Alien 5, but ended up backing out of the project for a very specific reason. When someone brings up the Alien movie franchise, there are generally three people that immediately spring to mind for most. The first is Sigourney Weaver, who plays action heroine Ellen Ripley in four of the films. The second is Ridley Scott, director of Alien, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant. Then of course there's James Cameron, writer and director of Aliens, a sequel some feel sures the original.
There's an age old debate as to whether Alien or Aliens is the better movie, and one that's unlikely to ever be conclusively settled. After all, they both provide different things. Alien is a claustrophobic sci-fi/horror/suspense piece, while Aliens is a mix of sci-fi, horror, and action, with emphasis on the last ingredient. Aliens takes the universe that Scott first created onscreen and ramps it up to eleven, even if the scares aren't quite as chilling.
Needless to say, many fans would be interested to see Cameron return to the Alien franchise, as would Weaver, who earned an Oscar nomination under Cameron's direction. It turns out he almost came back decades ago, but Fox threw a curve ball into the mix.
Alien 5: Why James Cameron Backed Out Of Writing A Sequel
Like many people, James Cameron wasn't a fan of 1997's Alien: Resurrection, a group which includes the film's credited writer Joss Whedon. Considering the tepid response both critically and commercially to Resurrection, Fox quickly decided that they weren't going ahead with Whedon's idea for Alien 5, which Sigourney Weaver was also not big on. Weaver had said she would be open to returning as Ripley if either Ridley Scott or Cameron were involved, and for a time, Cameron fully intended to be. He had even talked to Scott about possibly collaborating on Alien 5, according to statements made at the time.
Cameron had been working with an unnamed writing partner on an Alien 5 script, when Fox executives came to him and said that they had a script for Alien vs. Predator that they liked, and wanted to move ahead with that project. While that didn't mean they didn't also still want to make Cameron's Alien 5, Cameron wasn't onboard with the idea. Cameron saw the crossover movie as nothing but a cheap gimmick, and felt that it would delegitimize the Alien franchise in the eyes of moviegoers, so he backed out. Amusingly, Cameron ended up liking Alien vs. Predator, although after that, he still resolved to leave the franchise behind, as he didn't like having no control over it.
