James Cameron is working on a new version of his beloved sci-fi sequel. Aliens first opened in 1986 and became an instant sci-fi classic. Speaking to Letterboxd while promoting his new Billie Eilish concert movie, Cameron says he’s working on bringing a brand new version of Aliens to the big screen.
“Aliens is a creature of its time,” Cameron said. “We are thinking about converting Aliens [to 3D], because I know now that the tools are so much better than they were for creating depth maps. We’re probably going to wind up converting Aliens, which will be a fun experience.”
He continued, “That film seems to be evergreen. People still go back to it a lot. If people remember a movie that I did 38 years ago, I think I’ve already won [an] argument.”
He’s not wrong about Aliens’ evergreen status. Some people prefer Cameron’s action-packed take on the Xenomorph threat to Ridley Scott’s original, tense horror-in-space film. Some consider Aliens to be a literally perfect sci-fi sequel.
James Cameron Teases Alien 3D Re-Release
Cameron has long been a proponent of 3D cinema. The new Billie Eilish concert film is in 3D. The Avatar films were shot for 3D, and he re-released Titanic in 3D, as well as producing other 3D movies.
Many moviegoers have been critical of the 3D theatrical experience in general, and Cameron responded to that in 2025, around the time of the release of the third Avatar movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash. “I think $2.3 billion says you might be wrong on that,” Cameron said. “Well, that’s the argument from authority. But the argument from artistic is: I happen to like it, and it’s my movie.”
Aliens Is a Sci-Fi Classic
Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) comforts Newt in AliensImage via 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection
Cameron wrote and directed Aliens, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror movie, Alien. The film is notably more of a blockbuster, ramping up the action compared to Scott’s tense, claustrophobic original.
In the film, Ellen Ripley’s lifepod is found by a salvage crew over 50 years after the events of the first Alien movie. She soon learns that terraformers are on the very planet where she and the Nostromo crew found the alien species. When the company sends a family of colonists to investigate her story, they lose all contact with the planet and the colonists. Ripley joins a group of colonial marines, returning to the planet in search of answers.
Sigourney Weaver reprises her iconic role of Ellen Ripley for the film. She’s joined in the cast by Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein.
Aliens earned an estimated $183 million at the box office, setting the stage for additional Alien films. The movie has also been widely praised by critics, earning a 93% positive “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cameron never did return for another Alien movie. David Fincher took the reins of Alien 3, which notoriously undercut the ending of Aliens.
Aliens is streaming, in its current non-3D form, on HBO Max.
Release Date
July 18, 1986
Runtime
137 minutes
Director
James Cameron
