Alien: Romulus is the first big blockbuster installment of the franchise in years to not be directed by Ridley Scott. After passing on sequels to his Alien (1979) original, Scott chose to snatch the reigns of the franchise back with his prequel film Prometheus (2012) and its sequel Alien: Covenant (2016). With Alien: Romulus, Scott is once again having to see the reigns taken up by another filmmaker – in this case, Fede Álavarez, the acclaimed horror director of the Evil Dead (2013) remake and Don’t Breathe. Needless to say, Álavarez has not taken the pressure of honoring the work of one of his cinematic idols, lightly.
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During San Diego Comic-Con 2024, ComicBook had the chance to speak with Fede Álavarez and the cast of Alien: Romulus. During that discussion, we had to ask Álavarez about the experience of not only getting to meet but work with, one of his heroes:
Absolutely he’s seen the movie and thank god he loved it and has been super supportive of the film, every step of the way. It was a total privilege ge, right? He’s the master – he’s the f*ckin’ master of what do, of this genre [horror]. He’s the Kurosawa of this; like there’s not many directors that got to their ’80s and are still going strong and making such amazing movies like Ridley, so total privilege for me to be able to share time with him, and discuss the film with him, and learn so much from him about how to make a movie.”
Alvarez has previously talked about the pressure Scott put on him to do right by Alien – starting with an intense (if brief) note at the start of production: “Dear Fede, Good Luck. Good Health. Good Hunting. Don’t F*ck Up. Very Best Wishes, Ridley Scott”.
While doing a panel with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro earlier this year, Álvarez revealed in more detail how Ridley Scott felt after seeing the film:
“I wanted him to see it before anybody,” Álvarez explained. “And everyone gave me the head’s up that Ridley is really tough. He’s really tough, particularly if it has something to do with his movies. He was really tough on Blade Runner [2049], which I thought was a masterpiece, and he had issues with it because it’s really hard for him because it’s his work…”
No matter what fans or critic reviews may say, according to Fede Álvarez, Ridley Scott likes Alien: Romulus:
“He walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s fucking great,’” Álvarez revealed. “For me it was like…My family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, who I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made – but particularly something like this…and talk to me for an hour about what he liked about it. One of the best compliments he said was, ‘The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?’ Yes!”
Alien: Romulus is now in theaters and IMAX. It stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War) and features David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Transformers 5, Madame Web), Spike Fearn (The Batman) and Aileen Wu.
