Alien: Romulus Director Explains Why The Sci-Fi Tech Has Been So Different Across The Franchise
With all due respect to any other upcoming movies and shows trying to carve out some time and space for themselves this week, good luck competing with the "Alien: Romulus" teaser that dropped earlier today. Like most "Alien" fans, we've been waiting with bated breath to see what horror filmmaker Fede Álvarez would have up his sleeves for this new installment of the classic franchise, and the footage certainly doesn't disappoint. (We would know since we've been watching it on a constant loop ever since.) Not only does the new film seem like a grand return to the 1979 original, but the newest director to the series is also saying all the right things. And for those of us with a soft spot for Ridley Scott's two divisive prequel movies in recent years, well, these new quotes are sure to be music to our ears.
To coincide with the new trailer, Variety published an exclusive interview with Álvarez (known for the 2013 "Evil Dead" and the original horror/thriller "Don't Breathe") to pick his brain about the upcoming movie, which is due to hit theaters this summer. In addition to revealing the exact point in time that this story takes place and discussing the challenges of making a new entry influenced equally by "Alien" and James Cameron's "Aliens," the director also addressed the ever-important question of how he threaded the line between depictions of advanced and old-fashioned technology — all while explaining away one common misconception about both "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant" for the benefit of us shameless prequel apologists. There are dozens of us!
Let him cook!
If you've heard one complaint, then you've heard them all. No scientists would be as naive as those in "Prometheus." Why didn't anyone running from the falling spaceship just turn to the side? Ridley Scott contradicted his own movie by turning the classic visuals of broken-down space miners into an Apple store in space. Now, not only are all of these criticisms wildly off-base and objectively wrong (please allow for some slight hyperbole on my end, it's all I have) but that last one cuts right to the heart of a debate that could've easily consumed Fede Álvarez on "Alien: Romulus," too.
When asked how he found the right balance between the old-fashioned junker aesthetic prevalent throughout the original "Alien" and the jarringly more advanced technology of "Prometheus," Álvarez responded with one heck of a clever observation:
"I know a lot of people felt like it makes no sense. But I think we make the mistake when we watch the Nostromo and assume that's how the entire universe looks like. If I decide to make a movie on Earth today, and I go to the Mojave Desert and I take an old truck because a guy drives a Chevy, if you're an alien, you're going to go, 'That's what the world looks like.' But it doesn't mean there's not a guy in a Tesla in the city, which would be the 'Prometheus' ship. The first movie is truck drivers in a beat-up truck. 'Prometheus' is the ship of the richest man in the world."
While he stops just short of rightfully crowning "Prometheus" as the third-best of them all, it's clear Álvarez intuitively understands this franchise. If you ask me, that's all we could've hoped for from the next "Alien" director. Bring it on.
"Alien: Romulus" hits theaters on August 16, 2024.