Sigourney Weaver says she is hopeful about returning to the big screen in a new Alien film.

The actress, who played Ellen Ripley in the 1979 film and three sequels, said she had been talking to director Neill Blomkamp about a fifth film in the series.

She told an audience at Comic-Con International in San Diego that Blomkamp had pitched the idea while they worked on the movie Chappie in 2015.

She said: "Four months later, I got a script that was so amazing and gives the fans everything they are looking for - plus innovates in a lot of ways.

Image: Sigourney Weaver at the Alien: Resurrection premiere in 1997

"(Blomkamp) has work to do, and I have work to do. I am hoping when we finish those jobs, we will circle back and start to do it."


Weaver, 66, last appeared on screen as Ripley in 1997's Alien Resurrection, the fourth movie in the series that ended with a clone of the character arriving on Earth.

But she told 6,500 fans at the event she had no interest in an Alien film set on Earth because "Earth is boring".

Weaver was appearing on a panel celebrating the 30th anniversary of Aliens, the second film in the franchise, along with the movie's director James Cameron and co-stars Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn and Carrie Henn.

Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien film, is currently working on a second prequel called Alien: Covenant - a follow-up to 2012's Prometheus.