Fede Álvarez and Ridley Scott at the premiere of “Alien: Romulus” held at TCL Chinese Theatre on … [+]
Ridley Scott is sharing the unusual way Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez reacted to his notes on the film.
Alien: Romulus is the first film in the franchise since Scott’s 2017 entry Alien: Covenant. Scott, of course, directed the first Alien in 1979, which was followed by director James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986.
After David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed 1993’s Alien 3 and 1997’s Alien: Resurrection, respectively, Scott returned to the helm for the prequel movies Prometheus in 2009 and Alien: Covenant.
Scott is producing Alien: Romulus and part of his duty—and creator—of the Alien franchise is to guide Alvarez on the creative process. The legendary filmmaker shared some of the ways he guided his director during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the red carpet premiere of the film Monday in Los Angeles.
Scott said instead of telling Alvarez his suggestions for Alien: Romulus after he screened the film for the first time, he wrote down his suggestions in a set of notes instead.
“Then he reads them privately, kicks the wall, punches the door, and then comes back out and said, ‘They were good notes,’” Scott recalled for THR.
Scott also recalled for THR that he told Alvarez Alien: Romulus shouldn’t run too long.
“Directors tend to make it too long; it was long so you don’t want to lose your dynamic,” Scott explained to THR. “The dynamics in this kind of movie are everything, and he had so much going on; he didn’t need so much.”
The final runtime for Alien: Romulus is 1 hour, 59 minutes.
Alvarez Insisted On Using Practical Visual Effects In ‘Alien: Romulus’
Alien: Romulus is set between the events of the original Alien and Aliens, so Fede Alvarez wanted to maintain not only the tone of those films but also the aesthetic.
Alvarez’s approach also included the use of practical makeup and visual effects to bring the franchise’s iconic Xenomorphs back to life instead of using CGI.
“Obviously it’s easier to just shoot an empty space and get some CG creature later on; we didn’t do that,” Alvarez told THR at the red-carpet premiere. “We went all the way to create creatures — we did technology of today with the philosophy of the old movies, but with technology of today to create something that people don’t see on-screen every day.”
Alien: Romulus chronicles the harrowing trip a group of young adults from a mining colony take to an abandoned space outpost, where they hope to scavenge enough technology to leave the colony for good.
When they arrive, though, they inadvertently unleash some Xenomorphs encased in cryo containers, which proceed to wreak havoc on the crew.
Rated R, Alien: Romulus—which stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu—plays in previews Thursday night before opening Friday in theaters nationwide.
