“Alien: Romulus” is more or less a bonafide hit for both 20th Century Studios and Disney, earning a solid $350.7 million on a budget reportedly in the range of $80-100 million. Making it the second highest-grossing film in the franchise behind Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus from 2012 and has led most of us to suspect that director Fede Álvarez could come back to make the sequel. 20th Century’s Steve Asbell spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the state of the studio’s upcoming slate of franchise installments and confirmed to the outlet that they are in active talks with the filmmaker about tackling a sequel.
Of course, there is an expectation that “Alien: Romulus” breakout stars Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson will return to reprise their roles, given the popularity of both Rain and Andy and how the ending would sort of tee up another installment. Something Asbell alludes to while musing about the potential of making a second film with Álvarez.
“We’re working on a sequel idea now,” Asbell told THR about their current plans for the feature film side of the “Alien” franchise. “We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them, and I want to see what their story is.”
Asbell said they’d “probably” make another “AVP” movie down the line. But also briefly teased what their approach would be with any new attempt at making a new “AVP” installment, saying, “It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called ‘Alien vs. Predator’ or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with, and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”
The last two films were contemporary Earthbound stories that stripped away the big sci-fi elements from the comics, video games, and toy lines that made the crossover property popular in the first place. Having the alien, predator, and The Colonial Marines are thrown into an off-world setting to battle it out. We’ve already mentioned some ideas of how the studio could tackle a reboot of the “AVP” franchise and ways to potentially connect it to the new “Alien” and “Predator” movies at the same time.
“Alien: Earth,” the upcoming streaming series, will debut on Hulu/Disney+ sometime in 2025 and should give fans some meaty material before this potential “Romulus” sequel is ready for audiences.
After the high praise and positive audience reaction to Dan Trachtenberg‘s “Prey,” a period film set within the greater “Predator” franchise, 20th Century Studios and Disney pushed forward with a second film titled “Predator: Badlands“ starring Elle Fanning (now confirmed) in the main role after having such success with Amber Midthunder leading the last installment. However, there is actually even more coming. Steve Asbell of 20th Century Studios recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and revealed that the filmmaker has directed TWO “Predator” movies, not just one installment.
“I’ll tell you very simply. After ‘Prey’ became a success, Dan [Trachtenberg] came back and said he didn’t want to do ‘Prey 2.’ And we’re like, “What do you want to do?” And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We’ve actually done two of them. Two are coming out next year. One I can’t talk about yet, but the other one is the live-action ‘Predator‘ film with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. That’ll be out theatrically sometime next year,” Asbell told THR in a one-on-one interview about the future of the studio’s big franchises.
He added, “There’s a secret Predator movie that will come out before the theatrical one, but I can’t say anything about it yet.”
I think we can infer from these quotes that this “secret” film is likely heading to Hulu since Asbell is quite specific about “Yes, a ‘Predator’ movie will have a theatrical [release].” This doesn’t exactly suggest this second project coming out before “Predator: Badlands” will be in theaters, too. Then again, you have to assume that Hulu and Disney were hellbent on getting another “Predator” property on the platform alongside the upcoming “Alien: Earth” series from Noah Hawley.
“Predator: Badlands” already has an official theatrical release date of November 7, 2025, and would be the first film from the franchise to grace the big screen since Shane Black’s long-forgotten attempt, “The Predator.” Again, we shouldn’t be surprised if this other movie ends up being a Hulu exclusive release.
“Alien: Romulus” has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for “Alien” franchise after being on life support when Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” failed to replicate the success of “Prometheus,” and put his third prequel movie “Alien: Awakening” (Scott had mapped out plans with screenwriter Michael Green for many more installments beyond that) into limbo for foreseeable future. The movie has a budget of $80 million (modest in comparison to other genre-focused studio tentpoles) and is set between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens,” now projected to earn an impressive $100 million-plus at the global box office and nabbing over $40 million domestically. This makes “Romulus” the second-biggest domestic opening (previously held by “Alien Vs. Predator“) for the franchise behind the $51 million “Prometheus” (Budget was $130 million) opening weekend in 2012.
Of course, this success certainly bodes well for more movies, including the potential for a “Romulus” sequel (without spoiling the film, it ends with the open-ended plausibility of a sequel). While on the red carpet promoting the film, director Fede Álvarez was asked by Deadline (See video below) about the potential for a new “Alien Vs. Predator” film project (the IP actually titled “Aliens Vs. Predator” for the video games, comic books, and other material).
Álvarez didn’t exactly reveal too many details on what he would do with the property, but he pitched the idea of co-directing the big-screen crossover with “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg.
[Laughs] I don’t know, depends on how well [“Alien: Romulus”] does and if people still want to see that. I think [it’s] maybe something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tranchtenberg]. That could be something we could do…I direct one half, and he directs the other half,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
Álvarez also compared the idea to the collaborative working relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on films like “From Dusk Till Dawn” (Fede misspoke as Tarantino wrote the script and Rodriguez helmed) and “Grindhouse” (their horror double-feature). They did co-direct together on “Sin City” and “Four Rooms.”
When we consider 20th Century Studios’ recent attentiveness to these franchises, it’s really only a matter of time before they attempt another “AVP” project.
For his part, Trachtenberg is overseeing the next two installments in the “Predator” franchise, with both “Badlands” (Elle Fanning reportedly is in the mix to potentially lead it) and an untitled follow-up to “Prey.” The latter will most likely feature Naru (Amber Midthunder) being invited into a predator clan, not unlike the “AVP” comic book character Machiko Noguchi, and potentially extending her lifespan via pred-tech, allowing Naru to potentially be still alive in a futuristic setting. Giving them plausible wiggle room to add Naru to a hypothetical “AVP” reboot that could connect to “Alien: Romulus” via the yet-to-be-explored planet of Yvaga.
“Alien Vs. Predator” was released back in 2004 and had director Paul W.S. Anderson take direct cues from things like the schlock sci-fi exploitation movie “Galaxy of Terror” (Roger Corman’s “Alien” knockoff that a young James Cameron worked on at New World Pictures) and H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” (also takes place in ancient ruins hidden in Antarctica with unspeakable monsters awaken by explorers). The PG-13 movie ended up making the studio money but got ripped apart by fans and critics alike, leading to a smaller budget for the R-rated sequel “AVP: Requiem.” A sequel that felt worse than the previous film due to the small-town contemporary setting (used to save studio money on production costs) and weak/unforgettable characters.
Given the poor reception of those movies, don’t expect too much of a continuation or any direct links moving forward. Its been seen those movies take place outside of the main “Alien” franchise timeline/canon and a reason to simply reboot. A couple of integral elements were always missing from those movies, such as the return of the Colonial Marines (oddly enough, we haven’t seen them on the big screen since 1986 despite being a massive part of the “Alien” expanded universe) and a futuristic off-world setting (the Jackson’s Star Colony was a massive highlight from “Romulus”). Those might be more expensive additions but that would be sort of no-brainer if they’re going to take a third crack at this property.
While the bungled video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” botched the single-player campaign and the game itself was buggy as hell, it did add creative variant types of Xenomorphs (just as “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” did), which really should be a huge part of a new “AVP” film. They could easily give audiences multiple different takes on the creatures, like Rhino, Burster, Spitter, Boiler, Prowler, Bull, Flying Queen, and the Alien King.
How they would get to those variants wouldn’t be all that hard, given an off-world colony would likely have established agriculture farms on the colonized planet, using a mix of animal life imported off-world (think the oxen and dog from “Alien 3”) alongside other inhabitants on an alien planet as their hosts instead of only humans. Another angle could be doing warring Xenomorph hives (A conflict between hives and red xenos introduced via the Dark Horse Comics run “Aliens: Genocide” from 1991-1992) are expansion elements that could be perfect fodder for these new movies, given the aim of each installment seems to be adding to lifecycle lore and creating different variants of the species.
In a perfect world, a new “AVP” installment could bring together “Alien: Romulus,” and whatever Trachtenberg is doing with his “Predator” movies. Instead of simply being it’s own standalone.
I also wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the ‘Alien: Romulus” box office success may boost the idea at the studio of revisiting never-made “Alien” projects like the aforementioned “Alien: Awakening” or even the twice-nixed “Alien 5” with Sigourney Weaver reprising the Ellen Ripley role. Although, the former seems a lot more realistic between the two, allowing for franchise stewards Ridey and Scott Free Productions to complete their planned prequel trilogy and potentially bring back the Engineers (Paradise wasn’t apparently their homeworld but possibly one of many of their terraformed/seeded planets inhabited by devoted humanoids that may have worshiped them as Gods) alongside Michael Fassbender’s David, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, and Danny McBride’s Tennesse. At the end of the film, we see David now in complete control of the Covenant ship, the final two crew members, and the entire group of sleeping colonists.
20th Century Studios, FX/Hulu, and Scott Free are behind the new streaming series “Alien: Earth” from creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) and could be another puzzle piece to getting the money folks at the studio to give Scott his wish to complete his David Saga trilogy. Raising the demand and profile of a franchise launched all the way back in 1979 will be key to finding a new generation of audiences to support it.
We’ll just have to be patient to see what the studio does next with these characters and if a crossover like “AVP” or “Alien: Awakening” will ever materialize.
Fede Álvarez reveals his pitch for ‘Alien vs. Predator’ : “Maybe something that I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan (Trachtenberg)” pic.twitter.com/HmhabAXN84
Before James Cameron got locked in for a heap of “Avatar” sequel films, he was trying to put together a remake of the 1966 body horror/sci-fi film “The Fantastic Voyage“ with producing partner Jon Landau, where he was originally planning to direct himself at 20th Century Fox and those reins would shift over to his pal Guillermo del Toro with a planned shoot in Toronto. Things fell apart, and everyone moved on to other things, suggesting “Fantastic Voyage” was thrown into limbo during the studio’s merger with Disney. There are now teases from Cameron that the remake is not only getting resurrected under Disney/20th Century Studios but could be happening in the near future.
Cameron has shared a brief update during a Q&A session at a new exhibition of his production artwork (Cameron is also an accomplished artist in his own right and goes back to his production design days) at Paris’ Cinematheque Française (via Variety), where he said their long-gestating remake of the 1966 film is about to go forward “very soon.”
“We’ve been developing it for a number of years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon,” Cameron said at the Paris event. “Raquel Welch is not available, but we think we can make a pretty good movie.”
In order to save a scientist who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes’ body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off.
However, he didn’t exactly clarify who would be directing and if del Toro would still be involved as he’s busy shooting a “Frankenstein” adaptation for Netflix that stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, Lars Mikkelsen, Felix Kammerer, and David Bradley. Guillermo is also expected to follow-up with his stop-motion animation movie “The Buried Giant“ at the streamer too.
Cameron moving out of the way for an ambitious project to get made isn’t a new thing, as “Alita: Battle Angel” was a similar situation, where Robert Rodriguez was selected to complete Cameron’s vision for the cyberpunk anime/manga adaptation, and while being a massive creative force on “Terminator: Dark Fate” tapped Tim Miller (Deadpool”) to direct. Hypothetically, Cameron could decide to make it himself, but given his responsibility of completing “Avatar 3” and “Avatar 4,” with the studio’s schedule, it seems unlikely.
“Prey” seemed like a big success for both 20th Century Studios and director Dan Trachtenberg as they attempted to infuse new blood into the “Predator” franchise after Shane Black‘s “The Predator” seemed to feel like they were running on fumes. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a second film from Trachtenberg and the sixth franchise installment is indeed on the way under the working title of “Badlands.”
While details are scarce they are quick to point out that the film isn’t a direct sequel to “Prey” (Set in 1719) but will continue the last film’s angle of using a female protagonist and is said to jump into the future, which seems like a cue to the studio’s “Alien” franchise. This should give “Predator” fans hope that the franchise might start pushing toward the comic book and video game incarnations of the “Alien vs Predator,” where the hunters would bump into humans trying to colonize planets that happened to be gaming preserves.
How far into the future remains to be seen and if this will be another Earthbound adventure.
Patrick Aison (“Prey”) wrote the screenplay for “Badlands” with Trachtenberg working with Aison on the story. The report also mentions that more “Predator” projects are in the works that involve Trachtenberg, without dishing on exact details of what that means. Perhaps, we could end up getting a streaming series on Hulu/Disney+ not unlike what is happening with the “Alien” prequel show that hails from Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”), but that is just an early assumption on our part.
UPDATE: Deadline adds in their version of the story that while it’s only in early development, “Prey 2” is still in the works and that Midthunder is expected to reprise the Naru role in it.
Rumors had pegged that a “Predator 6” would be a direct sequel to “Prey” with actress Amber Midthunder returning after a cliffhanger ending that teased the alien hunters’ return and potentially inducting Naru into one of the clans. Mirroring other humans that have joined Predator clans after proving themselves to be great warriors, similar to Machiko Noguchi (A character from the “AVP” comics). Given this reported time-jump there is nothing stopping them from bringing back Midthunder to play an ancestor of Naru, depending on the actual setting of the film as there is a good chance with a “future setting” they could move forward enough into this universe where there are off-world colonies (“Alien: Romulus” will feature a colony of humans fighting off a Xenomorph).
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that we’ll eventually get “Prey 2” but sounds like “Badlands” might be moving the franchise in a different direction. Perhaps, the ultimate goal is to lead directly in a futuristic off-world crossover between the “Alien” and “Predator” universes after the lackluster attempts with less-than-impressive “AVP” movies that took place in a contemporary Earthbound setting (Yawn, boring).
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.
It has been a moment since filmmaker Gareth Edwards tackled an original project after helping to launch the lucrative Monsterverse franchise for Legendary with his “Godzilla” reboot and helped usher in the modern era of “Star Wars” thanks to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” The last film Edwards worked on his own thing was “Monsters” back in 2010. Well, he’s coming back with a vengeance in his upcoming film “The Creator,” which he compares to a Vietnam War film with a glossy sci-fi paint-job.
During a recent Q&A (See videos below) session where they showcased some new IMAX footage from the film, the director explained to Deadline how the film’s lead, John David Washington, first met with Gareth and had to come clean about being a massive “Star Wars” fan even to the point he was mulling over not wearing his “Star Wars” mask to the pandemic-era meeting as not to offend but said it “wouldn’t be true to himself” as he had been wearing that mask consistently in that time.
He also talked about the other lead of the film. Madeleine Yuna Voyles is the youngster that was cast in the role of Alfie, the new artificial intelligence “threat” that Joshua aims to protect from human hands and Edwards explains how he came around to filling that key role. He was a bit worried that during her audition the actor was being too well prepped before doing an emotional scene that made them all cry, but ultimately ended up doing it again and realizing that she was indeed the actor they needed to play Alfie.
“I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found the right kid, we got really lucky but the version of this movie where we didn’t find Madeleine…I’m glad I live in the universe where that happened. I hate movies with little kids because they can be so annoying, that was my biggest fear making this movie…so it’s the biggest relief when she’s beyond her years it’s like she’s reincarnated or something,” Edwards said of discovering his co-lead that would make or break his movie.
The film focuses on the military threat of A.I. after it started dropping bombs and while the film’s setting is 2070, Edwards jokingly thinks he might have gone too far into the future.
“I have a trick with A.I. is to get the timing as a sweet spot window where it’s before the apocalypse and not after, which I think is in November — maybe December — and so, I think we got really lucky. The joke would be that when you write a film, especially a science fiction film, I try to avoid putting a date … at some point, you have to so, I picked 2070. Now I feel like an idiot because I should’ve gone for 2023 ’cause everything that’s been unfolding in the last few months is kind of scary and weird.”
It’s also a war movie where Edwards describes the pic as a mix between Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” and Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War pic “Apocolypse Now,” the latter is fitting since they shot on location in Vietnam. One of “80 locations” Edwards claims to have been used in the making of the film.
I have to gush a little bit about the potential of “The Creator.” Honestly, we don’t often see an original film of this scale get major backing from a major studio like 20th Century Studios/Disney after being originally developed at New Regency. I can’t express how important it is for original blockbusters to wiggle their way into the marketplace this didn’t used to be as uncommon as it is now in the era of cinematic universes/reboots. I don’t know how studios expect to get to the next “Star Wars” or “Avatar” without taking risks with original projects from visionary directors and screenwriters.
It also doesn’t hurt that there is some “Dune” and “Star Wars” lineage mixed in here with Hans Zimmer composing the film’s score and Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser having contributed to the film’s visuals as well.
As much as still enjoy the work of director Neill Blomkamp (“The Creator” certainly feels like it shares DNA with his work) after becoming such a creative voice within the sci-fi genre with “District 9,” “Elysium,” and to a lesser extent his visually brilliant pic “Chappie” (I still think most of the production design on the film is top-tier). It feels like he sort of has fizzled out after attaching himself to high-profile franchise sequels like “Alien 5” and “RoboCop Returns” potentially getting drained creatively trying to work within a frustrating studio system while developing his own video game and shooting a bunch of various short films on his own dime. However, he recently ended up with his first number one at the box office in a long time with his sports drama “Gran Turismo.”Rooting for more genre-focused material from Blomkamp, but I’m still grateful that folks like Edwards can pick up the slack and that studios like New Regency are still willing to make such fantastic-looking sci-fi that isn’t based on existing material when other studios/executives repelled by spending big bucks on original ideas (“The Creator” is said to have cost something in the neighborhood of $86 million).
We’ve already seen this summer what audience-friendly originals can look like at the box office with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” out-earning “Inception” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (Not a sequel/reboot/remake) inching closer to becoming Warners’ highest-grossing film. It’s worth mentioning that 20th Century is indeed investing more than expected on various IP-focused sci-fi projects such as new feature film installments in both the “Alien” and “Predator” franchises in the shadow of something as massive as the “Avatar” films.
Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child.
“The Creator” will be heading to theaters on September 29 and you can watch a neat featurette about the sci-fi pic below.
Gareth Edwards mentions Francis Ford Coppola and Ridley Scott as influences of his as he notes #TheCreator is “a mix of ‘Blade Runner’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now’” pic.twitter.com/QcXAaJCpFt
Gareth Edwards on the timing of #TheCreator, which follows a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence, being aligned with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes this year pic.twitter.com/9UM5zCc6N6
I think we’re all extremely fascinated by filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”) and knowing what films he enjoys is very much going to be something hardcore fans are going to over-analyze given how much he openly homages cinematic benchmarks. In the past, Nolan has spoken out about his love for the “Fast & Furious” franchise, specifically “Tokyo Drift.” More recently he said both Stanley Kurbick’s sci-fi masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey” and Adam McKay’s sports comedy “Tallagada Nights” were movies he’d always stop to watch if he saw them playing on television.
Another perplexing but still interesting selection was briefly praised by Nolan during his interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast (See below). The subject of trailers came up along with Ridley Scott’s original 1979 “Alien” being referenced and host Josh Horowitz was quick to mention how the original teaser for David Fincher‘s “Alien 3” got ahead of what they were actually doing it teased an Earthbound setting that never happened.
Nolan would go on to say the following about the third installment, “And you know, Fincher has famously talked about how unhappy he was with it and how it changed. I think it’s a great movie but I think his work on that is remarkable.”
David Fincher and Sigourney Weaver on the set of “Alien 3” – 20th Century Studios/Disney
Of course, it wasn’t just Fincher unhappy with the producers/20th Century Fox’s everchanging ideas before, during, and in the final version. “Alien 3” was both a critical and financial failure, with the brass throwing the first-time feature director under the bus instead of self-reflection for all their micromanaging and narrative mistakes. You could forgive Fincher for trying to speak on the subject for the better half of 30 years.
Given the commercial success of the first two films, it was seen as a franchise low-point until “Alien Resurrection” ultimately became the final nail in the coffin despite three separate attempts to get an “Alien 5” going with Sigourney Weaver. Since 1992, a lot of sci-fi fans have warmed up to the film for its fantastic production design and painstaking attempt to honor that universe overseen by the evil corporation Weyland-Yuanti. Although, the movie does have some glaring issues like the mixed performances of the supporting cast and extremely wonky visual effects of the Xenomorph.
We already know Nolan’s affinity for both the James Bond movies and “Star Wars,” but it’s certainly interesting to hear him talk about the “Alien” franchise. While under Disney’s new ownership, there is an Earthbouth streaming series at FX/Hulu currently filming in Thailand and theatrical film on the horizon. I don’t think many fans would be terribly upset if Nolan eventually tried to tell a story within that universe, at some point, but hasn’t suggested there is any pressing desire to do so.
The Ronin can confirm that the upcoming Alien movie from filmmaker Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, The Girl In The Spider’s Web) has hired cinematographer Galo Olivares for the next installment of the franchise. It’s been reported that actress Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising) in the lead role, although, further details have been scarce or where in the Alien timeline the pic will take place or if we’ll be seeing any established characters show up.
Olivares previously worked on Gretel & Hansel along with being part of the camera team on the Oscar-winning drama Roma from Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
This next Alien film will certainly be an interesting experiment for 20th Century Studios, as it’ll be the first film in the franchise specifically being made as streaming exclusive for Hulu (not unlike Prey). We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Disney/20th Century will have the common sense to actually give the project a theatrical run, even if it’s only a couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Apparently, listed on IMDB the film’s production designer is said to be Naaman Marshall (Mortal Kombat, Knock At The Cabin), who previously worked on the sci-fi horror film Underwater (See trailer below) starring Kristen Stewart that seemingly took direct inspiration from films like Alien and Leviathan. However, we’re unable to confirm this new tidbit but certainly exciting as Marshall’s work on Underwater was stunning. This wouldn’t be the first time working with Álvarez as Marshall was the production designer on 2016’s Don’t Breathe, which shares the same screenwriters of Romulus.
Álvarez helming the film was a bit of surprise given that current franchise producer Ridley Scott has long been trying to get a third prequel film, Alien: Awakening, off the ground as a follow-up to Alien: Covenant. At the end of that film, we saw David (Michael Fassbender) now in control of the ship along with the colonists that could be used for his xenomorph experiments. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and Tennessee (Danny McBride) had survived their horrific ordeal as they’ve been placed back into hyper-sleep. However, it remains to be seen if we’ll ever see that third project come to fruition as Scott is getting ready to shoot his Gladiator sequel starring Oscar-nominated actor Paul Mescal (Aftersun) over the summer and will likely have more film projects to focus on beyond that as the filmmaker is very busy.
We’re still waiting on more casting information for the film alongside when we’re expected to see Alien: Romulus drop on Hulu.
Hollywood is looking at a bunch of various copyright lawsuits, one of the most notable ones is focused on Friday The 13th with the film’s producer and writer fighting in court claiming rights to the franchise.
Today, it was announced via The Hollywood Reporter that Friday The 13th screenwriter Victor Miller has won an appeal to secure the domestic rights to the horror franchise from producer Sean Cunningham.
On Thursday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a win for him in a copyright termination battle. As a result, he’s set to reclaim the domestic rights to the franchise.
It’s a big win for Marc Toberoff, who is representing other screenwriters trying to get the rights/copyright to their material.
The original killer in the 1980 film was Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason, who had drowned at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. At the end of the film, an undead Jason leaps from the water and became the staple killer for the franchise moving on.
Crystal Lake’s history of murder doesn’t deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people — Jack (Kevin Bacon), Alice (Adrienne King), Bill (Harry Crosby), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) and Ned (Mark Nelson) — pay little heed to the old-timers. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they’re slashed, shot and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless opponent.
Attorney Marc Toberoff, is also representing John and Jim Thomas with their own attempt to get the rights to their 1987 script that was turned into the Predator franchise. One of the handful of keystone IP properties at 20th Century Studios that Disney inherited when they purchased 21st Century Fox.
There is a possibility that this appeals win for Victor Miller, might lead to the Thomas Brothers also getting participation with the domestic rights to Predator. However, we’ll have to see how things shape-up in the courtroom, as each one of these copyright cases aren’t apples-to-apples.
THE RONIN 
