With the news of a ‘Romulus’ sequel having been greenlit, 20th Century is now saying that an “Alien vs. Predator” movie is also in the cards. No director was mentioned, but what we might have here is a situation similar to the Tarantino/Rodriguez mashup with “Grindhouse.”
Firstly here’s 20th Century boss Steve Asbell explaining how a new ‘Alien vs Predator’ movie would work:
It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.
A few months back, Fede Alvarez, who directed “Alien: Romulus,” was teasing his intentions to expand the ‘Alien’ franchise into ‘Predator’ territory, but there’s a catch …
“Maybe it’s something I’ll have to co-direct with my buddy Dan,” Alvarez says. “Maybe we should do like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez did with ‘Dusk Till Dawn’. I’ll direct a half, and he’ll direct another half.”
The friend he mentions is Dan Tratchenberg who directed the 2022 ‘Predator’ prequel “Prey” for Hulu and is already working on another movie in the franchise, “Badlands.”
At the time, Alvarez told Deadline that the film being greenlit would all depend on “how well [‘Romulus'] does, if people want to see that.” Fast forward to yesterday, and after grossing $400M worldwide, ‘Romulus’ is now greenlit for a sequel.
So far, two mediocre ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ movies have been released, in 2004 and 2007. Both were made on fairly low budgets and ended up turning in a more than decent profit for 20th Century Fox. I thought the mashup was permanently laid to rest, but now Asbell and Alvarez want to revive it.
Back in 2015, ‘Alien’ actress Sigourney Weaver admitted that the ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ movies “depressed” her because she “was proud of the movies” she made in the franchise and that those creature features were not necessary.
“I’ve nothing against building a movie on a video game but at the time, it was, as [Aliens director] Jim Cameron said I think publicly, ‘why would you want to do that?'” Weaver recalled. “It’s like making Alien meets the Wolfman.”