Fede Álvarez revealed at the theatrical release of the sci-fi horror “Alien: Romulus” what kind of message he received from producer Ridley Scott.
The time has come: Seven years after “Alien: Covenant” and almost two years after the official announcement, “Alien: Romulus”, a new film in the “Alien” franchise, has been released in cinemas. On Rotten Tomatoes, director Fede Álvarez‘s sci-fi horror has already received a very good rating of 80% with 86 reviews. The first opinions immediately after the world premiere were also overwhelmingly impressed. Here, Álvarez’s attempt to breathe new life into the franchise was not met with approval by everyone.
Nevertheless, it can be assumed that fans of the series will also get their money’s worth due to the many bows to the two best spin-offs, “Alien – The Uncanny Creature from a Foreign World” and “Aliens – The Return”. That’s more than you can ask for, considering the series’ continuous downward spiral over the many years. The Uruguayan filmmaker, who already brought a breath of fresh air to a dusty horror series with “Evil Dead”, has thus fulfilled his target.
No wonder, Álvarez received a very special kind of motivation – from Ridley Scott. After all, the 86-year-old is a co-creator of the franchise and is considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever with his life’s work. In addition, the Briton does not keep his opinion to himself. If something or someone doesn’t suit him, he doesn’t mince his words. At the start of filming, he had a note delivered to Álvarez as a producer, on which some well-intentioned advice was noted. The director revealed this via Instagram. It reads:
“Dear Fede, good luck, stay healthy, huntsman’s salvation, don’t mess it up, only the best. Best regards, Ridley Scott.”
“Just don’t feel any pressure,” Álvarez must have thought. It’s not as if Scott won’t throw him to the Xenomorph if he doesn’t live up to expectations. If he ever felt anything like fear of the master himself, it was ultimately completely unfounded. Scott is said to have found the film “damn great”, according to Álvarez, as he proudly revealed at the DGA Latino Summit 2023. Sometimes, however, it is precisely this pressure that helps to achieve top performance. So maybe Scott had not made his hint with the fence post without reason. Otherwise, however, he has given Álvarez a free hand to ensure that the “Alien” series gets new impetus. An interesting look behind the scenes is provided by a featurette on the new “Alien” film.
“Alien: Romulus”: A group of young people fight for survival
In terms of time, “Alien: Romulus” takes place between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens” in the year 2142: Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her clique set off from their mining colony to plunder a supposedly abandoned space station. In this way, they want to finance a better life. But what they couldn’t count on is the unimaginable horror that awaits them at the Renaissance. This is because it belongs to the Weyland-Yutani Group, which had some deadly experiments carried out there.
