Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” has wrapped production in Hungary. It started shooting back in March. That’s around four months.
Did we really need another ‘Alien’ movie? Of course not. And, I really liked Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus”! That one felt very different to all the other films we’ve gotten in this franchise.
By the looks of it, Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” is not as ambitious as “Prometheus.” Based on what we’ve gathered so far about the film, it’ll basically be Gen-Z vs the Xenomorph, all done via the slasher genre.
This is the seventh film of the never ending franchise, and it stars a young batch of actors — Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn …
The ‘Alien’ saga, which began in 1979 with Ridley Scott's film, and Sigourney Weaver in the lead, has had many sequels over the years. Álvarez, best known for “Don't Breathe” and the “Evil Dead” remake, will try to follow in the footsteps of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
While the premise for the movie has been kept under wraps, the studio did reveal that the film will follow “a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”
Sounds dull.
Scott remains as producer. This is 20th Century’s attempt at reviving the franchise. Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” was both a critical and commercial disappointment, it only made $74 million domestically. Nobody cared about that movie, which was well-made, but felt like business as usual.
On the other hand, I will always swear by “Prometheus,” which I thought was unfairly maligned at the time of its release. Dom Nero‘s “It’s Time To Redeem Prometheus,” which appeared in the 9.1 edition of Esquire kind of nailed it. He called it a “masterpiece.” I wouldn’t go as far as to use the “M” word, but his take on “Prometheus” was spit out some major truths about this film.
Since its release, back in 2012, “Prometheus” took a rather harsh beating from the film community, but why? Yes, it was promoted as Scott’s return to the ‘Alien’ franchise, but what we got instead was a heady, richly-detailed and incredibly thoughtful film about human existence, and not the slasher-film-in-space that most people wanted. Thank God. It was a big, bold and satisfying blockbuster from Scott.
“Alien: Romulus” hits theaters on August 16, 2024.