding huge box office numbers. Ridley’s The Martian has been a huge hit for Fox, which they might want to capitalize on it’s box office success, which has earned You can’t blame Fox, as Scott has already confirmed the xenomorphs won’t be apart of Paradise Lost and has mentioned plans for two more sequels. They need to make sure this gets audiences excited, and Alien 5 would likely steal the thunder from Ridley expanding upon his engineer mythology. Considering, Neill’s film would include the return of Ellen Ripley and focus mostly on the xenos. There had been a bit of conflicts between the Prometheus sequel and Neill’s film, as he already had to make story changes due to Scott’s film. I’ve heard Fox is allowing to Ridley to make a bunch of changes on the fly during production, and it’s not really fair to Blomkamp to have him rewriting things multiple times. So, waiting until Paradise Lost is in the editing process would allow Neill to make the strongest film possible. Giving him the extra time to beef-up the script and create even more elaborate concepts. Production was said to begin this fall/winter in Vancouver, but then was pushed to next fall, and now completely on hold. I recently mentioned on Twitter that I had been hearing tidbits concerning Neill’s outline for the film, which would indeed see it a horror thriller with many action beats, combining the elements of the first two films. I’m sure fans of the franchise will be extremely happy with his vision for the film, we’ll just have to wait a bit longer for it to happen. Some are quick to point out Blomkamp’s less than stellar box office for Chappie and Elysium as the reasoning behind the hold, which might have more to do with some basis towards the director’s work, along with his Alien deal stemming from a pitch via Instagram posts. The two films that seem to turn people off are Sony productions which doesn’t really too much, since he’s now moved over to 20th Century Fox for the project. It’s unlikely he’ll be returning to Sony anytime soon, due to a venomous relationship with former Fox studio head Tom Rothman that Sony recently hired. Rothman tanked Neill’s live-action Halo movie he had been working at Fox before he exited and focused on District 9 instead. 
Fox isn’t dumb enough to leave this on the table for too long, as Sigourney Weaver has championed the project throughout it’s secret development, she had been notoriously picky during her time in the developmental process with the films post-Aliens. They’ve messed-up on a bunch of occasions on passing on multiple Alien 5 pitches, one from Scott and James Cameron that was overlooked to make AVP instead. 
It’s hard to believe that Fox will ignore the main Alien fanbase who wants a fifth installment, and with high profiled actors like Louis C.K. campaigning for roles. The studio recently worked closely with game designers to bring us Alien: Isolation, that included the original cast getting back together for their Nostromo DLC. They obviously understand the financial power of the series, and aren’t likely to cancel the project as some are trying to allude to.
Are you upset that Alien 5 is getting delayed?
We all knew there would be pulse rifles. Obviously. Now with added RIS
A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on
#alien going very well. Love this project
A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on
SOURCE: NEILL BLOMKAMP