Romulus’ Notes Made Fede Álvarez “Punch the Door” in Frustration

After directing the first Alien film in 1979 and later returning for 2012’s Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott has now passed the franchise baton to Fede Álvarez for Alien: Romulus — although he still had some input.

At the Romulus premiere in Los Angeles on Monday, Scott, a producer on the project, shared with The Hollywood Reporter that when Álvarez first showed him the movie, “I was hugely relieved that it was potentially a huge film and I just said, ‘You don’t have to take a note but I’ll tell you what I think.’”

Instead of discussing the suggestions on the spot, Scott opted to write down his notes. “Then he reads them privately, kicks the wall, punches the door, and then comes back out and said, ‘They were good notes,’” Scott said. He also advised trimming the film, stating, “Directors tend to make it too long; it was long so you don’t want to lose your dynamic. The dynamics in this kind of movie are everything, and he had so much going on; he didn’t need so much.”

In selecting Álvarez to take over the esteemed franchise, Scott cited his previous projects, which include Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe. Scott explained, “You don’t give this to a starter because you’ll get eaten alive by the studio… people have no idea what it is to be a director starting on your first movie with everyone telling you what to do. Talk about too many cooks in the kitchen, are you kidding me, and you’ve got to actually say, ‘Stand back.’”

The film stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. It follows a group of young space colonizers who encounter the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Speaking about his experience with the franchise, Álvarez said, “Alien has always been the scariest movie ever for me, so to be able to go into that world and bring it to a new generation, and bring it to life in a way it’s never been brought to life before and in such a realistic and almost documentary way, it really was the things that made all my nightmares.”

Álvarez also elaborated on his preference for practical effects over visual effects. “Obviously it’s easier to just shoot an empty space and get some CG creature later on; we didn’t do that. 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 onscreen every day.”

Alien: Romulus is set to hit theaters on Friday.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter