A production listing posted by the Film & Television Industry Alliance has revealed that the Alien film that’s set to be directed by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead 2013, Don’t Breathe) is going by the working title of Alien: Romulus… and filming is scheduled to begin in Budapest, Hungary on February 6th!
Last month, it was announced that Cailee Spaeny of Pacific Rim: Uprising will star in the film, which is coming to us from Momentum and 20th Century Studios, with Ridley Scott producing through his Scott Free banner. It’s being made for release through the Hulu streaming service, much like the Predator franchise addition Prey that was released earlier this year (and turned out to be one of the more well-received entries in that series).
Very little is known what Alvarez has in store for us with Alien: Romulus. Alvarez will be directing the film from a screenplay he was written with his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues. When the project was announced near the start of this year, it was said that Alvarez pitched this idea for a new Alien movie to Ridley Scott years ago. Whatever the idea was, it stuck with Scott. So late last year, he called Alvarez and asked if he still wanted to make an Alien movie. Clearly, the answer was yes. 20th Century Studios division president Steve Asbell told The Hollywood Reporter that they picked up the project “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch. It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.“
Asbell added that, since the movie is being made for Hulu instead of a theatrical release, “It’s not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets. They get to be authentically what they are. And this is closer to its genre roots.“
The story Alvarez and Sayagues have crafted for this movie is not connected to the other films in the Alien franchise.
Are you looking forward to Alien: Romulus? Any theories as to why it would be called Romulus? Let us know by leaving a comment below. A lower budgeted, horror-leaning Fede Alvarez Alien movie sounds like exactly the sort of Alien movie I want to see.