Ridley Scott thinks new Alien movie is 'f---ing great,' director says

Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus won't release until next year, but it already has one massive fan: Ridley Scott, director of the 1979 original.

The Don't Breathe director spoke with Guillermo del Toro at the DGA Latino Summit on Monday, and gave an update about Scott's reaction to the forthcoming sci-fi horror movie.

After Scott viewed the film alone, he gave Álvarez his thoughts. "He walks into the room and he did say, 'Fede, what can I say? It's f---ing great,'" Álvarez recalled.

"For me it was like… My family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, who I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made… but particularly something like this… and talk to me for an hour about what he liked about it. One of the best compliments he said was, 'The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?' Yes!"

Álvarez explained that it was important that he hear in-person feedback from Scott, who produced the untitled sequel — even if he tore it apart. "Even if he was gonna say, 'You destroyed my legacy,' I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye," Álvarez said. "I didn't want to get an email where it says 'Ridley says…'

Álvarez also explained that he was apprehensive about Scott's reaction to the movie due to his reputation as a harsh, honest critic — and had expressed reservations about other recent legacy sequels. "Everyone gave me the head's up that Ridley is really tough," Álvarez said. "He's really tough, particularly if it has something to do with his movies. He was really tough on Blade Runner [2049], which I thought was a masterpiece, and he had issues with it because it's really hard for him because [the original is] his work. I asked him about the new Top Gun: [Maverick] and he's like 'eh.' I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' And he was like, 'My brother [Tony Scott's] was original, and this is like eh.' He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, 'There's no way I win this one.'"

Scott has had a variety of reactions to the Alien movies that came after his original. "It's always a tough job to follow a successful film with a sequel to it, so what I think James Cameron did was an excellent action picture," Scott said of Cameron's Aliens in Aliens: The Illustrated Screenplay. "It really was amazing what he accomplished. There's also no question that Cameron made an excellent film with Aliens. It really is an achievement."

He wasn't particularly kind to Paul W.S. Anderson's Alien vs. Predator, however. "I think Alien vs. Predator was a daft idea," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. "And I'm not sure it did very well or not, I don't know. But it somehow brought down the beast."

Alien: Romulus, starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, and Isabela Merced, is slated to release Aug. 16, 2024. Scott's Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby hits theaters on Nov. 22, 2023.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content

• Ridley Scott credits Joker for his casting of 'little demon' Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon
• Sigourney Weaver says the 'ship has sailed' on her playing Ripley in Alien sequel: 'I put in my time in space'
• Ridley Scott filmed Napoleon like a general: 'I plan it, in a funny kind of way, like a battle'