It’s been quite a while since we’ve had an update on Fede Alvarez’s upcoming Alien chapter. The last we reported was that principal photography had wrapped back in July, and that the film would be gifted a full theatrical release.
That release is still some time away, with the movie scheduled to hit theatres August 16th 2024, but we need something to tide us over, don’t we?
Well, we’ve got what is likely the ultimate assurance that Alvarez has made a good Alien movie from the godfather of the series himself.
Speaking during a recent chat with friend and collaborator Guillermo del Toro, Alvarez recounted his nagging fear that his vision wasn’t good enough. The writer-director felt compelled to share his director’s cut with Alien director Ridley Scott, but hesitated, due to the filmmaker’s less-than-stellar response to Bladerunner 2049.
“I wanted him to see it before anybody, and everyone gave me the heads-up [that] Ridley is really tough, particularly if you have something to do with his movies,” Alvarez explained. “He was really tough on Blade Runner [2049], which I thought was a masterpiece”
However, Alvarez was determined to get the honest truth about his work from a man he admired, even if it was bad news:
“Even if he was gonna say, ‘You destroyed my legacy,’ I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye.
But it appears Ridley Scott is anything but predictable, as his response to Alvarez’s early cut of the movie was something the filmmaker clearly didn’t expect.
“He walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s fucking great.” “For me, it was like … my family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, [who] I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made, but particularly something like this … and talk to me [for] an hour about what he liked about it.”
Encouraging news, indeed!
Currently, precious little is known about Alvarez’s Alien outing, with 20th Century Studios remaining silent on plot details. From the outset we knew this sequel would stand separate from any established lore, but exist in the same universe as previous films… So far, that’s all we know.
However, as time roles on, we will inevitably get more peeks at what this new chapter has to offer, and we’ll be here to bring them to you.
