So, it looks like the ‘Alien’ franchise will live on to see another day. Spurred by strong word of mouth, Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” is headed towards a $45M opening this weekend.
Alvarez, who directed 2016’s “Don’t Breathe,” is clearly not done with the franchise either. He’s already teasing a potential “Alien Vs. Predator” movie, but there’s a catch.
“Maybe it’s something I’ll have to co-direct with my buddy Dan,” Alvarez says. That friend being Dan Tratchenberg who directed the 2022 ‘Predator’ prequel “Prey” for Hulu and is already working on another movie in the franchise.
“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.”
Alvarez tells Deadline that the film getting greenlit would all depend on “how well [‘Romulus'] does, if people want to see that.” Well, all I can say is that it’s off to a solid start at the box-office and people seem to really like it — it just nabbed a B+ CinemaScore.
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 Alvarez wants 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 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.