If you weren’t already aware, 20th Century Studios and Disney are looking to reenergize the “Alien” franchise with not only a brand new mystery film called “Alien: Romulus” from director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead”) but also Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) behind an Earthbound streaming series at FX/Hulu as well that takes place before the events of the original film. It looks like things are chugging along with Fede’s film as he recently completed a director’s cut or potentially an assembly cut of the film.

Guillermo del Toro spoke with the filmmaker at The Directors Guild of America’s Latino Summit 2023 where he revealed the pressure-cooker moment when franchise producer Ridley Scott sat in a room alone to watch the director’s cut before anyone else and shared his promising impressions with Alvarez.

“I finished the director’s cut a week ago and go through the incredibly intense process of sending it Ridley Scott, who is my producer. He’s the producer of the movie. I wanted him to see it before anybody and everybody gave me the heads up that ‘Ridley’s really tough and particularly if you have something to do with his movie.’ He was really tough on ‘Blade Runner,’ which I saw as a masterpiece…He walks into the room and he did say ‘Fede what I can say? It’s fucking great.’ My family knows it was the best moments of my life to have a master like him, which I admire so much, even to watch a movie I made. The best compliment he gave was ‘The dialogue is great, you’re the writer?'”

The young cast assembled for the sci-fi horror pic includes Caliee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu, and Spike Fearn. While the film is in the post-production stage we still haven’t got our hands on an official plot synopsis for the new “Alien” film other than previous hints that it could involve an off-world colony facility

Alvarez isn’t understating Scott’s hyper-critical persona. Director Neill Blomkamp’s takeaway from his experience developing “Alien 5” only for it to go away was that Scott had likely soured on him after watching “Chappie” and potentially had the movie killed. Although, it sounds like Alvarez’s experience was very much different with his new “Alien” installment.

Interestingly enough, ILM is working on the film’s visual effects alongside Weta Workshop, which is said to be working on weapons and vehicles. The Gillis team returning to do creature effects as well.

Thankfully for fans, the sequel will be heading to theaters on August 16, 2024, after it had been previously set to become another Hulu exclusive like their well-done “Predator” prequel, “Prey.” Given that they have a director’s cut this early less than a year away from release there is some hope the studio could start releasing first-look images and even a teaser trailer in the near future.

You can watch the full conversation between del Toro and Alvarez right here.

SOURCE: DGA LATINO SUMMIT 2023