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Bursting Alien For A New Generation, Interview with Alien: Romulus Writer/Director Fede Alvarez – AvP Galaxy Podcast #190

We have just uploaded the 190th episode of the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy Podcast (right-click and save as to download)! For this episode, Alien vs. Predator Galaxy’s own Corporal Hicks and RidgeTop had the pleasure of being joined by Alien: Romulus writer and director Fede Alvarez to dig into the latest addition to the Alien pantheon!

 Bursting Alien For A New Generation, Interview with Alien: Romulus Writer/Director Fede Alvarez – AvP Galaxy Podcast #190

We talk discuss the influence of the wider lore, those controversial dialogue callbacks, introducing a new generation to the Alien franchise and plenty more!

What did you think of our latest episode? Be sure to let us know down below! You can also listen to any of our previous episodes in the Podcast section under the News tab on the main menu. The Alien vs. Predator Galaxy Podcast is also available via iTunes, PodBean, GooglePlay Stitcher, and Spotify! Please be sure to leave a rating and review on whichever platform you’re using!

And if you’d rather see our beautiful faces, as always, the video version of the podcast is also available on the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy YouTube channel!

Over the coming months, we’ll be continuing to record and release interviews with the people who made Alien: Romulus. We have already recorded with Alien suit performer Trevor Newlin which will be out next! So be sure to keep an eye out for our future releases!

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  1. The Cruentus
    It was a good listen, I agreed with some things he said but disagreed with some other stuff. Particularly about the blue mist thing. While it was only theorized, it was commonly believed to be some sort of stasis field or something the space jockey used to either preserve the eggs or prevent from detecting anything above the field. Probably the latter since some of the eggs seemed to be dead, so they have a limited life-span.

    The claim its something the eggs do when the only evidence is the first movie where its not even certain where the blue mist is coming from is a bit of a leap. The second, third and fourth movie have no such blue mist around their eggs, granted the third film only had one egg. Even Isolation shows that while the blue mist is present in the derelict, it is not in any of the station's hives.

    I also don't think he should have confirmed that the shuttle was Narcisiss either, it should have been left as just a fun easter egg that is not to be taken seriously.  The comments about androids having pre-programmed dialogue as an explanation for the call backs isn't something I agree with either, it undermines the characteristics of Bishop and Ash.

    Fede was surprised he wasn't challenged on anything or at least as much as he thought he would by the podcasters, I agree with him there. One should not be afraid to question a director's choices, especially to their face. feedback from different perspectives are important.   

    Overall I enjoyed the film and I think he did well with, so I am glad he had a successful run here.  I certainly think I can watch that movie more times than the likes of the prequels but as the common criticisms note, those callbacks and the lack of threatening presence from the aliens does lower the film a bit.

    I think I would be completely fine with him making a sequel so long as he can learn to drop those elements that make the movie too much of a memberberry ride. Also if he decides to actually make an AVP film, then I hope its not a "third" one but a reboot. Nothing in those two films should be canonized or continued in anyway.  :laugh:
  2. Bilbo Bagshot
    Fede says he doesn't like fan service yet explains his reasons for putting in that line which, in his explanation, sounds incredibly like fan service.
    Great interview nonetheless.
  3. Prez
    Quote from: SiL on Oct 06, 2024, 11:07:39 AM
    Quote from: Nukiemorph on Oct 06, 2024, 10:50:20 AMI do see his point about lasers. I don't know that the average Joe knew much about real laser lights just because light sabers and Star Trek phasers had been depicted before.
    I'm sorry but the guy was born the year before ALIEN came out, what would he know about what audiences understood...? I've never heard of anyone being confused or not realising what the laser was.


    And I'll say in that era to my knowledge and memory I don't recall seeing a laser like that visually on screen. Lightsabers, phasers, beams and blaster bolts yep. But that blue wide spread beam ... I doubt it and I believe that is what he was alluding to.
  4. 2525
    I need to get something off my chest about this notion that we'll never see an Alien film that rivals the first two, because it would be an impossible feat.

    It just isn't true. Another movie I grew up loving was Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. A piece of pure 80s class, massively influential and impossible to improve upon. WRONG. Feel free to disagree, but Fury Road blows it out the water in every respect.

    You could make another Alien film that rivals the one we love. Hell, Aliens achieved it.

    What Aliens and Fury Road did was build on their respective classics, not keep supplicating to them.

    When Romulus was it's own thing, it was phenomenal.

  5. TC
    What Fede said was that it looks like a blue laser (because that's what they used to achieve it on set) but it isn't actually a blue laser in the story, it's weird alien 'blue mist.' Just like Ash didn't really glue an ice cube tray to the side of the motion detector (the prop builder did that), what it really is (in the story) is some sort of hardware doo-hickey that's part of the motion detector. IOW you're supposed to exercise some suspension of disbelief.

    Quote from: Nukiemorph on Oct 06, 2024, 10:50:20 AMI do see his point about lasers. I don't know that the average Joe knew much about real laser lights just because light sabers and Star Trek phasers had been depicted before.

    Quote from: PsyKore on Oct 05, 2024, 10:04:28 PMAn easier way of implementing it in Romulus would be to just have blue foot lighting, for in case of power outage or some such. It would then hearken back to the blue mist without actually being the blue mist.

    That's how I'm writing this off in my head canon...

    Yes. But also, Fede said he had a rationale figured out that explains the blue mist but he was keeping it to himself. Precisely because he wanted fans to have their own own head canon.

    TC
  6. SiL
    Quote from: Nukiemorph on Oct 06, 2024, 10:50:20 AMI do see his point about lasers. I don't know that the average Joe knew much about real laser lights just because light sabers and Star Trek phasers had been depicted before.
    I'm sorry but the guy was born the year before ALIEN came out, what would he know about what audiences understood...? I've never heard of anyone being confused or not realising what the laser was.
  7. Nukiemorph
    I do see his point about lasers. I don't know that the average Joe knew much about real laser lights just because light sabers and Star Trek phasers had been depicted before.

    Quote from: PsyKore on Oct 05, 2024, 10:04:28 PMAn easier way of implementing it in Romulus would be to just have blue foot lighting, for in case of power outage or some such. It would then hearken back to the blue mist without actually being the blue mist.

    That's how I'm writing this off in my head canon...
  8. TheDerelict
    Been saving this podcast all week for my Sunday morning overtime. Fede seems cool and I agree with most of what he had to say. I loved the movie but I can see why some don't.
  9. Prez
    Quote from: Xenomorphine on Oct 05, 2024, 03:10:12 PM
    Quote from: PortugueseXeno on Oct 02, 2024, 10:03:23 PMto be fair, people back then probably weren't overwhelmed with too much "scifi" stuff and lasers back then.

    Quote from: Prez on Oct 02, 2024, 11:22:01 PMOn screen. Seeing it like that. Yep he's probably right.

    'Star Trek' was common household weekly viewing in the sixties, which often featured the ship or individual characters firing energy beams (yes, called 'phasers', but audiences just informerly regarded them as 'lasers', due to the similarity). 'Alien' only came about because of 'Star Wars' being such a huge cultural phenomenon, two years before. And 1979 was just before the eighties, when - trust me - every-f**king-thing was all about lasers.

    Heck, the film, itself, has 'laser weapons' being handed out and we see Kane's helmet being cut open by what most people assumed to be a laser.

    In 1979, we also had the James Bond film, 'Moonraker', which featured a ton of laser beams in it, including a huge outer space battle with astronauts firing them at one another (and bond having to carefully aim one, fitted on the nose of a shuttle, to save the day).

    People absolutely knew what a laser was, trust me.

    I get that angle and I'm old enough to have watched most of those at the time of release too. However a beam like the one we see in the Derelict was visiaully very different to the Phasers or even blaster bolts we see in Trek, Star Wars or other films around that time.

    I think that's what Fede was alluding too.
  10. PsyKore
    Yeah, it makes no sense why aliens would install a laser field. I always assumed it was in the Derelict ship itself to alert the cockpit, not there to activate the eggs or some shit.

    An easier way of implementing it in Romulus would be to just have blue foot lighting, for in case of power outage or some such. It would then hearken back to the blue mist without actually being the blue mist.
  11. Xenomorphine
    Quote from: PortugueseXeno on Oct 02, 2024, 10:03:23 PMto be fair, people back then probably weren't overwhelmed with too much "scifi" stuff and lasers back then.

    Quote from: Prez on Oct 02, 2024, 11:22:01 PMOn screen. Seeing it like that. Yep he's probably right.

    'Star Trek' was common household weekly viewing in the sixties, which often featured the ship or individual characters firing energy beams (yes, called 'phasers', but audiences just informerly regarded them as 'lasers', due to the similarity). 'Alien' only came about because of 'Star Wars' being such a huge cultural phenomenon, two years before. And 1979 was just before the eighties, when - trust me - every-f**king-thing was all about lasers.

    Heck, the film, itself, has 'laser weapons' being handed out and we see Kane's helmet being cut open by what most people assumed to be a laser.

    In 1979, we also had the James Bond film, 'Moonraker', which featured a ton of laser beams in it, including a huge outer space battle with astronauts firing them at one another (and bond having to carefully aim one, fitted on the nose of a shuttle, to save the day).

    People absolutely knew what a laser was, trust me.

    Quote from: Nukiemorph on Oct 02, 2024, 11:27:02 PMKane does say "it's a layer of mist"...

    Which was a reference to the literal mist floating around below the beam.

    It's f**king obviously technological. Yes, there's an old theory that it might be a sort of anti-tampering alarm thing, but in terms of it being fitted into the chamber, not organically grown by the actual creatures.

    And an egg only racted to Kane after he physically touched one, not after he breaks the beam. We hear a high-pitched noise and that's all. The eggs do not react.

    Seems pretty obvious that this is why Cameron didn't include it in his film: He doesn't set it in the derelict. Not a stylistic choice.

    Cameron, who, let's not forget, has the opening scene of his film include a giant floating laser beam scanner - and wanted it so much, that he paid for it to be there.
  12. PsyKore
    He was doing interviews everywhere though. He's a cool guy, but some of what he says sounds like excuses. And the whole point of it is to blind fans to counter criticism against the movie. It's just a tactic Disney are strong on doing with the hardcore fans nowadays. Like when they made Harrison Ford stick up for the last Indiana Jones movie (note: Harrison Ford doesn't give a shit, about that or Star Wars, but they make him do it).
  13. eiyosus
    No apologies necessary, Hicks!  I've been a member for fourteen years, but only as a lurker.  I've always liked your podcast and have been going through the entire back catalogue since last winter at my evening job and just wanted to say thanks for everything you guys do.  I f**king love your podcast.
  14. PortugueseXeno
    Quote from: Xenomorphine on Oct 02, 2024, 04:38:41 PMPart the way through this and... He seriously thinks people in the seventies didn't comprehend what a laser was.

    https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExY291dGc5ZDZyamg3MWt1ZTY5Ym9hMnZqZzloamExOHVsZ3J1Zm8yYyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/SIMmlldXbRgXKmk9XR/giphy.webp
    to be fair, people back then probably weren't overwhelmed with too much "scifi" stuff and lasers back then.
  15. TheBATMAN
    Fantastic interview. Fede seems like a great guy and his insight was wonderful.

    Although I wasn't blown away by Romulus, there was much I enjoyed and I would be more than happy if he is given the keys to the next one.
  16. LoL
    Great interview. Helps to really explain Fede's choices . I think him being a fan is a double edge sword. On the plus side, he comes across as earnest, it doesn't seem like those call backs come from a cynical place but just from an excitement of playing within the sandbox. On the negative side, I kind of groaned when Fede said he looked up stuff on Xenopedia rather than directly referencing Cold Forge. Other than that, great set of questions and appreciated Fede being honest and gregarious about feelings about how people reacted to Romulus (couldn't imagine Ridley or Cameron being this way). Keep up the good work, always appreciated.
  17. T Dog
    Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Oct 01, 2024, 10:27:58 AM
    Quote from: T Dog on Oct 01, 2024, 09:47:41 AMI find those reactions very hard to believe to be honest.

    I don't. Both times I saw the movie, the audience erupted into cheers and applause at that.

    Good lord! I went to the first showing at 11:30 am. Me and 3 other lads in the cinema. I cringed at the "get away from her" line and laughed a bit at the first master shot of the Offspring. Enjoyed the movie quite a bit with a couple of caveats.
  18. PsyKore
    I'm glad Fede at least attempted a plausible reason for it with Bjorn calling him a bitch all the time. It's not much, but without that it'd be even worse.
  19. 426Buddy
    My dad, and the rest of my theater, roared and loved it. My 72yr old father was grabbing and shaking my shoulder saying "I knew it!" While grinning ear to ear.

    I rolled my eyes at the line myself lol. However I loved seeing folks having such a great time with it. Now its a memory with my dad Ill always cherish.
  20. T Dog
    Very enjoyable interview but Fede really should have taken Alex Garland's advice re: the "get away from her you bitch" line, I don't know what the mentality of those test screening audiences were but I find those reactions very hard to believe to be honest.
  21. Mr. Damage
    I'm also very happy about Narcissus!
    Although Romulus doesn't bring anything new, Alvarez does the main thing with this film!
    The story with Narcissus completely breaks the connection between Ridley Scott's canon (Alien, Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus) and Cameron's Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien 4.
    I'm very happy!
  22. Long_time_fan
    Don't ever feel you need to apologie Hicks. Been a fan of you site for years and years, and although I never get to say it, I am eternally grateful and super proud of what absolutely everything you and the guys have been able to accomplish all this time. I don't ever take for granted the constant amount of work, focus and passion that it must take to get the site going. Thank you so much, sincerely. A fan from France.
  23. Mr. Damage
    The blue fog is something created by the xenomorphs! And the black goo is xenomorph sperm! Alvarez said in this video!

    You may not like this director now for this, but I adore him now for this!
  24. Prez
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 29, 2024, 01:02:05 PMI just wanted to apologize for the delay in releasing this episode. The 2020s continue to kick my ass. I've been really struggling to adjust to my latest forced change in career, and I've had very little will or energy once I get home. And despite the fact that I really enjoyed the film, couple that with the typical way fandoms are quite vocal about the things they aren't keen on and the effort that I put into the recent AvP script that no-one seemed interested in, I also struggled to want to put in the effort that I normally do on these things. But we're here! Once again, sorry it took so long.

    Never apologise. You volunteer your time and this is a labour of love so only natural, at times, that life and lack of energy gets in the way. I know this from personal experience on similar passion projects that I volunteer my precious time for.

    I'm sure the majority of us are supremely grateful for you and others efforts behind the scenes keeping this running.


    10 mins in listening and I'm loving how open and honest Fede is about this.
  25. Jaws the Revenge
    Hi I don't watch Podcasts or Such. Yet I know Corp Hicks is integral to this site. So respect. You certainly don't need to apologise. You are a legend.
    ☢️
  26. Nukiemorph
    Great interview that kept me entertained on a long drive yesterday.

    Re: Blue Mist
    I don't know if I can swallow the idea that it's biological somehow... I wish he'd just left it out.

    Re: Narcissus on Renaissance
    God, he just made it worse... I'm really hoping it's just comic book stuff that most can ignore, and not plans for a sequel or something.
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