In this episode, Jason and Rosie give us their reactions and thoughts on the HIT summer blockbuster Alien: Romulus. They discuss what they loved, what they wanted more of, and what they’d like to see in the next installment of this beloved spooky space franchise. THEN stick around for an interview with the LOVELY Aileen Wu, who plays Navarro in the film.
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Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Alien Romulus in theaters now, so if you haven't seen it, let's see it then listen. Suit. Hello, my name is Jason and I'm Merday Night and welcome back the Extra Vision of podcast where we dive deep. It's your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture coming to you from our podcasts where we're bringing you to action packed episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
In today's action Packed episode, previously on, there is news, news, news, the Acolytes been casting, rip to that show black Smith Wukong is here and shadd James Streemis, shadd those steam records, borderlines for trailer, secret level trailer, some sad news from the world of anime, and a new date for Marvel Rivals. There's all kinds of news and we're getting into it. In the airlock, we are breaking down Alien Romulus, Fede Alvarez's box office smash hit, So if you haven't listened, make sure you go back. I watched that movie before you come in here because it's gonna be all spoilers. And then we have a special guest star as Jason interviews one of the fantastic stars of Alien Romulus Aileen lou.
Up next. Previously on Well, folks, we woke up to some crazy news this morning. The Acolyte has been canceled. There will be no season two. This is reported by all the trades, Deadline, forty, et cetera. The show ended up with a seventy eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But I think it's fair to say there was some divisions. It was certainly divisive in terms of ratings. It was the worst performing Star Wars show. Now, a quick note about ratings. It's impossible to get accurate streaming ratings from any of the streamers, so here you're kind of, uh, We're always going to be referencing either Nielsen data or Illuminate Data, some third party data site. And the thing is their formulas are all different and have a lot to do with like engagement in social media. The streamers themselves would say that's not accurate. That aside, it certainly appears that The Ecolyte was in terms of watches, in terms of ratings, the worst performing and fell off over the course of the series. And that is, you know, in addition to the pretty toxic conversation around the show.
Yeah, it was.
It was hammered.
I definitely feel like we obviously can't know what's going on in an exact mind, but I do feel like this was surprising to me because you know the surprised.
Yeah, for sure.
The show had a very passionate fandom that loved it, and it also was a conversation driver in a way I think Disney has been seeking for their shows. That hasn't necessarily happened this year. But as you say, it was very divisive. I would hope that this is not, you know, a case where they're listening to the most negative parts of the fandom and choosing to cancel a show based on that. I would say something we need to notice. The show was incredibly expensive. It was one hundred and eighty million dollars apparently according to Disney, which, by the way, like that's all that's a Disney problem. Like if you want to make the show for less money, give them less money. Like if you don't have the money to make one hundred and eighty million dollar show, which I know you do, Disney, then don't give it to them, you know, like, let's let's plan ahead. But I think there was so much more to come from this. I also will say this is all rumors, of course, but the Internet has noticed some interesting choices, which are like they had Manny Jacinto at D twenty three like a week ago, and they had a thirty foot projected image of him on the wall that people could take pictures with, which I've heard was very popular because who didn't love crime here. They also then canceled the show on his birthday. Seems thoughtless if this was always going to be the case. Maybe we're looking at a situation here where there's no Acolyte season two, but we will see these characters and stories be continued in a high republic style movie or something.
That would not surprise me. I think this is in certain specs. It's not surprising because of the ratings. I think if if the viewership was there, then you could they could shrug off the conversation. And I think more broadly, Star Wars is kind of in a weird spot right now where they are beholds into nostalgia in a way that no other ip really is. They're caught between a segment of the fan base that wants Star Wars the way it has always been delivered to them. Now, I think that the way that that that picture of a nostalgic Star Wars is a myth in large part, uh, and I think allies the content of the original trilogy in a large way. That said, I it's it's a tough spot because if you innovate, if you do something interesting people, there's going to be a segment of the fan base that absolutely hates it. And then if you do the same old Star Wars stuff, you're really not evolving the IP or doing anything that might bring in more fans exactly and keep the community vibrant. So it's just a tough spot and definitely a bummer.
Also interesting that they just straight up canceled it rather than leaving it in kind of you know, limbo, like a lot of these shows and movies end up being like it's very rare for them to just be like this is over, Like it's not happening, it's canceled. So I think that's very interesting. Apparently there is rumors that they had started working on season two, and that's why they have to say it was canceled because Season two kind of already existed. I will say one thing, our discord is absolutely bummed. They were big Acolyte fans in there, so sending love to the discord today, and I understand. I hope we will get to see these stories and themes and characters continued, because in the age of streaming we live in now, stuff gets canceled so quickly. And there's definitely been a lot of hilarious memes like the Clone Wars never would have made it past you know, season one in this era, so it's like.
That's maybe true. Although I will say animated Flies under the Radar continues incredibly influential. I think, in my opinion, is probably primarily responsible for keeping people in touch with Star Wars and growing new audience. But it's also like something that the nostalgia heads, the hardcore nostalgia peeps, I think broadly.
Ignore, yeah, the most part.
Next up, there is a new hit video game, and it is Black Myth Wukan. The game has already become in its short life as a release, has already become the second most played game on scheme with why two and a half million concurrent players behind PUBG still doing it by way, PUBJ still.
Doing it, still doing it, basically.
Still doing it now Steam numbers. Of course, we're not taking to account players using the Epic Game Store, which is platform or playing on PS five, which is wild separate ecosystem. This a game from a Chinese developer, has had some controversy around it related to an email they sent around to influencers as they were kind of like ginning up excitement for the game, basically saying don't mention COVID nineteen, we get it okay, but also no quote, no feminist propaganda, which is interesting. Sure that said blackmith Willkon. It's the gameplay looks pretty crazy, the bosses look incredibly huge, and this game looks to be a juggernaut in the making.
Yeah, And the truth is, like I do deeply loved Journey to the West and like the Monkey.
King Wukan is the main character and Journey to the West, which is huge hit in China and much of Asia.
Yeah, and it's like it's a it's a it's like a sixteenth century Chinese novel that basically a lot of people think it created the hero's journey. If you're watching something like Avatar the Last Airbender, you're really watching something that's very influenced by Journey to the West. So I do think this is really interesting. The CEO of the game company, who said, now that email he is. You know, he has said some wild things in the past, but sometimes you just gotta ignore it and just look at a game. So it'll be interesting to see and I'm interested to play this. I'm interested if any of our our discord users are playing it, because the reviews are pretty crazy. People say it's just a total whirlwind and kind of a bit of an unexpected smash. I think.
Next up more video game stuff. Borderland's four has released a teaser trailer. Not much that no gameplay, but I'm excited on the less as a fan of the Venerable Borderlands looter shooter franchise, I do enjoy some Borderlands.
Yeah, this is really great. I think I've been very impressed with the Boardlands guy who was like, hey, you love the game so much that you hated this bad movie. Guess what, Bordlands four Finally it's finally coming out. He was like, how can I turn this to my favor? He's like, I didn't spend one hundred and ten million dollars making this movie. But the reason people hate the movie is because they love the games. So guess what, Baby Boardlands for trailer They could not get that out quick enough, and I respect it.
More kind of video video games adjacent video games adjacent. The trailer for Secret Level on Amazon Prime Videos this is wild. This comes from the creative team behind Love, Death and Robots, which, if you were a fan of Love, Death and Robots on Netflix, this looks to be for you. And it's an anthology series with each episode based around a different game slash video game franchise, including Dungeons and Dragons, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, pac Man, Warhammer, Warhammer forty K So uh looks pretty cool.
Yeah. I also feel like Secret Level is the correct name because the way that they kept this under wraps until now is kind of super impressive when you have something as broad as like pac Man and Outer Worlds, you know, God of War episode as an Armored Corps. So I'm extremely interested to see how this lands because I do think that the way the IP is being used right now, like with this Star Wars stuff, right like, you invest all this money into one show and if it doesn't work, then you know you're fucked, basically, So I do think this idea of more like anthology ips where you try stuff out and see what works and see what people are drawn to. That feels like it's quite could be a war for the future kind of of what these companies are gonna do. Apparently looks like Keanu Reeves is going to be involved, which you know, always a good thing. We love to see him.
Marv rivals. We have a release dates. What are you doing for the holiday season? I don't what I'll be doing playing December four, it's gonna be free to play, which means you're gonna pay for those skins.
Folks, Baby, are you ready to pay for Captain America? Is a Nazi skin? Or ever hide your cat? They gonna be chotching you five dollars for that. But yeah, it looks good. It looks like an Overwatch reskin, which we always knew it would do. Side I'm like, let me, let me just let me just kill some I mean, let me just battle some people in the guise of a character I enjoy.
Looks great. I can't wait to get in there with you. Rosie problems, because a.
Lot of problems.
Next up new Megalopolis trailer, which is notable for this Megalopolis of course. The Francis Ford Coppola latest Francis Ford Coppola movie that that famously features a part of the movie in which a actor has to come out and address the screen. I don't know how they're gonna do this and wide release. That said, here's what was notable to me about this trailer. The trailer opens and I've never seen this before. The trailer opens with a basically Francis Ford Coppol's resume starting oh yeah, Father, and and a like review from when that movie was released to listen to nineteen seventy two The Godfather, and then some pan yeah the movie nineteen seventy nine Apocalypse. Now, Rex Reid says, and irredeemable piece of trash.
This man is so stressed.
Never seen this before. This guy he's been and France is basically saying it. And people are gonna shoo on this fucking movie, like the critic is gonna shoot on it before it's released, and guess what, they're wrong.
He's still gonna be great. Dude. This man is absolutely wild. I feel like this is especially.
Fiery after all these kind of like on set issues about he's been, like videos of him like kissing extras and saying like I'm getting them into the party.
Mood baby like if I don't love that, so I feel like he's on a he's on a train to Frants for Coppola Land. Then it's maybe it's gonna crash. Maybe he's gonna make it there and make a billion dollars. Who knows. It's absolutely bonkers, this tray Lie. I couldn't believe he did it.
Uh well. The film has a crack ensemble cast, including Adam Driver, giancarlois Posito, Natalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shila Buff, the disgraced Shilah Buff, everybody's favorite Hollywood right wing conservatives On Voight, Laurence Fishburg, Tylie Shier, Jesus Schwartzman.
And more.
Yeah, I believe Aubrey Plaza, which just absolutely bonkers, just like completely wild. Chloe Feynman from SNL, Yeah, sure love it. I love that.
That's the of the Warriors Fame and other great features fam Tebe Sweeney. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman, he's there with his nephew, Grace.
Vanderwall, who I believe was on American Idol. Crazy, that's truly, I mean, who knows what this movie is gonna be? Like, this is gonna be absolutely Boncaus. Also, I just want to say, this is a Lionsgate movie, right, This is Lionsgate is doing some wild releases this year because lions Gate is also buying The Crow, which we will talk about another date. But I feel like who's out here doing it? Like Lionsgate. They're putting the wildest stuff out right now. And they picked up Cosmopolis and they're gonna be making some kids come out from behind the popcorn desk and speak to Adam Driver on that big screen. I believe it.
And then finally Sad News goes to the shell and bayonet. A voice actress at Suko Tanaka has passed at age sixty one, whiches so young? Uh thoughts and to her family and.
Ye very just a huge kind of beacon in the in the voice acting space.
And yeah, folks, let's jump out of your sternum, oh like in like a freshly hatched alien to talk about alien robins. Up next, we're stepping out of the air lock to discuss alien romulus in theaters.
Now, Roses big hit, Baby.
It's a huge all around the world.
People are enjoying it, people are feeling it, people are loving it, people are having conversations about which is exactly what we're gonna do.
Well, Rosie, I'll start. I like this movie. This is a fun this is a fun movie, A good prequel.
I believe. I believe they're calling it an intquel now because it's between alien and aliens.
A delightful interquol.
I'd never heard of that phrase before this week, but there it is.
I love the practical effects. I love the more of a starring role for the face huggers, which was oh yeah fun.
The animatronics Animore very impressive, very scary.
Was great, and I really enjoyed David Johnson as as Andy.
That was the breakout.
Officials agreed, what did you think of the film?
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I Fedda has Eddy Alva as the director has made stuff that I really like, like beebdev movies, made stuff that I like a little bit less, like don't Breathe but visual and don't Breathe too ooh. But the vision that he had for this movie, the aesthetic of the movie, I think it's really.
Uh.
I think it's nice to be back in the world of alien that you can kind of deeply immediately recognize. It's grubby, it's gross, it's dark. You're on a mining colony, you want to get out, you're a blue collar worker, and you're going to be stopped by an alien. It's incredibly bleak in a way that I think Edde does well. I really liked it in the cinema. I think it's a very enjoyable movie experience. Also, I have like a cannon of movies and TV shows where like I will forgive a lot of stuff if it's just like a bunch of kids trying to get stuff done. So I'm like, this is in the I would dive my children cannon. Apart from Bjorn, I'm glad he died, but otherwise I would be there. I would have been there fighting alongside Anna. Yeah, I thought I definitely David Johnson as Andy, I think is if he wasn't in this movie, I do not think the reviews would be as good because I think the one thing this script does really well that's very interesting is it explores the notion of being a synthetic in the alien world and what that means and how much agency you have. And David Johnson gets to play two different roles that are really really powerful, and one of them is really scary and the other is really kind of melancholic, and I just think he does such an incredible job. Kaylee Spenny, she's great. She's a great action e lead. She's she's got her muscles out. She can hold he you know, a pulse rifle. I think that there was some character actors here who were slightly wasted. Isabella McCard from the beloved smash hit family movie Madam Webb. Yeah, who is about to behold Go?
Well, let's quickly recap the film and then get into a kind of deeper discussion. We're going to recap this off the top of our heads. So we open on a corporate planet that's basically all about mining and scavenging a whalean Utani planet where you have to hit a certain quota of I guess scavenge or hours or currency. It's unclear what the number is, but you have to hit this number before you're allowed to leave. So it's kind of like the old school, like owing your life to the company's store type of situation of like the late nineteenth early twentieth century Industrial Revolution type thing, and.
If they need more workers, they will just extend your time, right so there's no it's not fair whalen Utani. This is the ultimate like working class factory town where people just dying from being in the mind from Black Lung.
There's like two thousands, about two thousand people live there in total, and part of that population is our main cast. There is Rain played by Kaylee Spainey. There is Andy, her artificial person brother, a gift from her father who has passed away in the minds we believe.
Yeah.
Uh. There is Tyler, who is I believe Rain's ex right.
It feels like the coding there is that he is her ex.
Yeah. There is kay who is pregnant with a baby of unknown providence. We will discuss this play by further length.
Isabella Mcott who is going to be Hawk Girl in the James Gun of Us and who was recently Ranya and Madame Webb.
Las and then there is Bjorn played by Spike Fearn Oh boo, I hate good acting Spike, and Alien Wu plays Navarro. Yes, we'll be stay tuned for Alien Wu interview. And basically they hit upon a scheme by which they can leave the planet by taking their their like Junker scavenger craft and outfitting it with enough cryo fuel to power the the cryo chambers so that they can go into hibernation for a nine year trip to a planet where the sun actually shines, because on this planet it's raining all the time and it sucks. And the only way they can do that is by getting enough cryo fuel to make the trip.
And keep the described for like nine years.
For nine years, and they've discovered that there is like a wrecked Whyland Utahani space station that's just kind of like floating right above the planet, so they go up there turns out to be a research facility, and it turns out this research facility is like chock a block with face huggers and other aliens and a more research. There's like a decommission destroyed artificial person there played by a beyond life ian home and long story short, the aliens come out, Everybody except for Rain gets killed. She ultimately defeats the alien. The final boss alien turns out to be a hybrid alien human baby that gives birth to is really scary, and now with enough cryo fuel to make the trip, she leaves her last log, puts Andy in the hibernation chamber, puts herself in the hibernation chamber and heads for the new planet. Okay, you kind of hit on it in your statement up top. I do think and this is my one nitpick. Here's my nitpick. I love everything about this movie. I love the face huggers. I love the practical effects. I think that looks as it looks astoundingly good. The cast is wonderful. I do think the one thing I was craving, and I was craving it kind of significantly, was just like a little deeper understanding of these characters. I do feel like Kay, basically all we know about her is she's pregnant. That's who is she? What does she dream of? What does she want to do? What does she hate? Like I kind of don't know Jorn. I know he hates androids, and that's kind of it. Like Tyler, same thing. He feels a little and the characters feel a little thin to me now you mentioned it. I do think David Johnson gives a tour to force here as Andy. Yeah, and he's given a wide range of Like there's Andy who is more hobbled intellectually and physically and is not kind of he's half destroyed. He you know, Rain keeps having to reboot him. Then he gets an upgrade and all of a sudden, he's a much more competent, much sharper, slightly more ominous figure. And that kind of wide range is cool. Kaylee Spiney is awesome. Part of that is just like how much he's on the screen. But I do I did find myself wishing that I knew more about these characters, that there had been more in this movie for me to hold on to, so that I cared about these characters more like I should. At a certain point, I'm like, God, I hope you aren't dies, and I shouldn't. I feel like I shouldn't be feeling that guys should.
Not feel like, you know what this guy gets. I do think that that is intentional, and I think it comes with him specifically, and I do think it comes down to something where we were talking about this pre production. So let's talk about the because I've just discovered something and I think it makes that more intentional. So let's talk about Kay's father, Like, who.
Is I mean is I thought it was clearly born. Other people are saying.
No, Well, I also believed it was borne because she says, you know, he's he's that ass h's some asshole, and then they're always calling him an asshole, and he's clearly kind of creepy and he's got a bad vibe, and there's like a scene where it really feels like that is implied. And in a Reddit thread, somebody supposed that, and FEddi Alvarez jumped in and said, yeah, you're right, and this is actually a very fede thing because something that was pointed out in our pre production and people are very upset about and Reddit, is that that Cousins in the screen? Yeah, but no, that's Freddy says. It's it's happening baby, And if you've seen Don't Breathe, this man probably does not have a problem with that.
I mean, I'll just say that's true. I mean, I'll just say, of the Cousins thing, there's two thousand people that live on this planet, like you've gotta you've got to get busy somehow, and I think that obviously it's not an ideal situation, but people, you know, life finds a way, you.
Know what I mean.
You simply can't have the same kind of uh red line, you know, criteria for finding a mate on a planet where there's probably less people that live there than live on your street. Yeah, like in certain areas of the country. So I just feel like that didn't that didn't bump me.
Yeah. That also I'm a big fan of Uh. I'm a big fan of the fact that Feddy just made his own like Reddit profile and then he kept getting in trouble on Reddit because they were saying he was impersonating himself because he was going around just like answering people's questions about the movie and read it was like you are not Freeddy Alvarez and he was like, no, I am, I really am. I promise. But yeah, I think I definitely think that something about the First Alien movie that makes it so special is look, Okay, first of all, doesn't hurt that it has like a cast of just absolutely stella character actors who would go on to you know, become huge stars like Ian Holm and yeaf At Koto and you know John Hurt, you know you have and and I do think here they do channel that because Isabella McCart is going to be a huge star.
But there there was this there was this like ultimate esque banter. Yeah, in that movie exact it's where they're talking about their shares, and there all these little things that add texture exactly where you know, you know what they care about, you kind of understand what the situation of working for this company.
Is, you understand really miss that. Yeah, I agree, I wanted to know more about each of the characters before they were in that situation. And I will say, pacing wise, and I believe this is something that Fed's talked about as well. Pacing wise, it does follow the first half of the movie is far more in that alien slowburn getting to the aliens, and then the second half is more of an alien's kind of situation, lots of shooting, lots of cool, gooey aliens. But I do think that what's missing from that slowburn aspect is that interrogation of like what are these relationships, Like how do they what do they care about? Like what brought them together? What do they pure And ironically is the one we get to kind of know the most about just because we learned that his mom was killed in a mining accident where they basically to see the androids had to like seal her in the mind. But we don't really get a lot And I think, you know, you made a great point when we were talking about this ahead of it. One of the things that the movie is definitely kind of missing is like a lot of the set dressing is just references to old alien movies. Fun, but it takes away from like I would like you you know, what were you saying about Tyler, about his like interest in the military.
I thought that was Yeah, so there's like there's another early in the film, when they first arrived on the space station, you know, he's Tyler is giving these like hand signism, like why are you giving these hand signals? What's what's up with that? And that's our first hint that Tyler is interested in the military. Maybe he wants to join the Colonial Marines. And I thought it was a real wasted opportunity to not we go to Tyler's apartment, you don't see like to your point about the dressing, Yeah, how about a poster for the Colonial Marines, how about like some books about something, how about anything in that living space that would suggest to me that that's an interest to him. We open on Rain's bunk and it's like anodyne. There's like nothing there. Uh, you know. Caren was talking about the fact that we see that little duck that little dunking duck. That's a callback to the Alien film. That's great, But how about some stuff in there that's personalized to these It makes it feel like a living space. And again small note, really because I loved everything else about the movie, But I I guess what I'm saying is I wanted to love it more. I want to love it so much more.
Than I do. I love the experience of it. I'm gonna always be thinking about the animatronic alien and the real animatronic face huggers. Like the way this movie looks and feels is so fantastic, and I already do. Like I said, I love the canon of like a I would die for these kids, and like this is definitely in that canon for me because I have a lot of love Fatchi Renaut, who plays Tyler. He was in Shadow and Bone and I saw he was so fantastic in that. Kaylee Spenny, she's really, you know, giving that like she was in the Oscar contention. She's been in a twenty four movies and now she's here leading like an action movie. I thought Aileen Woer's Navarro was easily the coolest character who I wanted to know.
More punched above her weight.
Yeah yeah, And I also think that something that she really represents that I think the film does well is the interconnections between the Alien movies and then the Prometheus movies that Ridley Scott came back and made, because Navarro has that connection to this religious exploration and that is really a huge part of Prometheus. And then obviously we get die more direct connections when we sort of start to learn about the black Goo from this animorphs and that the alien, the big chap alien from the first movie survived. So this does lead us on to one more conversation point, which is once you get onto the ship, there's all this beautiful practical effects, but they find a synthetic, the dead body of a synthetic who is revealed to be as you mentioned, Ash, but this is Brook, but he looks like Ash, who was played by Ian Holm in one of the most chilling performances in the franchise. I'll never forget when he wraps that tight little magazine up to stuff down Sigourney Weaver's throat. So this is this is Rook, who's another He is the science officer on this ship, and he is the same model. So you have Ian Holm's face, I just don't look. His family supported this, which I love and that's important. That's all mask But why didn't they do it with an actual physical cast of I believe that one of those must still exist somewhere from the original movie. I think that the CGI of it all took the movie, but it still has that uncanny valley.
Yeah, I agree, I did. My only thought is that they must have tried, and they couldn't get it to work, couldn't get it to look anywhere near good enough. Now, I suppose there's a world in which if you can't get it to look anywhere near good enough, maybe make it look a lot worse and you really tear it up and so it's only barely recognizable. But I'm sure that they tried that, and this must have been the best, you know, the best option that they could have gone with. It did it was for a movie that feels so tactile. It was interesting. I let's talk about the phones. Characters are phones in this.
Oh wow, wow, could you believe it?
There's a lot of other parts of this, like I I love the weapon design, I loved the I loved the face huggers. Oh they think the face Huggers were more of a front. That's something we've kind of not seen before. Also, is a more direct threat from the face huggers where yes, warm of them coming at you.
And they did a really I think they did something really smart as well, which is they're in the trailer. They showed like all of the characters, Eileen Wu, you know, Archie Renault, the Spike who played Beyond, they kind of had these clips of them looking like they were getting got by the face huggers. But actually they kind of introduced this, if you can get the face hugger's horrific tentacle out of your mouth before it implants the egg, oh wait, you can maybe survive this. So we kind of got this great horrific, very grotesque sequence where they're all kind of fighting it first until it ultimately, you know, gets at Navarro. But I thought that was really good. I loved the face hugger scene where we finally got to see it connect with Navarro. I thought that Eileen Woo did an unreal job getting to do her own version of that chest burster scene. I just generally did think this was really fun. I loved getting to see the proto pulse rife for kind of like the colonial Marines having aliens. I also thought that there was a there's a really really clever sequence that did something we'd never seen before, which was this use of the anti gravity with the acid blood when Spanny. That's really cool. Again. I just think I'm like, David Johnson, give him an award, please, because he just grounds this. It's like when you know when they cost Adam Driver and Force Awakens, and the whole time you're watching the movie, you're like, You're so lucky that Adam Driver said he would play Kylo Ren like you. This movie is great, and I obviously I love the Force Awakens. I would die for my children Cannon, it's definitely a part of it. But like when Adam Driver is in that movie, You're like, this man is bringing like Shakespearean Thespian levels of tragedy to this these scenes with like Harrison Ford, and I feel like David Johnson is that grounding kind of elevating force in this movie. So and it's absolutely wild to see him from He was in this absolutely delightful Hulu uh rom com called Rye Rye Lane that was set in London in South London and he's so charming and delightful in that. Please go watch it. It's so good. But it was crazy to then see him kind of playing this more complicated like spooky figure when he you know, depending on which andy we got, and I just thought it was like really cool.
He's also great in the first two seasons of Industry.
Yes, oh my gosh, Industry season three, just saying if you are looking for because this feels like there's it's gonna be the new succession, right.
This is as in as quick aside about Industry season three on HBO and Max. It has definitely leveled up. If you're watching season one and season two, you're trying to get through it and you're wondering, is this is it? Really? I don't know if this is for me. I promise season three is thus far.
Coalesces is hitting three hard.
Anyway, back to the movie, I want to one final thing, which is your thoughts on the engineer like alien xenomorph human hybrid born from K's womb, bonded, bonded with her unborn child, and let's talk about this alien. What did you think of it? Also? Should this alien have tried out for the NBA.
Definitely he should he should have been in the club or shooting hoops. He's seven foot tall. You know what, I'll be real with you. I thought it was very clever design. I definitely liked that they made it look like an engineer now knowing that this is now, knowing that Fede has like confirmed that it is like it was Buhn's baby. I also think this was probably Fede doing some like, oh, incest baby with a xenomorph. I'm not gonna lie. I'm just the lover of the original xenomorph designs, and the Queen's aenomorph and like the alien queen and basically anything Geiger does. So that that didn't hit for me in like a spooky, like scary way. I didn't think like, oh, I'm scared of this, but I will say I did think it was like a cool, unexpected twist. And I do think that every alien movie needs to introduce some new version, and so I think this was a unique way to bring together Prometheus and the alien movies and kind of create something that was really unique and never before seeing Carmen super producer Princess Carmen, who's also an alien Stannus, you want to. Carmen was terrified by the offspring, so it did. I think it worked differently for other people.
It was gonna look. I really liked it and was completely creeped out by it. Yeah. Uh, it was really disgusting. And they grow so fast. I mean the thing grew to like seven foot.
Yeah, that was like it was twenty minutes. It was like Twilight speed birth, like there giving birth and then the baby and then the babies in the NBA. You know, it's like so quickly, they grow up so fast. Okay, So one thing I want to ask you quickly before we end on this is like I feel like, because the movie's made a lot of money and because it was relatively affordable to make in the grand scheme of like a dead poor Wolverine, I think this could lead to more movies. But the question is is it gonna be. I feel like they could do like a spin off of this where they kind of follow Rain and Andy because she said, you know, I believe she'll fix Andy. They're both together, and they could kind of explore more about like the mysterious life giving goo that we see in Alien, that we see in Prometheus, and then we now see in Alien Romulus, or they could just keep making like weird anthology movies that fit more around different timelines. I think I would the latter as much as I want to see Andy, But like, what do you think, Like, what do you think the next Alien movie is going to be?
There is, of course Noah Hawley's Alien Earth. Yes, which is it's going.
To be a true prequel, I guess saying.
In some kind of place in its production life cycle. We don't know where. I personally, I think that the tried and true. Here's the thing about Alien Romulus. It is directly lifted from the original Alien formula, which is Haunted House in Space.
Trapped room, trapped Room.
And I think that that that has a lot of life and vitality in it, different places, different cast You can do a lot of things with that, and you can make pretty relatively cheap movies that people want to see just based on that formula. Me personally, I would I'm hoping to see. One of the things I liked about Prometheus is that it evolved the story, and I think that's what I want is I want those scares. I want that monster movie, I want that Haunted House in Space. But I'm hoping to see more of the world, have it more fleshed out, maybe have there be more challenges as we get more of these movies. But I think one of the things that I'm really excited about is that it's for sure we're gonna get that, We're gonna get more opportunities for more alien movies. I agree with how Gangbusters this film is going right now all around the world.
I definitely didn't expect. I mean, this came out what like three weeks after Deadpool and Wouverine and managed to take it off, which I don't know if anyone saw coming. Also as well, FEDDEI did have a cool idea and we'll leave you with this, which is he did an interview I believe it was with Deadline where he said, I want to do an alien versus preditor movie that's half directed by me and half directed by Dan Trachtenberg who made Prey. Now I want to see that. I mean, I'm like Disney green Light that movie.
It's like from Dusk Till Dawn but in Spain.
Oh, now we're talking.
We like this movie. Hope you go hope you liked it too. Up next, you want more Alien Romulus. We've got more. We've got an interview with Alien Romulus star Alien Wu, who plays Navarro.
Check that out.
We're so excited to welcome Alien Wu, who plays Novarro in Alien Romulus. Alien, thank you so much for joining us.
Of course, thank you for having me.
I was reading about the process of you getting the role, and it's so fun. I was wondering if you might share that with us.
I think it was February twenty twenty one. I was back home in Vancouver having finished undergrad at NYU, and my husband and I were actually working together when I got the self tape. He was producing and I was directing a bunch of high school students in a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is I was kind of a fun odd job that he had gotten me. We weren't married yet, and that was like one of his schemes to get me to come back home from New York. He was like, I got you a job. He can't turn down a job, and I was like, yeah, I really can't. And he made it first time working on anything theater Shakespeare related. Yeah, it was. We were having a blast, and you know, we were a month away and this self tape request comes in from my manager Helen, and she's like, bracket, this is alien because they don't usually tell you what it is in the title when it's such a big franchise. Yeah. We went over to my husband's producing partners apartment to film it after like a twelve hour rehearsal day because he had this really cool setup with like the blue screen backdrop and oh wow. Yeah, and I was like, yeah, let's let's use this because mainly one of the scenes or a couple of the scenes had the entire ensemble, and we thought it would be a good idea to kind of like have two people read with me so I wouldn't get confused and help me with my eyelines. But yeah, I did watch the first film before doing the tape because I had never watched any of them before.
Did I read your introduction was through your brother's action figure.
Yes, this could tract. Yeah. So, while we moved to Vancouver when we were still in elementary school, and my mom as an incentive to get us to really learn English, if we did well at our English class, like, she signed us up for outside of school English classes to help us, you know, get better faster. If we did well at those. Every week, she'd bring my brother and I to like this Action figure store every Friday and we would get to pick out a toy. But it's really just like me following my older brother around and watching what he would pick out. And he'd always give me like a big introduction or like description of who this is, what universe they're from, what powers they have. But one day, like a xenomorph showed up. I didn't know what it was, and I was like, this is weird, and he's like, don't worry about it. I'll tell you about next week's but this one's just for me.
Has he seen you in the movie yet?
No? He hasn't.
Oh yeah, David, my older brother David, He like we have a funny relationship.
Like he's the only person I feel like in my life who's like never impressed with what I do. It's just like you will always be like my stupid, annoying little sister who would not leave me alone ever growing up, who I always have to clean up after because like I threw a lot of parties during high school and he would My parents would assign him as like babysitter and he would have to like show up at these parties and like help clean up and like like clean puke off the floor, so like and be like stop smoking in the backyard and like drive my drunk friends home. And he wouldn't get to like drink and have fun at these parties. So that's that's kind of our relationship, which which I think honestly is very good for me, Like it keeps me very grounded, humble. Yeah, so I think he'll see it at some point, but I think when it all dies down and like he gets to like see it and by himself, you know, in our hometown.
So sometimes when you send in a self tape, you know you're waiting. You don't know how, you know, you don't know what the what the reaction is. How quick did the process happen? After sending in the tape, Oh, it was.
The next day they were like, they want to do a zoom callback. I was like, great, I'd never gotten a zoom callback from doing a self tape before. I had only been with my agent, my manager, Helen, for a year up to that point, and she was great. She sent me things like back to back to back and I would tape for them, and I feel like it really built like that audition muscle in me. But that was truthfully the first a callback that I got. And then yeah, I did the callback, met Mary Renew and Sydney. They were great to give me a couple of notes. I did it like twice, and then two days after I had that call back, they sent me the full script, had me read it, and then I was on a call with Fede who was in Budapestuary and then he kind of gave me the role during the call like that call, but I didn't really know that that was what was going on. It was like, so you you down to do this, and I was like, yeah, this is are you tricking me? Because you know, my my manager and my husband as well, who works mainly as a film producer, they warned me. They're like, hey, you have to wait for the official contract from studio. Like, don't get your hopes up. There's a lot lot of horror stories with actors getting in the process of getting roles that like last minute they pull out and it's like getting the rug pulled out from under them. It's the worst feelings. So like, just really stay grounded, plant your feet and we wait no matter what happens on the zoom call we wait until your name is on a piece of paper underneath the line where you can sign your name. I was like, okay, got it. So when he said that, I was like, they warned me about this.
It's funny. We'll talk to us about the first time you walk on set.
Oh man, I was so never been to Budapest before. A beautiful, beautiful country. And then the studio is huge. It's where they also filmed like Doom Part one and part two, so it's like giant, giant buildings that look like warehouses. And Fete is giving me, Archie and Spike a tour. So we just went in and every studio had like different sets were built in them, and I was just like can I film this? I'm very like or is that not allowed? But yeah, he was just so excited to was so excited to show us everything. It truly was like his his baby.
You know, I've read that, And this is kind of unique for feature films that it was filmed in order.
Yes, it was a film all chronologically.
That's wild. So your first scene is the first thing that you did after arriving on set?
Yeah, pretty much.
Wow? So what was that like?
It was such. I mean, this is my first feature film. I had no idea what I was. I was like, is this normal? Do we always shoot in chronological order? And everybody was like, no, this never happens. I was like, oh, okay, well this is a treat. I think it really kicked in afterwards. Oh, I just got a miss call from wonder what's going on. I'll call him back if.
You want to close it of a text? Wee can you don't want to?
No? No, it's okay, I like to. Yeah, it didn't for the chronological part. Oh, he's really calling again.
Okay, yeah, we'll meet the Yeah, feel free to.
Meet in Sorry guys.
Oh my god, that was the sweetest thing.
He's a sweet, sweet man. So just called me. I missed the first one, but I picked up the second one. He was like, this, this movie is making so much money. I'm not very good with numbers, he said the number, but it's making a lot of money.
In the China market, it really is.
And yeah, and he said there's not like a massive cult following in China, so it really is just credits to us and specifically me. That was very sweet because this is the thing even in the audition request. They were like, if you speak another language, please do one of the tapes in the other language that you speak. So I did that. Yeah, I've never seen that before. I've never experienced that with a tape before. And after we got on set, he was like, hey, your tapes, those Mandarin takes that you did were so cool. Do you mind if we bring some of that while filming and like brainstorm some moments where Navarro would speak in her mother tongue. So there's a couple moments in the film where I got to speak Mandarin and I'm getting some like traction like just on Instagram and stuff like that of people being like, wow, this is this is so special. First Asia an actress in this franchise and she's speaking Mandarin. This is so cool.
That is really cool. How did you choose the moments?
Like what were the I went for the private moments. I went for the more private moments that Navarro was having. And really it was like very collaborative with Fei. He would be like half the time he'd be like, hey, I think this is a and I was like, yes, I agree. I was just going to go to you and say that maybe it's here. Yeah, And he'd be like saying maybe something like this, and I'll be like, okay, okay, I got you. And then I would like try to come up with something and like call my mom and call my husband right before we roll and be like, does this make sense? Because my Mandarin is not perfect? Like it's been a long time since I've been in an environment where it's all Mandarin speaking, so I feel like I kind of speak it brokenly.
That he seems like such a actor's director as watch a bunch of like videos with him and talking about his process and everything. And one thing that really stuck out to me that that was interesting, is it sometimes he'll barbecue for the cast and crew, he said, especially if there's like a really difficult day or week ahead, like to sort of prep them. I was wondering if he barbecued for you guys, and if so, can you raise his food so good?
Such good barbecue? He he brings the meat from Uruguay. I'm not kidding, he like, he puts, yes, I don't know how you did that. He's like, guys, this is meat from Uruguay arrived this morning. And he barbecues for the entire cast and crew, like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. And he says this is a tradition of his and he does this every film that he's directing. Before we start shooting. Wow, and like his his wife is like chopping up the bread and making the chimmy churry and the salad, and his uncle is there and his kids are running around like it's the best, it's the best vibes.
That is so cool, you know, it struck me thinking about this movie, which is notable for use of extensive use of really practical like in camera effects, and it's so interesting that your self tape like had a blue screen, Like Yeah, I talk to us about like the contrast between you know, going from this self tape and this really quick process to then ending up on set where you know, you've got a chest burster thing like on you three chess burster. Yeah, there's like what there's water and grease and stuff dripping off everything. I talked to Loube apparently, yeah, Loube, apparently you're stuck in a hole for a period of time, So what is that? What's that?
Like?
That was really crazy. I really just tried to take it one day out of time. You're honest, with y'all, and I think folmin in chronological order again really helped with that because like you could track with the script as we went on really.
Easily, and it came very naturally. The journey of her downfall, which is also very short, yeah, because it just it happens and then all shit goes down once it once she's attacked, everything happens super fast paced. So yeah, that was very exhilarating. It's just like, Okay, face hugger's check, We've done a week of that, next week the chess burser check, and then okay, let's do the appendage coming out of my mouth with second You know, we kept looking forward to that moment and it never came on tip. Right before I was stepping off set, they were like, yeah, that's right, we haven't shot.
That one scene one moment yet. Let's let's do that with second unit. And I was like, damn, I wish I got to do it with FEddi. But once we started filming that, I was like, Okay, it makes a lot of sense that we're doing this on second unit because it's just like a very technical shot and it's like one set up and yeah, we spent like I think six seven hours doing that one one take, over and over and over.
This is where you're pulling the face hugger off you.
Yes, everybody thinks it's CGI, but it's not.
Wow holy yow.
And no, no, it doesn't actually go all the way down to my stomach. I didn't have to swallow a thing every take.
As a producer, director yourself, were you able to glean anything from being on set that you're like, oh, this is this will help me as I evolve in my career.
Two things Fedi's kindness. Kindness as the director goes such a long way, especially when the task at hand is very large and challenging. Yeah, his patience and his kindness. And then that leads to my second thing. When you have that, it's easier to get everyone to have the mentality of like, let's get this shot. We either have this or we don't. We have to do this for the audience and really honor what their experience, what experience we want them to have and aim for the fucking stars. If you aim for it, then there's that's the only possible way that you might have a chance of reaching that well.
Alien the movie is a huge hit, You're a big part of that. Congratulations on the success of the film and your success, and thank you so much for joining us again.
Thank you guys so much. This is lovely much.
Thanks to Alien Wu for joining us. Coming up on X ray Vision, we're gonna be diving into Godzilla, Monster Island, Summer Cambriton by somebody who is on this it's recording session, and then we're gonna be recapping Rings of Power season one. Oh baby, stay tuned for that. And that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening.
Bye.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi A discolled moderata