Contrary to a wave of sites reporting the 'news', it appears that the next Alien film team have NOT confirmed that Michael Biehn will be appearing - but we expect it's just a matter of time. Though rumours and very provisional pre-production artwork have indicated that director Neil (District 9 / Chappie) Blomkamp would like the actor to reprise the role of Hicks in the recently announced movie, today's 'news' appears to have sprung from a Twitter post that Biehn's wife, actress Jennifer Blanc, insists is not her husband's actual social-media account.
There's still some confusion about the story and remit of the next Alien film. All casting and concept illustrations seem to indicate that it continues on from the end of James Cameron's Aliens and ignores the films which followed, but Blomkamp has been wary of confirming that and went so far to say that though he wanted that direct connection to the earlier films of the franchise, he 'wasn't trying to undo Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection'.
The images Blomkamp released showed a version of Hicks with a badly acid-burned face, which seems to somewhat overstate the injuries he has at the end of Cameron's film. In the intervening years, the young Carrie Henn, who played 'Newt', has long since grown up and given up acting and if her character was to appear again, recasting seems inevitable.
The 'faux' Biehn announcement indicated a summer start for the as-yet-unnamed Alien film, but this in itself seems unlikely at this stage.
