Here be SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus, consider yourself warned. The highly anticipated Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters and is a big success, already grossing over $108 million worldwide. However, the film does contain one surprise character whose presence has proven to be somewhat divisive among audiences.
If you’ve seen Alien: Romulus, you know I’m talking about Rook, a damaged synthetic who happens to be the same model as Ash, the character played by Ian Holm in Ridley Scott’s original movie. Using a combination of animatronics, CG, and deepfake, director Fede Álvarez was able to bring Ian Holm back to the Alien franchise, and he explained a bit of the process while speaking with THR.
“Metaphysic is the company that did a lot of the work on the enhancements to the puppet. We had a puppet that talked, and it was all based on an Ian Holm headcast that we found. It was made for The Lord of the Rings, and that was the only headcast that exists of Ian Holm,” Álvarez said. “So the Legacy [Effects] guys that did the animatronic started there, and then some shots needed more help from CG for the lip sync and the lines. But there are some others that didn’t. There are some shots where you are literally looking straight at the animatronic. So it was a combination of things, and while I don’t know exactly what they do, I am sure it is a combination of CG and the headscan. There might be some deepfake in the eyes because it’s the best when it comes to creating the likeness of the eyes, but it’s a whole bag of tricks from 1970s and 1980s technology to technology from yesterday.“
Álvarez added that it was “unfair that the likeness of Ash was never used again,” particularly as both Lance Henriksen and Michael Fassbender got to reprise their android roles. “So when we started thinking about the likeness of this character with Ridley, it was going to be a torso [and head] that we would build,” he said. “So it didn’t need to be the likeness of a current working actor, and Ridley was the one who said, ‘Ash was always the best. He needs to make a comeback.’ So we went for it with the permission of the family: his widow and all of his kids. We wanted to make sure everybody was on board with the idea of bringing his likeness back.” Some fans have taken issue with the film using Holm’s likeness, with others slamming the subpar CG, but it certainly was a surprise.
Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus follows “a group of young people on a distant world who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.” The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Industry), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home). In addition to directing the movie, Fede Álvarez also co-wrote the script alongside Rodo Sayagues.
The film has been receiving largely positive reviews, with our own Chris Bumbray calling it the best installment of the long-running franchise since the first two perfect movies. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t a few clunky moments that detract from an otherwise kick-ass movie. “The fact that director Fede Alvarez was able to make a slam-bang Alien sequel that trumps every other film in the franchise, save the first two, is cause for celebration,” Bumbray wrote. “Yet, it does suffer from the fact that its director was perhaps hampered in his effort to make a lean and mean Alien movie with an ill-advised directive to connect the film to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. This leaves the film feeling like it’s 75% kick-ass, and 25% space bio-engineering nonsense.” You can read the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.
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