Fede Álvarez Calls ‘Alien: Romulus’ “Intense Ride” Taking Franchise Back To Its “True Form”; Talks Hollywood’s Move Back Toward Originals

deadline.com:

Ahead of the August 16 release of Alien: Romulus, filmmaker Fede Álvarez caught up with Deadline at Comic-Con to tease what fans can expect from his installment of the revered sci-fi franchise, delving into his first meeting with Ridley Scott‘s Scott Free, going for a younger cast, Hollywood’s current move back toward originals, and more.

Álvarez called his film “a pretty intense ride” — “45 years of great science fiction horror ideas, combined in two hours, plus more of the ones that I bring myself.” His hope for the project, he said, was “to take the franchise back to its true form, in a way, to its original form — to be really honest about what this truly is and what the first movie was.” If you look back to Scott’s 1979 original Alien, he noted, the film was something that “terrified” everybody. “Half of the critics didn’t like it; the other half saw merit in it, and everybody agreed it was the most horrific, terrifying experience they had in theaters,” he said. “That’s what made it was, and that’s what made it grow and made it a massive hit.

It was truly something people hadn’t seen before, and it was a pure horror movie.” Álvarez’s mission for himself was not even so much to bring “a fresh perspective,” but simply to take the franchise “back to those horror roots, making sure that you deliver at that level.” He also said there’s “a lot of things” in the new film “that are a continuation that hopefully will be a surprise when you watch it in theaters.” First meeting with Scott Free after helming horror pic Don’t Breathe, as the company was readying Alien: Covenant, Álvarez came in as no stranger to high-profile franchises, having previously helmed both The Girl in the Spider’s Web and a 2013 reboot of Evil Dead,