It’s been more than six years since Alien: Covenant hit theaters and, at long last, we have a new movie on the way from director Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead). Little has been revealed about the filmmaker’s new entry in the beloved sci-fi/horror franchise but it has already been filmed, and he’s even put together a director’s cut. Recently, Álvarez showed that cut to Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien and, apparently, it went pretty damn well.
Álvarez recently sat down for a chat with Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro for a conversation during the DGA Latino Summit. During the conversation, the filmmaker revealed that he showed Scott the film, which is rumored to be titled Alien: Romulus. As one might expect, Álvarez was pretty nervous about doing so.
“I wanted him to see it before anybody. And everyone gave me the heads 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.”
Even though Scott, who serves as a producer on the new film, is a tough audience, his reaction to the cut was rather positive. So much so that it should give all of us hope that Álvarez has put together something pretty great for us to enjoy when it finally arrives. The director further revealed:
“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. 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…’ 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!”
That all sounds rather wonderful. Plot details for the film are currently being kept under wraps, but filming took place earlier this year with a cast led by Cailee Spaeny (Bad Times at the El Royale, Pacific Rim: Uprising). It is unclear when, precisely, within the franchise timeline the movie falls. Scott’s own Prometheus and Covenant served as prequels to the original Alien, with a planned third film that never came to pass set to finishing bridging the gap. Elsewhere, a TV show set within the universe is currently in the works at FX. It’s expected to debut sometime next year.
The new Alien movie does not currently have a release date but it is expected to arrive sometime in 2024. Stay tuned.
