Alien: Romulus, James Cameron and Ridley Scott’s reactions to Fede Alvarez’s film: “Opposing opinions”

The director of Alien: Romulus Fede Alvarez told us what James Cameron and Ridley Scott’s reaction was to his new film, specifying that they couldn’t be more opposites! They both loved it but had very different perspectives on the script, giving opposite suggestions, as ironically recalled by Alvarez, who had long conversations with the two key masters of the franchise during the creative process, a help that he defined as fundamental.

Alvarez confirmed that Ridley Scott loved the film and spoke to Alvarez for an hour about how much he liked it. Throughout the process, Alvarez “discussed the script with him.” Alvarez revealed that he also talked about the script with Cameron, who “now saw the movie and loved it,” but that he had very different perspectives than Scott when developing the script. Here’s what he revealed in detail to THR:

He did it! As intimidating as he is, that’s the best part about being able to work on something like this. For all of us, whatever we do, the dream is to sit down with the masters of our craft, talk about what we do, and learn to do it better. And the process of making this film allowed me to have this experience with Ridley. Story-wise, we first told him what I was going to do and then, when he read it, I discussed the script with him. And then, when he saw the film, I discussed my editing with him. So I consider each of those moments and those creative conversations with Ridley to be a highlight of my career and my life.

James Cameron is also someone I’ve gotten to know over the years and when he heard I was doing it, we started talking about it. So I had a conversation with him on the script level as well. Now he saw the film and liked it a lot. He’s also fascinating because [Cameron and Scott’s] notes and comments are completely different. (Laughs) They would never repeat a note. Whatever Ridley said, Cameron said something different. They were all super intelligent comments and notes and thoughts on the film and directing, etc., but they both have completely different approaches. So the great part about being able to make this film was having the chance to work with them.

Recall that Ridley Scott directed the first film in the franchise, Alien, in 1979, and returned to direct Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Cameron worked on the acclaimed sequel Aliens in 1986. Scott is also the producer of Alien: Romulus (here we reveal the order in which to see the films in the Alien saga)

Alien and Aliens are considered among the most important science fiction works to date. Both films earned rave reviews from critics, with Alien earning a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and Aliens an even higher score of 98%. Both films were extremely formative for the careers of Scott and Cameron: the former went on to direct Blade Runner, while the latter directed Titanic and the Avatar series.

Alien: Romulus is directed by Fede Alvarez and is the next film in the Alien series, releasing on August 16th. The cast of Alien: Romulus includes Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. Here you can find the first trailer!