When the Alien: Romulus release date arrives it will be the first piece of the Alien franchise to be released since Disney purchased Fox. The hope is high, both for the fans and the studio, that the movie will be a return to form. The Alien: Romulus trailers certainly look like the movie is a true successor to the horror of Ridley Scott’s original Alien and Scott himself has praised the film, but it turns out that he isn’t the only former Alien franchise director that Fede Álvarez talked to about his new movie.
The director of Alien: Romulus Fede Álvarez stopped by CinemaBlend’s suite during San Diego Comic-Con where he spoke about just how much support he got from Aliens director James Cameron. Apparently, the two directors became pen pals thanks to actor Stephen Lang, who starred in Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe and is also in the Avatar franchise cast. Alvarez told us…
I had met Cameron a few years before, because Stephen Lang – who was in Don’t Breathe – showed that movie to Cameron. Cameron loved the movie, and he invited me to the set of Avatar 2. And we became pen pals. So then when this came about, I wrote to him like, ‘Hey, I have a question about Aliens,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, let’s talk all about it.’ And we did a two hour zoom call just talking first – the first hour probably talking about Aliens, his experience of making Aliens, and what he learned about dealing with how to make it better. He was great, amazing, like he devoted so much time to us. Then he also watched the cut when it was ready, and gave his feedback on it. He’s been super supportive. I’m so privileged to have someone like Cameron giving us his time, and helping us to make this movie better.
We don’t know exactly what Fede Álvarez’s question about Aliens was, but we can assume he got it answered, and more when the two chatted for a couple of hours about all things Xenomorph. Certainly the two directors have a lot in common considering that both films they made are direct sequels to the original Alien. In the Alien timeline, Romulus is set between the original movie and Cameron’s sequel, so Cameron’s thoughts on how he approached that would certainly have been of use to Alvarez.
With support from both James Cameron and Ridley Scott, the likelihood that Alien: Romulus will be everything fans are hoping for has certainly increased. Of course, so has the pressure that the movie turns out.
When James Cameron made Aliens he took the franchise in a different direction, making a more action-focused movie to what originally had been a horror movie. Álvarez’s movie is a horror movie in the vein of the original, but we can imagine James Cameron had plenty of thoughts after seeing an early cut that could only help Alien: Romulus be a better movie.