Fede Alvarez Recalls Ridley Scott’s Reaction To His New Alien Movie

Fede Alvarez’s new film in the Alien franchise arrives next year, and Alvarez recently revealed Ridley Scott’s reaction to the film. Alvarez (2013’s Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) directed the new sequel which is reportedly titled Alien: Romulus. The director spoke with Guillermo del Toro at the DGA Latino Summit 2023 and talked about how he had to send the film to Scott, who is a lead producer on the film. You can see some highlights from the discussion below, per Variety:

On being nervous about sending it to Scott: “I wanted him to see it before anybody. And everyone gave me the head’s up that Ridley is really tough. He’s really tough, particularly if it has something to do with his movies. He was really tough on Blade Runner [2049],’ which I thought was a masterpiece, and he had issues with it because it’s really hard for him because it’s his work. I asked him about the new Top Gun and he’s like ‘meh.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘My brother’s was original and this is like eh.’ He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.’”

On wanting to speak to Scott in person about it: “Even if he didn’t ask for it, I was gonna go there and sit at a table and look at him and get it,” the director said. “Even if he was gonna say, ‘You destroyed my legacy,’ I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye. I didn’t want to get an email where it says ‘Ridley says…’”

On Scott’s reaction: “And then he walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s f**king 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. One of the best compliments he said was, ‘The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?’ Yes!”

The new Alien film stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. It is reportedly centered on “a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe” and releases on August 16th, 2024.