Though Alien: Romulus was met with a mostly positive response from critics and fans, one thing that has been met with almost universal backlash is the likeness of a deceased actor being used on a new character via VFX.
When Rain Carradine and her crew arrive on the derelict space station, they discover that the ship's android is still functional despite clearly being in very bad shape after a Xenomorph attack. They plug him in to discover what happened, and we see that the synthetic is the same model as Ash from Ridley Scott's original movie.
The late Ian Holm is "resurrected" for this new android via VFX, and director Fede Álvarez has now explained how this was achieved.
"Metaphysic is the company that did a lot of the work on the enhancements to the puppet," Álvarez tells THR. "We had a puppet that talked, and it was all based on an Ian Holm headcast that we found. It was made for The Lord of the Rings, and that was the only headcast that exists of Ian Holm. So the Legacy [Effects] guys that did the animatronic started there, and then some shots needed more help from CG for the lip sync and the lines. But there are some others that didn’t. There are some shots where you are literally looking straight at the animatronic. So it was a combination of things, and while I don’t know exactly what they do, I am sure it is a combination of CG and the headscan. There might be some deepfake in the eyes because it’s the best when it comes to creating the likeness of the eyes, but it’s a whole bag of tricks from 1970s and 1980s technology to technology from yesterday."
Álvarez has previously confirmed that Holm's family were consulted and gave their full approval, but this "digital necromancy" is still a highly frowned upon practice, and even those who are okay with it have slammed the (possible) use of AI.
How do you feel about Holm's likeness being used for Rook? Let us know in the comments section down below.
"Not a perfect organism, but despite an overreliance on retreading over old ground, Alien: Romulus does mark a thrilling return to form, and is surely destined to be ranked as the third-best Alien movie," we said in our review of Alien: Romulus.
"The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe."
The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and Aileen Wu. Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
Alien: Romulus is produced by Ridley Scott (Napoleon), who directed the original Alien and produced and directed the series’ entries Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler), and Walter Hill (Alien), with Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (Charlie’s Angels), Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), and Tom Moran (Unstoppable) serving as executive producers.