Alien: Romulus is a hit with most fans of the Alien franchise as a whole new generation of horror movie lovers. However, there was one scene in Romulus that had longtime fans feeling some kind of way: the scenes of the film where the likeness of late actor Ian Holm was used to create the android character of science officer Rook. 20th Century Studios and director Fede Álvarez apparently heard the backlash and decided to do something about it… so to speak.
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In a new interview with Empire, Fede Álvarez addressed the scenes with Rook and admitted that even he knew that the face-swapping used to create Ian Holm’s likeness was… not great.
“We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right,” Álvarez said. “I wasn’t 100 percent happy with some of the shots, where you could feel a bit more the CG intervention. So, for people that react negatively, I don’t blame them.”
How Alien: Romulus “Fixed” Rook with Help From LotR
However, Álvarez was surprisingly forthcoming in a way few filmmakers are when he went on to admit that they went back in and continued post-production work to make the Rook scenes in Alien: Romulus look even better. “We fixed it. We made it better for the [home]m release right now. I convinced the studio we need to spend the money and make sure we give the companies that were involved in making it the proper time to finish it and do it right. It’s so much better.”
To improve the scene, Álvarez says that his production team reached back for a one-of-a-kind prop for help. Rook was created using a mix of animatronic puppetry and CGI effects. The release date deadline made Álvarez originally lean on more of the CGI effects; for the home release, the production team went out and got a rare piece of animatronics needed to make Rook look more convincing.
[RELATED: How Alien: Romulus Connects to the Rest of the Franchise Explained]
“[Animatronic puppeteer] Shane Mahan actually did this animatronic of Ian Holm based on a head cast from Lord Of The Rings, and that was the only one in existence,” Álvarez explained. “What we did [for the home entertainment version] was revert a lot more to the puppet. It’s way better.”
Was Visual Quality REALLY The Problem?
The backlash to Alien: Romulus’ Rook character wasn’t so much that he looked uncanny and silly (which he did), it was that filmmakers were once again using the likeness of a dead actor for what some see as nostalgia bait. The counter-argument there is that Fede Álvarez is a massive fanboy of the Alien franchise, and Romulus is in many ways a fanboy film.
Rook is meant to represent a line of androids that Weyland-Yutani corporation used for science studies – much like Ridley Scott used Michael Fassbender to represent another entire line of androids (across two generations of models) in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. The moral dilemma still hangs on whether this act is a respectful homage and exploitative nightmare of the digital age – or a mix of both notions, depending on the filmmaker’s intentions vs. the studio’s.
You can check out Alien: Romulus and it’s improved Rook scenes on Hulu-Disney+.
