Fede Álvarez‘s new Alien movie, reportedly titled Alien: Romulus, won’t be released until next year, but Ridley Scott has already seen it.
While speaking with Guillermo del Toro at the DGA Latino Summit 2023, Fede Álvarez confirmed that he screened his director’s cut of Alien: Romulus for Ridley Scott, which he admitted was a little terrifying.
“I wanted him to see it before anybody,” Álvarez said. “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. I asked him about the new ‘Top Gun’ and he’s like ‘meh.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘My brother’s was original and this is like eh.’ He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.’” So, what did Ridley Scott think of Alien: Romulus? Sounds like he loved it.
“Even if he didn’t ask for it, I was gonna go there and sit at a table and look at him and get it,” Álvarez said. “Even if he was gonna say, ‘You destroyed my legacy,’ I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye. I didn’t want to get an email where it says ‘Ridley says…’ And then he walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s fucking great,’” Álvarez continued, “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!“
We don’t know all that much about Alien: Romulus, only that it revolves around a “group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.” The film stars Cailee Spaeney, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. It’s set to be released on August 16, 2024.