There is a lot of nostalgia in Alien: Romulus. Even though it is a science fiction and horror movie, there is something that is anchored in its past. The film is set in the franchise’s temporal universe after Aliensthe second in the saga. This is no coincidence. The Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez He is a die-hard fan of its story, its plot and the special effects in one era, the 80s, of pure experimentation.
TN Show spoke with Alec Gillisone of the creators of the terrifying monsters that fuel the story, who revealed the secrets of the filming. The specialist has decades of experience in the creation and design of the effects, since he was part of the team that worked on that sequel that was made in 1986 and directed James Cameron. ““I love all the monsters I make. So they are like my children,” he said.
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Behind the scenes of creating the monsters in “Alien: Romulus”
The realization of Alien: Romulus has a different look than the films that fueled the franchise in recent years. The filmmaker Fede Alvarez He sought to give it a style that was anchored in the past, beyond the new elements that came out when the saga was revived from Prometheus.
Gillis commented on the director’s reasons for pursuing the ideas seen on screen. “Fede Alvarez He is a big fan of the movie Aliens. I wanted to make sure I brought back the people who worked on that film, like myself and Shane Mahan. Now we both have independent companies, but we used to work for the big one Stan Winston (a mythical creator of animatronics) when we were 20, so we had the opportunity to do different parts of the film,” he said.
David Jonsson as Andy in “Alien: Romulus.” (Photo: 20th Century Studios)
The specialist commented that the original design of the monsters It is “so classic and so beautiful” that it allowed him to have a template to be able to design the new creature as best as possible. “You can change it a little because it is a xenomorfobut not so much as to not change it so much that it doesn’t look like the classic that we love,” he summarized.
“What are the central aspects of the xenoform “What did they emphasize in the movie?” he sought to know TN Show. “I think we should always be careful to be faithful to the original vision of H. R. Giger y Ridley Scottalthough each script has different requirements and each director has new tastes. So we worked to give the creatures qualities that the director really wanted. (…) We were able to bring our own feelings to it.
Often, during filming, the most difficult thing is the issue of time. “We are always running out of time. It is a big movie, it feels like a big movie and it is complex because you have a lot of real effects and three different companies executing them. (…) So there was a lot of coordination between the groups. and it turned out extremely well. Much of the credit goes to Fede, a very calm, understanding and collaborative director,” he stressed.
The story of the person responsible for the creatures of “Alien: Romulus”
Behind the assembly of all those monsters, creatures and aliens is a film fanatic. Alec Gillis is 64 years old and a track record in the creation of effects that started in Jaws 3, Cocoon y Aliens. In its history it had two Oscar nominations, one for Starship Troopers and another for Alien 3.
A xenomorph in full attack in “Alien: Romulus”. (Photo: 20th Century Studios)
“What is the best monster you made or helped make?” he asked. TN Show. “These characters from the franchise Alien They may be among the most recognizable and iconic, although I worked on many movies Predatorincluding the original. That character is beloved and also iconicBut sometimes I have a very warm feeling towards smaller films that don’t do well initially at the box office and then become cult favorites like Tremorswith those underground worms,” he recalled.
That feeling for the past, moreover, led him to remember what made him become a professional in special effects, a branch that is highly exploited in the film industry of the United States. “The work that he did Ray Harryhausenthe animator of stop motionwas what impacted me the most. Movies like Jason and the Argonauts o The Mysterious Islandthose movies that use puppets in stop motion and in miniature, are the ones that really moved me,” he recalled.
In addition to this style of films, there was another science fiction story that caught the specialist’s attention. “At the other end of the spectrum, there was Planet of the Apes original, which had actors in makeup. So I always thought, well, I don’t really have to specialize in one technique, since I can make puppets“I can do costumes and I can do makeup,” she said.
Alec Gillis, one of the creators of the monsters in “Alien: Romulus”. (Photo: Instagram/alec_gillis)
Gillis recalled an anecdote about Planet of the Apesthe great dystopia of 1968 starring Charlton Heston with one of the plot twist most shocking in the history of cinema. It is a story so fascinating that the special effects supervisor watched it dozens of times in a row, the moment it was released.
“I was a kid and my mom would drop me and my brother off at the movies. And at that time, movies stayed in theaters for months. So Planet of the Apes was playing. We would buy a ticket, We would go to the first show, watch it, and then hide. “Under the seats while they were cleaning the theater. Then we would come back and watch the movie again. That was the whole summer. It was wonderful,” he said.
“Alien: Romulus” and nostalgia for monsters of the past
As stated, the connection with what was done in another era is more than present in today’s Alien: Romulus. It is clear that Gillis has a passion for his profession. “I have the ability to make any kind of practical creature that someone needs. The reason is because I spent a lot of time as a kid watching these weird movies“, said.
“There seems to have been some nostalgia in the way of doing things Alien: Romulus. What do you think?” this site asked. Gillis responded that while it was interesting that there were two films like Prometheus y Alien: Covenant which “expanded the origins of human life and the universe,” in his view, is much better than “has returned to its roots.”
One of the Xenomorphs from Alien: Romulus. (Photo: 20th Century Studios)
“Alien: Romulus gave those of us who really missed that story of terror in spacethe action and the multiple creatures and all that kind of stuff. It was all done very effectively without violating anything that the other directors in the franchise did. So I think it was really brilliant. Fede came up with a very balanced and exciting film”he described.
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All that almost sentimental connection to that universe, furthermore, revealed how internalized it was. Gillis has cinema in his life. That’s why it’s not surprising what he feels with each of his creations. “I love all the monsters I make. So They are like my children,” he concluded.
