“Alien: Romulus” director Fede Álvarez said in an interview with Empire magazine that he understands why some viewers reacted negatively to the appearance of late actor Ian Holm in the film. Holm played the android Ash in Ridley Scott’s original “Alien” film and died in 2020 at 88 years old. The actor’s likeness was resurrected in “Romulus” via CGI for a new android character named Rook, but many viewers complained that Rook’s appearance was mostly bad visual effects that looked like a muddled Ian Holm deepfake. Álvarez would seem to agree.
“We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right,” the director admitted to Empire. “I wasn’t 100 per cent 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.”
Álvarez revealed that he corrected Rook’s visual appearance for the “Alien: Romulus” home release on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD and digital, explaining: “We fixed it. We made it better for the 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.”
Holm’s likeness was resurrected through CGI and by creating an animatronic head and torso for the actor that was based on a body cast he had made for his work as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies.
“What we did [for the home entertainment version] was revert a lot more to the puppet,” Álvarez told Empire. “It’s way better.”
In an interview with Variety shortly after “Alien: Romulus” opened in theaters last August, Álvarez said that he decided to use Holm’s likeness in the movie “out of fairness in a way,” adding: “I felt it was so unfair that Lance Henriksen made many appearances, and Michael Fassbender. And I felt it was crazy that Ian Holm was never back [in the franchise].”
“Talking with Ridley [Scott], both of us came up with this idea that what if it has the likeness of Ian Holm — which is different from being Ian Holm or even being Ash,” Álvarez said. “We would’ve never dared to reproduce that because you cannot reproduce with any technology, the talent of an actor. You can never capture the nuance of someone’s performance and their choices. So we designed a different character, but it shares the same likeness.”
Álvarez said he got the blessing of Holm’s family to use his likeness in “Alien: Romulus” after he “personally called his widow, family and kids to make sure everybody was on board with this idea.”
“His widow told me that Ian felt, in the last 10 years of his life, Hollywood turned a cold shoulder to him and that he didn’t get many offers,” Álvarez added. “And she said he would have loved to be invited back into ‘Alien,’ because he loved Ridley and he loved that franchise.”
“Alien: Romulus” opened to solid reviews and earned $350 million at the worldwide box office. It was a recent nominee at the Golden Globes for cinematic and box office achievement.
