Alien: Romulus director says it's "unfair" [REDACTED] wasn't deepfaked until now

When you see [REDACTED], even in space, they'll hear you scream

By Matt Schimkowitz | August 19, 2024 | 7:40pm

Film News Alien

The following post discusses the plot of Alien: Romulus reader discretion is advised

Alien: Romulus has a lot of problems that fans can quibble over. Why are all the characters magical orphans with an Amblin sense of adventure? Why was Caliee Spaney’s robot Andy programmed to look sad? Seeing as Andy coined “get away from her, you bitch” earlier in the timeline, is Ripley quoting Andy at the end of Aliens, creating a Marty McFly-Chuck Berry scenario? Why are the characters punished for trying to escape the company? Isn’t it typically the company’s exploitation that dooms them? Maybe Disney wants fans to see Weyland-Yutani as a kinder, gentler corporate meat grinder that you cannot sue, even if you die at Weyland-Yutani Land because you wanted to watch WandaVision during COVID lockdown.

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Many won’t agree with these criticisms. Plenty of folks like Alien: Romulus just fine, opting to see Romulus as a fun, meaningless Alien adventure stripped of Ripley and all the fascinating ideas that kept the Alien series floating in space for 40 years. But there’s still one question we’re all asking: Why the hell were we forced to endure the uncanny, computer-generated eyes of Ian Holm for Romulus’ archetypal evil android and all-important on-screen HUD? Not only does Rook get tons of screentime where the viewer is forced to waste precious brain cells committing his appearance to memory, but he also gets to be the instruction manual for the movie’s many video game-inspired sequences, where Rain must go from one end of a room to the other and collect a key.

To be clear, Rook looks bad—worse than Rogue One’s undead cast, but not as bad as Ghostbusters Afterlife’s—and throws the film’s good-looking practical effects out of the airlock by becoming the one thing we can’t shake from our memories. That and Cousin Greg at the end.

One person who thinks this is fine is director Fede Álvarez. Ever the company man, Álvarez says that it was the late Ian Holm’s time to have his likeness exploited for a bit of fan service, using the dispiriting CG and deepfake AI technology, which probably explains why it looks so bad. Holm’s estate approved of his likeness’ usage, but that doesn’t account for the result. Either way, Álvarez thinks it was time to use Holm as the android, even though Winona Ryder is right there.

“It was unfair that the likeness of Ash was never used again. Lance Henriksen has been used a few times. Michael Fassbender got to do it a few times,” Álvarez told The Hollywood Reporter as he spoke of two living actors who reprised the roles in flesh and blood. Using his head cast from The Lord Of The Rings, the team at Legacy Effects could make a really creepy simulacrum of the legendary performer. Very cool.

Thankfully, Álvarez, a savvy Hollywood powerbroker, blamed the decision on Ridley Scott. “So when we started thinking about the likeness of this character with Ridley, it was going to be a torso [and head] that we would build. So it didn’t need to be the likeness of a current working actor, and Ridley was the one who said, ‘Ash was always the best. He needs to make a comeback.’”

Please, no more comebacks.