The Alien franchise is being handed off to director Fede Álvarez when Alien: Romulus opens in theaters, as director (and now producer) Ridley Scott is stepping away. However, that doesn’t mean Rildey didn’t have notes, including ones that may have been aggravating for Álvarez.
At the premiere of Romulus, Scott was answering questions on the red carpet and revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he had seen an early version of the movie, and while he enjoyed it, he still had some constructive criticism. Jotting them down on a piece of paper, he handed them over to Alvarez, who then went and evidently punched a wall.
“I was hugely relieved that it was potentially a huge film and I just said, ‘You don’t have to take a note but I’ll tell you what I think,'” the director recalled. “Then he reads them privately, kicks the wall, punches the door, and then comes back out and said, ‘They were good notes.'”
Scott may have touched a nerve, or Alvarez was annoyed for missing the suggestions Scott made about the film. Or maybe the Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director was just upset he didn’t hit a home run for the iconic director right out of the gate. Whatever his kicking/punching reaction was about, it appears part of the issue was the movie was a bit too long, which Scott let him know.
“Directors tend to make it too long; it was long so you don’t want to lose your dynamic,” Scott said. “The dynamics in this kind of movie are everything, and he had so much going on; he didn’t need so much.”
Related: When Does Alien: Romulus Take Place on the Alien Timeline?
The idea of Scott, a man whose late career has been crammed full of overly long films that could use a good edit, telling Álvarez to trim his movie down is pretty laughable. However, he’s also not wrong. Hopefully, Scott’s notes actually made for a better movie, but considering this is the guy who put out Prometheus, that’s not a guarantee.
Scott may have also taken a bit of a swipe at the infamously bad Alien 3 as his first major film. While discussing why Alvarez was chosen to direct, he threw some serious shade at the idea of a first-time director taking on such a big project.
“You don’t give this to a starter because you’ll get eaten alive by the studio… people have no idea what it is to be a director starting on your first movie with everyone telling you what to do,” Scott said, basically describing exactly what happened to David Fincher. “Talk about too many cooks in the kitchen, are you kidding me, and you’ve got to actually say, ‘Stand back.'”
Alien: Romulus hits theaters on Aug. 16.
Published: Aug 13, 2024 03:45 pm