Alien: Romulus is an upcoming science fiction horror movie which is the seventh installment in the Alien franchise. It is said to be a standalone interquel set between the events that took place in Ridley Scott’s 1979’s Alien and James Cameron’s 1986’s Aliens.
Directed by Fede Álvarez from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, the movie stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu, and Isabela Merced, amongst a range of other stars. The trailer of the movie was recently released, and experts have shared their opinions on the same.
Industry insiders say Alien: Romulus is going to be like ‘every other f***king alien movie’
The trailer for Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus dropped on March 20, 2024, hinting at the return of thrills the audience had once witnessed with Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens. However, industry insiders John Rocha and Jeff Sneider, on their The Hot Mic podcast, shared their opinions on the recently released trailer along with their expectations for Alien: Romulus. Sneider said,
“I think it looks good; I‘ve heard good things about it, and I’ve heard that the movie works, but at the same time, I’ve seen it before. It looks just like every other f***king alien movie, the same creatures, and I get that it’s not like some new world, right, This has to fit between Alien and Aliens, so it’s not like tech could be completely different.”
He goes on to explain further that it felt familiar to him, but he adds that the face huggers now seem a little bit quicker. John Rocha asked Jeff Sneider if he liked the fact that the makers had set up the movie in the said timeline, pointing out that Prey was successful because it was set in a completely different time on Earth.
Sneider chimed in to say that he would have liked a different approach with Alien: Romulus as well, but it just kind of seems like the same thing that the audience has already seen. He, however, added that he’d be looking forward to the movie because he likes Fede Álvarez.
There’s Only One Reason You Need to be Super Hyped up for ‘Alien: Romulus’ and it’s Not Ridley Scott
Sneider joked during the conversation that he likes the idea of a ‘pervert’ making an alien movie but also stated that it’s not a negative comment for the director. John Rocha went ahead to ask Sneider about his expectations for the upcoming movie, as the director had mentioned he had notes from both Scott and Cameron. Sneider noted the audience does not need the mythologizing, and what they need to see is aliens taking out people one by one.
Alien: Romulus’ director, Fede Álvarez, says the movie will ‘double down on horror without comic relief’
In an interview with Variety, the director, Fede Álvarez, mentioned that the upcoming movie is going to double down on the horror without any comic relief. He added that for him, Alien works at its best when it’s scary noting that the horror and shock of that world are personally what he liked the most. The director, however, clarified that Alien: Romulus is going to be a modern installment, stating,
“I think what happens when you come into a franchise like Alien is that everybody has a different idea of what this is or must be. When I did Evil Dead, some people thought it was a twist that I played it with a straight face, because for a lot of people, that is comedy. But if you saw the first one when you were a kid, like I did, there is nothing funny about it.”
The director shared that for him, working on Alien: Romulus was like taking it back to its roots, adding that he wanted to travel back not just to the style of the original movies but to the genre of the original films as well. Fede Álvarez noted that he wanted to go back to the sheer horror of the first film and take elements of ‘thriller’ from the likes of Aliens and Aliens 3.
Fede Álvarez also acknowledged that they went to a crazy extent to keep his film complimentary to the filmmaking techniques of the first movie. Alien: Romulus is scheduled for release on August 16, 2024.
